#TBT: Reading Competition – Term 1

 *TBT stands for “Throw Back Thursday.” It is a popular hashtag on social media sites and an excuse to post old photos and things that are “throw backs” to the past.

Many of you have asked to hear more about the literacy competitions that have been happening at my (Michelle’s) school this year. So, I wanted to take you back to the beginning and highlight each one.

How it All Started
As I have mentioned here, my School Library Committee (SLC) is so amazing. You have to understand that, in my experience, the vast majority of committees created at South African schools meet only a handful of times each year, if at all. It is fairly common for a committee (or administrator, or organization, or school) to say, “Yes, we will do this thing,” and you never hear about it again. So when my SLC said that they wanted to host quarterly, internal, school literacy competitions to recognize and encourage learners to read/write/etc, I thought it was a lovely idea, but was skeptical that it would take off. I am glad that they proved me wrong.

The moment of truth came in early March when I raised my hand in a meeting and said, “I want to ask whether we are going to host a competition in Term 1. We stated last school year that we would do this every term, but we only have a few weeks left and we have not started planning. Should we skip the competition for this term and start planning for next term?” My comment was met with a resounding: NO. We must push to plan a competition for this term because if we start to slip now, we will slip the next term and the next. We can make no excuses… (Did I mention how much I love them?)

Term 1 – Prepared Storytelling/Reading and Unprepared Reading
It was decided that we would start with a basic reading competition. Students would come to the front, read a story, and be assessed on fluency. Fluency, when reading aloud, refers to the learner’s tone and inflection (do they sound natural or robotic?), pacing, pausing (at commas, periods, etc.) and ability to read with emotion.

Prepared Reading

Each grade competed in a level-appropriate way:

• Grade R (Kindergarten): Storytelling by using pictures in a book
• Grade 1: Storytelling by using pictures in a book (though, it was changed to sight-word recognition by the teacher)
• Grades 2 & 3: Prepared reading (meaning, learners get to practice reading it before they present)
• Grades 4 & 5: Unprepared reading (though, it was changed to prepared reading by the teacher)
• Grades 6 & 7: Unprepared reading

Prepared Reading

There was a buzz of energy the entire day. This was so new, so exciting, so… different than what they had seen before. The educators were a bit hesitant at first because there were so many new things for them—a new style of rubric, unfamiliar schedule for the day, and new roles with new expectations. The committee leapt in charge of the day, though! They held judge’s meetings, purchased snacks and prizes, and even emceed, providing impromptu entertainment between participants. Despite a few hiccups (such as the slight changes in the activities for some grades), the day was a huge success!

Judges excited about a job well done!

This event was especially meaningful for me because before the event, as many PCVs will attest, I was struggling with my committee relying too much on me. They were always looking to me for the answer or waiting for me to take charge.

This competition changed something within the core of the SLC. They started to believe that they could do things on their own…and that was the greatest success of all!