Dulwich Read Aloud!
A school that reads is a school that succeeds. The library staff at Dulwich International High School Suzhou are always looking for new ways to promote reading. The reason for this is simple, research consistently shows that reading:
- Improves brain connectivity.
- Increases your vocabulary and comprehension.
- Empowers you to empathize with other people.
- Aids in sleep readiness.
- Reduces stress.
- Lowers blood pressure and heart rate.
- Good for your mental health.
- Prevents cognitive decline as you age.
The library’s latest reading promotion encourages our staff to share their love of reading with our students, by reading aloud from their favourite books! The hope is that this will inspire our students to listen to the recordings, hear a book they like, and read it themselves.
So far four members of Staff at Dulwich International High School Suzhou have recorded a short 2-minute passage from their favourite books. The recordings are uploaded to the Library’s One Drive account and made easily accessible to students via a QR code they can scan on their devices to listen to at their leisure.
Read Aloud!
First was Ms. Stephanie Park, our Drama Teacher, who did an amazing job of narrating a very dramatic passage from one of her favourite books: Magyk by Angie Sage.
Stephanie Park graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a B.F.A. in Drama, and received an MA and EdM from Columbia University. Before becoming a teacher, Stephanie was a professional performer in NYC.
Mr. Andrew Gibson (assistant Librarian) read from one of his favourite books, Kurt Vonnegut’s science fiction classic, Slaughterhouse-Five.
Andrew graduated with a BA (Hons) in English Literature from Kingston University, UK. He is also qualified to teach English as a foreign language in China, TFEL.
Mr. Luke Webb read from what he described as his absolute favourite novel: Shantaram by Gregory Roberts.
Luke Webb is the ESL Teacher and House System Coordinator at Dulwich International High School in Suzhou. He graduated with a BSc in Sport Psychology from the University of Liverpool. After this he completed a CertTESOL to teach English and worked in Colombia, South America for three years.
We spoke to Qing Zhao (our librarian) about the Read Aloud Program, and this is what she had to say about it:
“It’s our sincere hope that more staff at Dulwich International High School Suzhou will take the time to contribute to our Read Aloud Program. The library has its own portable recording studio, or as Mr. Webb demonstrated, you can even record yourself reading aloud on your mobile phone! Sharing your love of reading will inspire our students to read more. For every member of staff that takes part, the library will design a poster to promote the recording! Reading aloud is fun and it’s a nice way to encourage our students to read more.”
