Increase children’s reading time

ONE member of the Barbados Association of Reading is encouraging individuals to give children more opportunities to develop their reading skills.

She gave this advice while speaking on the sidelines of the Annual Reading Competition – Juniors at the Rock Christian School on Monday.

Sharon Warner, Executive Member of the Interim Committee of the Barbados Association of Reading, commended the school for staging the competition.

“We laud efforts like these ones put on by the Rock Christian School that target reading and the assessment of reading for young children at the elementary level.”

She added, “As an Association ... we know that there is still a lot of work to be done with respect to reading. Reading is more than being able to call words; reading is being able to read and to understand to get meaning from text. So having young children practise these skills and being so confident, it really is a good sign for Barbados. We want to encourage more persons to do just what I saw here, have the young children engage in reading so that they can stand on a stage and be confident.”

During Monday’s contest, the finalists from the Junior school read given texts and answered questions about the texts, which were asked by the judges. The competition not only allowed their parents and other members of the audience a chance to hear them read out loud, but it was also intended to teach them to be brave and to hone their public speaking skills.

The eventual awardees from KG3 were Khaden Thompson, who placed first; Atarah Martelly, who was second and John David Greene was third. For KG4, Kaydi Morris was first, Zane Kirton was second and third was Kavion Walker.

Meanwhile for KG5, Dimitri Kirton was first, Haeli Daniel was second and Zane-Andrew Clarke was in third position. For Prep, in first position was Uri Phillips, while Zachary Lowe and Kiersten Weekes came second.