It is with great pleasure and gratitude that we announce the Adult Community Literacy Programme at Jabulani Primary School, with reading materials thanks to Judith’s Reading Room.
Teenagers and adults from the community with all levels of reading ability are welcome to join this programme, and meetings take place in the evenings when the school is quiet. Facilitated by teachers at the school, the programme focuses on helping those improve their reading level through practice, and provides a place where those who can read to come and learn more about a particular subject or get into a good novel.
For those who are still learning to read, the teachers on duty spend more time one-on-one or within small groups, using level-appropriate resources to work at the learners’ pace. For those with a higher level of reading, the session is more self-directed and they can choose books to read either on their own or in small groups.
It was pertinent to get appropriate reading materials for those who have joined the programme, and we found a wonderful publisher in South Africa with a variety of adult-level, locally relevant stories. These create a much larger sense of connection with the story, and the books also channel and reflect humour that is understood by those involved.
Unfortunately these books were out of print, but soft copies were provided on the website. To ensure that we were able to get these wonderful books, we had them reformatted and specially printed for members. These books range from very simple entry-level reading to more complex and detailed stories.
Some also have a section at the beginning explaining the reason for creating the book, such as the following:
Readers asked for a book about other countries. They said they wanted to learn some history and geography and how to read maps. Readers said they wanted to learn about the people in other countries. Here is a book which tells you a little bit about four countries and the people who live in them.
These books were so gratefully and excitedly received, and we look forward to the feedback from members, as this is our first time sourcing books of this nature.
While this is the first community literacy programme we have established, we hope that it will be the start of many more. The camaraderie and mutual support between those who attend is wonderful to see, and watching someone work their way through a sentence that they weren’t able to read before is truly heart-warming.
We would like to thank Judith’s Reading Room once again for helping us provide this group with such useful and important resources.
