Ownership

Pupils Taking Control

The PAL reading programme at SK Teh in Jerantut has been going on for a while now (see earlier post), and the pupils arrive at school early to collect the books and set out the mats. Pupils also choose their own reading style (alone silently, or out loud with a partner) as well as which books they want to read.

During the reading time, some of the pupils have been involved with craft projects related to the reading programme, such as making thank you banners and cards to show appreciation for some of the books donated to the project by the British Malaysia Society. Recently, the Head of Panel brought in more books for the PAL reading programme and we needed to make some more storage boxes for our growing book collection. Decoratively covering large boxes is something that many teachers can do with ease, efficiency and creativity, but sometimes it is better to let go and let the pupils do it themselves, make a mess of it and learn from the experience.

We asked some older students to take charge and a small group beavered away during the reading time, and with minimal teacher involvement they worked together to make two new book boxes. 

The next PAL related project for the teachers and mentor at SK Teh is to devise a system to record the pupils' reading. One option we are considering is the 'bookworm' caterpillar (see the SK Bandar Dungun post earlier), or maybe lanyards with the pupils' names and some kind of star system to record how many books they have read. Whatever system we finally choose for recording pupils' reading, we will certainly be making sure that the pupils are encouraged to take some ownership of the reading project by making their own contributions to the final product.

Making and using the new book boxes for the PAL reading project at SK Teh, Jerantut.