Do you love books? Would you prefer reading e-books or physical books? In today's internet era, we sometimes wonder if children still go to the library, appreciate books, borrow them and actually read them at home. Is the term "bookworm" still applicable to children and teens born in this millenium?
Fear not. Students in Philippine schools, particularly in the provinces who has limited access to ipad, kindle and other electronic gadgets, are still very much into reading physical books. Supported by a program by Scholastic, these schools are monitored and are challenged to improve literacy and develop the love of reading among their students.
Scholastic, Inc., the publishing company behind Harry Potter, The Hunger Games and other great
titles, held its first inter-school literacy contest last August 19, at
the posh Rockwell Tent in Makati City.
The
Readers Cup aims to recognize literacy educators (teachers, librarians,
principals and schools) for outstanding work in improving literacy in their
school.
The
winners of the Readers Cup were chosen from 131 schools who participated in
Scholastic’s Assessment and Enrichment Program (AEP) and Independent Reading
Program (IRP). AEP and IRP are premiere
end-to-end literacy solution programs that schools subscribe to, producing
remarkable and measurable improvements in students’ reading abilities.
The
passion of helping students read well and meaningfully is a shared purpose of
Scholastic and its school partners. It
is that common objective that fuels the vision for the Readers Cup: a tribute
to the tireless teachers, librarians and principals whose work and leadership
paved way for students to become better readers and learners.
Mr.
Frank Wong, Head of Scholastic Asia, who is based in Singapore said, “We are
not stopping children from reading e-books, but rather, we would like to
influence them to appreciate physical books as well. For our program, we target pre-school to grade
school children who are too young to jump in using e-books.”
The
Scholastic Readers
Cup awarded the top three schools in varying categories
including “Highest Increase in Total
Number of Books Read per school”, “Highest
Average number of Books Read per Child”, “Highest
Average Lexile* Growth per student” and the “Highest Average Number of Books
Read per Student”.
With prestige and honor on the line, the Scholastic
Readers Cup is set to raise the bar for literacy in the Philippines. No matter what
schools end up winning at the Readers Cup,
it is clear that the real reward lies in being able to influence each student to become a better reader giving
way to a better life.
To learn more about Scholastic, Inc., please visit http://www.scholastic.com/home/
