Uni promotes fun side of reading

01 June 2016, 12:00AM

During the last week of Semester One, 110 students of Year 4 from 17 Primary Schools around Samoa enjoyed a fun day of word games at the National University of Samoa (N.U.S.) gymnasium.

The Literacy Programme was organised by one of the classes at the Faculty of Education, ‘HTE200: Teaching Literacy at Primary School’ which consisted of 41 in-service teachers and 24 pre-service teacher trainees. The theme for this year’s program was, “The world of books is fun!”

The extraordinary displays around the N.U.S. gymnasium that day depicted a variety of reading series developed as a major assignment in this class. 

The beautiful and original big books within each series were designed by the N.U.S. students themselves, and targeted students in Year 4. Each big book had 10 interactive word activities based on it. Most of these were used at the 20 game booths where the visiting students played at to earn instant prizes. 

Only four games were selected as inter-house games where the visitors participated in four teams to win some team prizes. The children certainly enjoyed reading the marvelous books and participating in the many word games and collecting the many prizes on offer. 

There were two additional displays by the Science and Social Studies classes. The display by the Science class, HTE151, showcased some very creative recycle projects which made use of every day waste materials such as plastic spoons and forks, soda cans, pieces of colourful cloth, coconut husks, and many more. 

The Social Studies class, HTE131, displayed their major projects of 3-dimensional models to teach one of the strands in the Curriculum, ‘Place and Environment.’

The programme known simply as the ‘Literacy Day’ was initiated in 2010 as a learning experience for the teacher trainees to showcase some of the teaching methodologies they learn in their English class, as well as some of the teaching resources they develop as part of their assessment. Last year, with the inclusion of other pedagogy courses such as Science, Social Studies, Samoan, H.P.E., and Music, the in-service teachers were involved for the first time. 

This year, the in-service teachers were not just involved, they were the major organisers of the whole program. Through them, a variety of prizes were available as token rewards for all the children that participated on the day.

Children in Year 4 were brought from primary schools such as: Apia, Apolima, Falefitu, Falelatai, Faleula, Fasitoo Uta, Fasitoo Tai, Leulumoega Tuai, Lotopu’ē, Lufilufi, Magiagi, Manumālō, Saina & Toamua, Satapuala, Tanugamanono, Tuanai, and Vaovai. This was the first time a large number of schools were able to participate due to the commitment of students, especially the in-service teachers, who volunteered to bring children from their own schools at their own cost.

The provision of prizes was made possible through the generosity of businesses such as B.S.L., S.S.A.B., A.B.M., and MAXKAR. Refreshments were financed through the students’ fundraisings.

01 June 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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