Children who read, become better readers, writers and learners. Therefor, it is important that children are exposed to books from an early age. However, in order for children to choose to read and keep on reading at later stages of their lives, it is important that reading is related to the feeling of pleasure as this will push them to keep on reading. Thus, reading aloud practices as a pleasurable experience, starting from an early age, are an important, yet often neglected practice. Furthermore, especially for those children who do not participate in reading activities at home (parent do not have time, families with insufficient resources for books, illiterate families, or families who do not see the importance of reading at home), might start school with a smaller vocabulary and will not use reading as a tool as for them reading might be strictly related to school purposes (which might be unpleasant). Following the teachings from Marie Bonnafé, the focus on individual reading aloud practices with children, especially those who are not used to reading practices, can help them to link reading to pleasure, which will in turn increase literary practices, literacy and success in school.
In order to spread this approach and methodology, the 3MR project has organized a Learning Teaching Trainer Activity for 12 trainers from 4 different countries. The training was held in Liege, organized by the coordinators of the project, the Uliege, from the 24th to the 28th of June 2019.
The participants were trainers, working as trainers or teachers in their respective countries, who will work on the local trainings that will be organized by the beginning of 2020 in Belgium, Estonia, Italy and Romania. From Italy, together with a CSC staff member, two external experts came along: Antonella Provenzano, the reference point in Sicily for the national project “Nati per Leggere”, and Gabriele Mercadante, wo works for the cultural library in Palermo named booq. All participants brought with them their own knowledge from the field, which was complemented with several lectures by professionals such as Roxane de Limelette on “Reading Aloud practices with small children”, Brigitte van den Boosche on “picture books”, and Eleni Louloudi on “good practices with children books”. The lectures were alternated with sessions on how to implement the practical and theoretical knowledge into a coherent and high-quality training session for local teachers, early childhood educators, volunteers and other professionals working with small children.
The training was characterized by a good atmosphere and working environment. The trainers worked very well together and with their experiences and contributions, the training has fulfilled its aim to make a good basis for the second output of the project: a methodological framework for the implementation of the curriculum. This curriculum, will be taught during the local trainings in each country, as well as tested with activities in the classroom in the course of 2020.
To know more about the project, its activities and the local trainings, please contact vidjaya.thelen@danilodolci.org, have a look at the project’s website: www.readingmagic.eu or the Facebook group: www.facebook.com/3mrproject
3MR, standing for Making the Most of the Magic of Reading, is a project funded by the Erasmus+ programme, Key Action 2: Strategic partnerships |School. The project aims to increase the early literacy skills of children, especially those from culturally less advantaged backgrounds, by preparing professionals involved in early childhood education and parents to engage in reading aloud to children and in book-sharing practices in order to reduce the literacy gap among children from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.
The partnership is composed by 4 institutions, 1 university and 3 associations:
- Università di Liegi (Coordinatore), Belgium
- Asociatia LASGC Romania, Romania
- Associazione Estone della lettura, Estonia
- Centro per lo Sviluppo Danio Dolci, Italy