A great program this group of college students had, started here, and yet, it’s, facing the fires, because the “officials” find no positive results, immediately, from the Newspapers, translated…
Other than going abroad, to gain a grander perspective, they can, stay in the country, and gain the worldly experiences too. The assistant professor of Danjiang University’s English Culture Department, Hsieh found, that most of the students attending the Langyang Campus had NO knowledge of the area of Yilan, she’d, started, pushing forth the “GLAP” program, with the funds donated from others, along with her own money, she took along four students, going to and from Bihou, Nanao on a four hour car ride, to read along with native children who hadn’t started school yet.
In just one year, the children who were, originally, strangers to books, became lovers of books, and, more of the children started, asking to read on their own.
Hsieh had once led the parents in reading with their young, but, the parents had the unstable workhours, the cross generation upbringing, which made the plan harder to take place; or, due to the flows of the school teachers in the distant region elementary schools being too unsettled, the surrogate instructors’ unwillingly to comply with the plans to read along.
like, this??? Photo from online…
“Let’s, make up for the lacking in ‘companionship’ a lot of these native families are faced with first!”, starting in October of last, Professor Hsieh found the college students, to read along, to accompany the children. For the forty-minute long read along, she and four students who’d taken courses in reading instructors, every Wednesday afternoon, would spent three, four hours on busses, and transfers onto trains, then, in a cab, headed to Nanao, to read along with the children living in the tribes.
The read-along partner, Ting Cheng from the English Literature Department said, before the read along, she’d spent an hour, to select the books, fitted to the children, designed the activities in relation to the books that will be read; after reading together, she’d needed to, spend long hours, listening to the recordings of the sessions, to document how each child was responding in the reading sessions, and adjust the books, the way of approach, etc., etc., etc.
The GLAP program was NOT funding by the government, reason being, stated by Hsieh, the “quantification of the program”, the problem they were faced with from the outside was “it’s not enough, helping only FOUR children”, or “the program didn’t mention how to increase the reading comprehension abilities”, she’d, sighed on how wayward the beliefs were, and, she’d, stated that reading before school age, is to help children make friends with books, NOT for the sake of reading comprehension.
And, this is, a good reading program the college professor started, but, as you can see, there are, many bumps in the road, from all around, from those who aren’t doing anything, to help educate these children, and, those laypersons still don’t get it, that reading along with children, is NOT on helping the children understand the words read aloud to them, but simply, to keep the children company, and, these children, are still, growing up, all alone, without the companionships from this group of college student who took the time, to go visit their villages, and read to them!