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SHSID BookyGreen @ Hongmei Primary School

October 24, 2019

Each Friday, a bus takes students from SHSID BookyGreen to teach the students from Hongmei Primary school about literature.

This exchange between the two schools has taken place for more than a year. Now, every time the little teachers from SHSID, each with books in their hands, walk into the classroom, they will see the eager faces of the Hongmei Primary School students calling out “Ms. Wang! Ms. Li!” Throughout the year, the SHSID students read books such as Diary of a Smiling Cat and And Then There Were None, receiving enthusiastic feedback from the students.

Mona Wang, the former director of the Hongmei project, expressed that the goal of the project was to change the perception of reading from being an arduous task—a dominant perspective in schools—to being viewed as an enjoyable activity. This is done by incorporating a series of fun activities into the reading process. Now, she reflected, if you walk into a classroom and hear students talking, they are most likely reading The Diary of Smiling Cat, or the student teachers might be going through the animal characters in the book. Also, while reading And Then There Were None, and Sherlock Holmes, the student teachers would try to solve the mystery together with the little readers before the final answer is revealed.

While teaching the kids at Hongmei Primary School, BookyGreen has also donated more than 40 Chinese books to the students in late March. The books came from BookyGreen’s members, SHSID students, and other book lovers, each hoping for their books to be used by the next generation of readers.

As soon as the children got a hold of the new books, they could not help but look through them. Despite the excitement of some who wanted to read the books immediately, the children still stood for a picture with the student teachers. While this may be the first picture of both groups together, it certainly will not be the last.

With the new service year beginning, Catherine, the new leader of the program, expressed how she shared the same vision of Mona. As one of the teachers from last year, she reflected how “Hongmei Primary School’s students reminded me of the simple innocence of youth. During group discussions, we try to boost each of the reader's confidence by slowly guiding them away from confusion when reading without explicitly telling them so. Their big eyes will focus, and their mouths will curl up into a smile. From even the shyest child, I have seen a growth in confidence.”

We hope that BookyGreen’s student teachers will continue to bring knowledge and smiles to the students of Hongmei Primary School in the new semester, while also gaining some insights along the way.

(Written by Felicia Shen, Cissy Choy Pictures by Grace Li, Chelsie Wei Supervised by Hazel Gu)