St. Lucian Students Love Their Books-In-A-Bag!

Camille Henry Memorial School students love to read!

Principal Beverley Dieudonne from Camille Henry Memorial School writes about how Embassy-donated Books-In-A-Bag benefit her school.

The Books-In-A-Bag program commenced in term three of the academic year 2011/2012, with the original intention that students from Kindergarten to Grade 6 would be allowed to carry the books home with them.  We hoped this approach would allow for family involvement and facilitate in the transition of environs from school to home, ultimately enabling students to develop a greater love for reading.

However, we could only circulate the books throughout selected classrooms in Kindergarten to Grade 5, due to our very large class sizes and the fact that most of our students from the classes expressed their desire to read the books!

Students were allowed to read the books during D.E.A.R period (Drop Everything And Read), which is scheduled every school day from 12:45 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.  At the Kindergarten level, classroom teachers read to the children along with parents who volunteered to read to classes. This was quite exciting!

The Books- In-A-Bag program has benefited students as well as teachers. Students have been more eager to read, which has allowed for more interactive classes and more expression during oral presentations and essay writing.

In our week of preparation for the new academic year, we are going to be looking at ways in which we can continue to circulate the books so that even more students will share in this enjoyment and experience.

We are indeed grateful for this opportunity and would like to thank the US Embassy for this initiative.