‘Voorleesweek’ Shares the Love of Reading at AIS

Grade 10 students brought the love of reading to the AIS Primary students in celebration of Voorleesweek. For one week in November, Belgium celebrates ‘Voorleesweek’ (reading week) to increase the enrichment of reading and bonding between others. 

This week is important as it promotes the love of literature and provides benefits to young people, while encouraging parents to read aloud alongside their children. Six Grade 10 students decided to take action and brought their learning to others. 

“We did it as part of our Service and Action portfolio,” Sophia stated. “We were all thinking, because we are in Dutch class, it’s a nationwide thing so we wanted to include it and take part in it.” 

Over the course of the entire week, the Grade 10 students organised reading time with every PYP class and partnered them with a Secondary class. Groups were then organised based on the level of Dutch the students understood. They split up into small groups (one older student with one or several Primary students) and read age-appropriate books that were chosen by their teacher. They read the story aloud and discussed the major plot points. Afterwards, they completed a craft relating to the story. 

Previously, Ms. De Lange, one of our Dutch teachers, organised the entire event by herself, but this year the students took the initiative. “They really jumped at the opportunity,” she said. 

Another student, Carolina, appreciated that this project allowed the community to come together for the event. “It was interesting to learn about how eight-year-olds act vs ten-year-olds or six-year-olds.” Several other students agreed that not only was being able to interact with the younger students interesting, but also very rewarding when fostering an open and fun environment within the school. 

Zoë said, “It was great to collaborate with other grade levels…it was great to work with students who don’t always get to work together. It also offered me a new perspective when discussing books.” 

When asked what difficulties they faced, Hannah said, “At times it was difficult to stay organised as there was so much to do and so many classes. We had to email a lot of people to get things ready, along with collecting all the materials we needed.”

Communication was also a major point in terms of organising the event. Every student agreed that they needed all their communication skills as this project took a lot of time and coordination with many people involved. Zoë also said, “It was a good experience for learning to communicate with younger people. You need to adjust how you speak, and speak at a good tempo.” 

“An event like this is important as it teaches students about different cultures and languages. In this case, it taught students more about the Dutch language and about stories that are a part of its culture and about what the Dutch-speaking community reads,” Hannah said. 

Ms. De Lange was also impressed with the collaborative efforts of the students and their ability to work both together and independently: “I am super proud of these students. They are very mature and worked together well as a team,” she said. 

We would like to congratulate our Grade 10 students for their hard work. These events show the heart of our community at AIS and continue to bring us together.