The chartered school has decided to enthusiastically promote the reading of students inside and outside the educational centers, and encourages families to read at home. And not only to improve academic skills in language and reading comprehension, but also to create spaces of serenity in the home and strengthen family bonds by sharing a book. In addition, if you read every day for 15 minutes throughout primary school, you gain the equivalent of a school year.
The objective of the campaign
"Education is not just a matter of schools", explained yesterday Mar Pla, president of the Christian Confederation of Associations of Fathers and Mothers of Students of Catalonia (Ccapac), "it is also a matter of families".
Faced with the results of the basic skills of the 6th grade, low in language, and those in reading comprehension, which place Catalan students behind the rest of the autonomous communities and neighboring countries, schools will strengthen reading this year .
Only 50% of students' households read at least once a week. According to the Consell Superior d'Avaluació, there is a 14 percentage point difference in Catalan proficiency between students who read the least ("once a year") and those who read the most ("more than four days a week") . About 11 in Spanish, 13 in English, 12 in mathematics and 12 more in natural environment. These are the results of the basic skills report for the 2021-2022 academic year, as those from the previous academic year have not yet been published.
The Government has launched a reading plan which, among other measures, promotes a pilot plan that will equip 50 centers with school libraries over two years and support another 200 centers.
"Any initiative that encourages reading is welcome", thanks María Gajas, secondary school coordinator of the Vedrunes dels Ángels center and promoter of the program in Christian schools and campuses. "But it seems unambitious to us. A pilot plan at this time? We already know what works. What schools need is an emergency plan", he says.
The teachers, coordinated with the teachers, will propose a 15-minute reading aloud every day, with recommendations on how, when, with which books, and suggestions not to give up the bedtime story when they can read. "It must be a moment of pleasure", says professor Gajas. From the moment of choosing the book, the reading itself and the subsequent conversation.
For this reason, he asks that the neighborhood libraries have books in different languages so that the children of immigrants can read in their own language. He explains that the Sant Pau-Santa Creu library has a fund of stories in Urdu, Tagalog and Punjabi. "If we want them to associate reading with a moment of pleasure, it is better for them to read in their mother tongue", advises Gajas. But, for that, there must be readings in the library. "Parents, when they accompany their children, maybe also pick up a book or sign up for an activity."
The benefits are many, as detailed by Plan. In addition to the above, reading aloud facilitates oral expression, understanding complex texts, improves listening and attention, “in a world of distractions”, enhances critical thinking and creative skills and creates great readers . "These are quality moments, relaxed, in which conversations are generated", he indicates. "If the child is tired, he doesn't need to read, the important thing is to share that time".
He points out that this family activity can extend beyond childhood with newspapers, magazines or books of genres other than the story.
The teachers will help the campaign by generating resources (recommendations, workshops, activities, blogs, book suggestions for ages, library visits).
