“CHILDREN READING TO CHILDREN” AT “MIHAI EMINESCU” NATIONAL COLLEGE

“CHILDREN READING TO CHILDREN” AT “MIHAI EMINESCU” NATIONAL COLLEGE

On the 8th of April 2014, a new activity of the series "Children reading to children" was held at National College "Mihai Eminescu", included in the "Learn to Read and Read to Learn' Comenius project. This time, older students from class IX A, coordinated by their head teacher Maria Hulber, read historical stories to children from class II B, Step by Step, coordinated by elementary school teachers Ioana Borza and Ramona Brezovszky. Thought this session, we encouraged dialogue, to challenge their interest for Romanian historical literature, to stimulate children's imagination and pleasure of reading, to initiate a communication and creativity exercise.
In a warm atmosphere, needed for a reading session, the young ones listened to exciting stories about Romanian rulers' affairs in the Middle Ages, such as Gelu, Basarab Voivode, Mircea the Great and Stephen the Great. The heated discussions taken place after the reading was finished helped the children choose their favourite ruler. The challenge to imagine a different ending for each story told by the older students proved that narration can be an "opera aperta", welcoming imagination, creativity and feelings. The two generations had fun interacting though games (such as recognising famous stories, finding new titles for stories).
Finally, the young students appreciated the choosen stories and the interaction they had with the older students.