A literature teacher came to Cambodia from Japan. We visited together to a school that possesses a library (library room/ space) so that what she shares about reading can be easily implemented.
It was a break time when we arrived at the school, and so our car was quickly surrounded by children, who were of full curiosity.
According to the literature teacher, it's good to read for children without showing illustrations of the book to them! First, a reader reads while the book is facing to the reader. (In case of a picture book, we shall read page by page.) While listening to the story, children would develop imagination – what is happening in that story. And after the reader finishes that page, he/she turns the book to show the illustration to the children. Then they get some discoveries comparing that illustration with their own imagination. We always think of ways to enhance children's creativity, and so this instruction from the teacher was very interesting.
We practiced this style of reading for small grades. We actually asked the local teachers to read for their classes. Children were laughing a lot with the story that this volunteer teacher introduced that day, although we adult couldn't understand what was so funny about it.
It seems this book contains a certain message. It was something we could somehow understand only after being told so. Children didn’t get that specific message. But we didn’t tell them anyway because we didn’t want to put children’s free ideas into stereotype. Our main purpose was to help each of the children expand his/her creativeness.
Comentarios