Magic moments in the OLC! The power of reading is tangible..
Going to False Bay College on Fridays for our Reading for Enjoyment campaign has been one of the highlights of my year. In partnership with Nali’bali and False Bay College Fish Hoek campus, FunDza embarked on this campaign to encourage students to read for fun and to demonstrate that reading is actually cool.
Fun and games!
Zimkhitha Mlanzeli and myself used activities like 30 seconds, word searches, spelling bees, role play and collaborative story writing to ignite the learners’ imaginations and to make reading less intimidating. We often used FunDza’s short stories to highlight this because students find it easy to relate to the stories, the themes and the characters.
The campaign would not have been successful without the dedication of Marianne Elliott, from the college’s Open Learning Centre (OLC), and the three lecturers, who kept the students motivated throughout the year: Natascha Krull, Tamarah Jooste and Sean Butler.
As part of the campaign, students were asked to join a library (other than the OLC), to read 10 books and to write reviews for each title. Thanks goes to Fish Hoek Library for supporting the campaign and dedicated a special section in the library to books that would be of interest to students.
In addition, students were encouraged to participate in ‘literacy’ events, such as World Read Aloud Day, on which students visited local creches and preschools to read to children, and World Book Bay, where students designed a poster.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CAMPAIGN WINNERS…
From left to right: Marianne Elliott (OLC), Robyn Erasmus (runner up) and Simnikiwe Ngcawa (winner)
Prizes were sponsored by Pearson Publishers, Nal’ibali and Wordsworth Books.
Winner: Simnikiwe Ngcawa
Runner Up: Robyn Erasmus
R200 Book Vouchers:
Ntombizodwa Nonewa
Shameem Amardien
Clencia Shifotoka
Michade Cornelius
R100 Book Vouchers:
Pionera Pelston
Natasha Buttress
Whitney Blignaut
Nomathandazo Ngwenya
Odette Maleka
Congratulations to the winner, the runner up and all the students who won book vouchers, as well as all who participated. Lecturer Natascha says that they have seen an overall increase in reading. While Marianne says that since launching the campaign, the OLC book circulation numbers have doubled.
Some of the feedback we received from the students:
The interaction they had with us was amazing. There were not just spoon feeding us we also had a chance to feedback.
They helped us connect with others concerning reading
FunDza’s books have turned me into a couch potato.
Learn about life and how reading could change your perspective of seeing things in a different way.
I was hate to read the book but ever since they came into the college now I love to read anything in front of me.
They created a nice vibe so everyone could gain a level of confidence to read out loud to the class.
When we went to Franschhoek Literary Festival and heard other authors books and their lives.
Writing a book review. Did not have any idea on how to write a book review and I now know what is a book review.
They helped us with our vocabulary.
Where you had to write a poem of yourself which included your hobbies, fear, what you like etc. Which I never knew you could put yourself in a poem.
We hope to continue working with False Bay College next year. Thank you to all who made this possible. A special thanks to Righardt le Roux (from PRAESA) for being the brain behind the campaign and initiating it.