Promoting Literacy in the Library
The Zithulele Community Library held a school competition this month to promote literacy and encourage students to use the library as a resource. All of the surrounding schools were invited to compete in reading, writing, poetry, story telling, and spelling competitions held in Xhosa and in English.
Throughout the day we were continuously impressed by the poise and confidence of the students. Each participant went up on stage in front of their peers, teachers, and a panel of judges to read, spell, or tell us a poem or story they had written themselves; it was as if none of them had even the least bit of stage fright!
The poetry competition was particularly lively, students starting in grade 3 delivered poems they had written with wonderful expression and passion. A few of them were so moving they drew a standing ovation from the crowd! Another major highlight of the day was an impressive recital of the whole “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears...” monologue from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
All of this would never have been possible without the support of our amazing community here at Zithulele. Thanks to some generous donations, we were able to provide food and drinks for all of the children and adults that attended and send all of the competition-winners home with wonderfully illustrated books! At the end of the day, the kids went home proud of themselves and their schoolmates... and hopefully eager to return to the library!
Throughout the day we were continuously impressed by the poise and confidence of the students. Each participant went up on stage in front of their peers, teachers, and a panel of judges to read, spell, or tell us a poem or story they had written themselves; it was as if none of them had even the least bit of stage fright!
The poetry competition was particularly lively, students starting in grade 3 delivered poems they had written with wonderful expression and passion. A few of them were so moving they drew a standing ovation from the crowd! Another major highlight of the day was an impressive recital of the whole “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears...” monologue from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
All of this would never have been possible without the support of our amazing community here at Zithulele. Thanks to some generous donations, we were able to provide food and drinks for all of the children and adults that attended and send all of the competition-winners home with wonderfully illustrated books! At the end of the day, the kids went home proud of themselves and their schoolmates... and hopefully eager to return to the library!
