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Tom Le Seelleur
Joined: 27 Dec 2007
Posts: 242
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
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 Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 11:08 am Post subject: |
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| Emiratis, like Saudis, do not read much - or at all. I wish you luck. |
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doner
Joined: 21 Jan 2010
Posts: 179
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| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 1:03 pm Post subject: |
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| He obviously knows that and that is why the UAE are starting another one of their doomed to failure projects. |
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adorabilly
Joined: 20 May 2006
Posts: 430
Location: Ras Al Khaimah
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| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:30 pm Post subject: |
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edit ranting post.
</rant> |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 4:03 pm Post subject: |
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I give Tom credit for the hard work he is doing on this. In the new programs they are targeting the young students and the parents to try to improve the situation. I don't know if it will work... but we all know that it is impossible to remedy once we get them at university level.
VS |
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Splitting Hairs
Joined: 20 Sep 2007
Posts: 99
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| Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 10:25 am Post subject: |
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| Tom, good article. At my place we try to get to find a comfort zone for the pupils to read and I think that is the crux of it - somewhere secure and homely a bit like curling up on a sofa really helps the pupils feel that reading is pleasurable. Sometimes just asking them to read and talk about the book and the characters and thats it - no reports, no summaries, no task or written activity - this goes a long way to get them to read more. |
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ThomasGradgrind
Joined: 05 Feb 2010
Posts: 8
Location: Horse Trough
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| Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 2:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Perhaps if we could teach them to read a watch and tell the time first, it would be good. Then we could move up to decoding the signs at Subway and McDonalds... |
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Tom Le Seelleur
Joined: 27 Dec 2007
Posts: 242
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| Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 1:11 pm Post subject: |
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Read SIG needs short articles from anywhere/anyone in the Middle East and UAE who have started reading initiatives that have become successful. Read SIG will be publishing a Magazine and i want to include as many success stories from around the region as possible for all cycles/levels, libraries, tertiary. Limit to 400-1000 words - must be tactile/practical absolutely no theory/surveys/research articles please. This is to be a hands on guide for teachers to share and role model for other educatoirs to get inspiration from. Need articles by 25 Feb. Please check the TA Read SIG site for my email address. Book reviews, letters and opinions are encouraged. Blogs that you think are relevant or news stories from around the region that encourage reading also welcome.
Thanks
Tom |
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ardiles81
Joined: 23 Sep 2007
Posts: 71
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| Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 1:04 pm Post subject: |
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Good luck with your endeavour. Encouraging a love of reading among the emiratis, well the high level, er motivated ones I meet in higher education could be akin to modern labor of Hercules...or not.
Only a few decades out of the desert going from an oral tradition to one based on the Blackberry and rapacious consumerism with no real need to do anything to achieve material satisfaction would, in my very humble opinion, relegate the enjoyment of reading to somewhere near insignificant.
More worrying for the future too is that the passing on of of that enjoyment to the next generation is not exactly, from what I have seen anyway, something that is actively encouraged what with computers, clothes, big TVs and big cars and other ephemera vital to life, competing for attentions of a decreasingly short span. Moreover, as I have been told by way of lame excuses, on too many occasions we don't need to read we have the Koran
Nonetheless, the best to you and your project. |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 3:45 pm Post subject: |
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| ardiles81 wrote: |
| More worrying for the future too is that the passing on of of that enjoyment to the next generation is not exactly, from what I have seen anyway, something that is actively encouraged what with computers, clothes, big TVs and big cars and other ephemera vital to life, competing for attentions of a decreasingly short span. |
I fear this is the situation everywhere. The humor of the Onion, as always, hits the nail on the head as far as the future of reading:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/nation_shudders_at_large_block_of?utm_source=EMTF_Onion
VS |
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ardiles81
Joined: 23 Sep 2007
Posts: 71
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| Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 8:25 pm Post subject: |
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| I fear this is the situation everywhere. The humor of the Onion, as always, hits the nail on the head as far as the future of reading: |
You should allay your fears - it is not the situation everywhere. In countries in which there are uses for literacy simply as a means to education and for self-improvement, parents reading with infants, as any fool knows, is key. In most of the West there are libraries, decent well stocked book shops, which meet local demand. If not there is always Amazon. Granted, there are too many who do not use them but even the most useless parents knows that their child should be reading even if they choose or are not able to read with them.
Out here for all sorts of reasons there just ain't that need and when education, for most, is not essential to gaining material satisfaction, well why bother when there are Big Cars to drive or 100 inch plasma HD TVs with action films in Surround Sound to watch. Much more fun than a boring old book... failing that you can probably get a nice job with your brothers and uncles in the cops or play with shiny boys' toys in the military safe in the knowledge that you never see action.
So, as we all know, the hardest working students, the ones who see a purpose for reading, they tend, IME anyway, to be for example the Palestinians or Sudanese who have spent two or three wastaless generations here with no hope of citizenship rights or free money - and will therefore have to work for their living. Yup, they know the way out is through reading and education.
That's it. |
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Sheikh N Bake
Joined: 26 Apr 2007
Posts: 1307
Location: Dis ting of ours
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| Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:32 am Post subject: |
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| ardiles81 wrote: |
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| I fear this is the situation everywhere. The humor of the Onion, as always, hits the nail on the head as far as the future of reading: |
You should allay your fears - it is not the situation everywhere. . |
As far as reading goes, at airports you'll still see most Western adults reading books when not talking. Or the Kindle. Not just us educators. |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 3:13 pm Post subject: |
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... and what are those under the age of appr. 30 doing?
VS |
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johnslat
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 13859
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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| Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 3:20 pm Post subject: |
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Dear veiledsentiments,
Either texting or playing video games. 
Regards,
John |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:08 pm Post subject: |
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... that was my point... as far back as my posting from The Onion. 
VS |
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