Helping children and adults to develop skills they need to fully participate in an information society is central in a librarian’s mission of providing the highest quality library and information service in society. Books help children read. They are more helpful than reading schemes because they promise and provide pleasure in reading. Both teachers and school librarians should be influential in the child’s reading process but they need good knowledge of children’s literature so that they can choose and help these young readers at all levels (Samara, 2002). The Library Association (1991) singled out four areas as being enhanced by reading and use of a variety of sources of information namely: intellectual and emotional development; language development; social development; and educational development. In view of this there is every reason for teachers and librarians to promote reading in school. What then is reading?

READING

Current attempts to define reading tend to regard it as a thinking process with attention focused on comprehension. That is to say reading is a mechanical and thoughtful process requiring the reader to understand what the author is endeavoring to communicate and to contribute his own experience and thoughts to the problem of understanding. As far back as 1913 Huey began formulating such ideas as can be noted from his frequently quoted words:

until the insidious thought of reading as word pronouncing

is well worked out of our heads, it is well to place the emphasis

strongly where it really belongs, on reading as thought-

getting independently of expression.

In 1937 Gray posited that

…the reader not only recognizes the essential facts or ideas

presented, but also reflects on their significance, evaluates them critically, discovers relationships between them, and classifies his understanding of the ideas apprehended.

Such ideas about the nature of reading continued to expand so that in 1949 Gray wrote that the reader

…does more than understand and contemplate; his emotions

are stirred; his attitudes and purposes are modified; indeed his innermost being involved.

Reading is perceived as a progressive social phenomenon in that it is a means of forming people’s social consciousness; it is used as an instrument in implementing the task of continuing education and raising pupils cultural standards. In brief it is a means of increasing professional knowledge and skills and drawing people into a more creative life. In Sierra Leone, however, the task of ensuring that children learn to read, and of finding ways of helping them to do so is one of general concern to all teachers in both primary and secondary schools. One of the reasons why teachers are eager to help pupils to learn to read is that in modern society literacy is essential. In helping children to read they will not only be able to read but that their reading will develop into life-long habit. Thus a great deal of attention in schools is paid to:

- the promotion of children’s interest in books

- the supply, deployment and classification of books

- guidance in selection of appropriate books

- training in study skills and provision of time in which to read.

READING IN THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Reading in schools in Sierra Leone is embedded in the curriculum and is a continuum starting from pre-primary through primary to secondary schools, as an important studying skill. At both the pre-primary and primary school levels specific reading periods are slotted on the timetable ranging from fifteen to thirty minutes. Reading and Comprehension is a stand alone subject and children are taught not only to learn to read but also to read to learn for self-enhancement, experience sharing and recreation. Thus varied forms of literature are used notably poetry, fiction, drama magazines, newsletters and newspapers as well as non fiction, with the latter cutting across the subjects taught in school.

At pre-primary level teachers help pupils read by giving each pupil a copy of primer readers and encourage them to glance through pictures and ask questions about them as a way of stimulating their curiosity. Slips of papers bearing each pupil’s name are clipped to the primer for them to assume responsibility for keeping them clean. The teacher also demonstrates to pupils how to open these books carefully and flipping pages from front to back at a time to avoid damage. A few short sentences consisting of three to four letter words are read with pupils following in their books. After a while pupils are called upon to re-read each sentence orally. The main purpose of such a lesson is to introduce pupils to books and to teach them something useful regarding their care. Each lesson is different in design from all subsequent ones in order for the reading lesson to be of value to pupils. Typical lesson plans for teaching reading in schools include the following:

Both local school trips and school trips abroad can offer a rewarding experience if proper planning is put in place. One of the most essential aspects of a school tour is to research on a relevant institution that would best communicate or exemplify the subject matter of the trip to the students. Subsequently, details of the trip should be communicated to the parents; such details include the cost per student, code of conducts and other relevant information.

Students and parents would also play their own role in ensuring that the educational tour is truly rewarding and less stressful.

As the school year is running on course, parents would soon start hearing their kids talk about educational trips. And of course, the school authority would start informing parents about the intended trip so that they would embark on the necessary preparations. Sometimes, it could be local school trips or School Trips Abroad

Here are some tips to help achieve a successful educational trip;

•Research on the best destination for the trip: This is the teacher’s responsibility; the teacher should take out quality time to research on a particular site that would suitably exemplify the intended purpose (subject of study) of the educational tour, while keeping in view the fact that children are attracted to new sights and sounds. Therefore, research on historical sites, museums, nature sites and other interesting educational destinations is necessary.

•Contacting the museum or Trip destination: The teacher or organizers of the trip should contact the museum or intended institution of visit. The easiest way to get the contact information on the internet is by visiting the institution’s website. Usually, contact is made to the ‘education coordinator’ in charge of the museum or institution. If not, any contact at all within the website would serve.

•Information collation: this is also the responsibility of the teacher or the organizer of the school tour. There is need to collate information concerning the school trip and pass it on to the parents and students. For instance, information regarding the cost of the trip for each student, the date of the trip and the code of conduct required by the museum or institution from the students should be made known to the students as well as their parents.

The notification would be best presented in a print-out form, passed on to the parents through the students so that both parents and students would go through the details together to know what is required for the trip. There is also a need for another reminder notice when the date for the trip draws closer, especially when a cost is involved. This will ensure that permission slips are filled out by parents so that issues of liability would be avoided.

•Students should be reminded of the code of conduct; prior to entering the trip destination, students should be reminded again, the code of conduct of the institution. Although the institution’s docents may do this; it is the responsibility of the teacher to sound the warning to the students so that they will behave properly.