I was invited by the Education Department of the Eastern Cape, via the Eastern Cape Reading Association of South Africa (RASA), to visit PE and run a workshop for learners and their teachers on reading for pleasure and the FunDza materials available for use. About six learners from eight local schools attended the Friday morning session, along with their teachers.
It was an interesting experience working with both learners and teachers. We discussed the importance of reading for pleasure, I gave them a virtual tour of our library at their fingertips, and then they got involved in reading one of our rights booklets to see the kinds of material we have available. It was very satisfying to see people carrying on reading during tea to finish the story. They also wrote a poem about the different ways we interpret what we read.
Eileen Scheckle from RASA then did a short workshop on running reading clubs. FunDza books were part of the selection – and it was also very satisfying to see how just about all the groups selected these books as their first choice!
The next day I attended the Eastern Cape RASA AGM held in Grahamstown to give a presentation on FunDza, and what we are busy with now. Attendance was not high, but it was lovely to reconnect with some ‘old’ FunDza supporters, as well as meet some new ones.
Eileen and I are not very good at social media. We only remembered at the airport as she dropped me off that we needed some visual record of my visit. So here we are – proof that I was actually there!