‘Seodaemun Library Day’ Program Where 5-7 Year-Old Children Attending Daycare Visit the Library and Participate in Post-Reading Activities with the Help of Volunteer Assistants
[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Seodaemun-gu (Mayor Moon Seok-jin) is operating ‘Library Day’ and ‘Reading Discussion Class’ online to help infants and children become familiar with libraries and books.
‘Seodaemun Library Day’ is a program where children aged 5 to 7 attending daycare centers visit libraries with the help of volunteers and participate in post-reading activities.
Due to social distancing making it difficult for children to visit libraries, the program will be operated fully online from April to July so that children can participate through TV monitors at daycare centers.
About 1,100 children from 28 daycare centers in the area will participate once a month, four times in total, in book reading and book play classes broadcast via the online video conferencing program (Zoom).
To this end, about 20 library volunteers conduct about 60 real-time classes per month from studios set up in four libraries including the Seodaemun Lee Jin-a Memorial Library and Haneulsaem Small Library.
‘Seodaemun Reading Discussion Class’ started in 2016 as part of the Seoul-type Innovative Education District project and was operated online last year.
This year, 15 community reading instructors will conduct real-time discussion classes for elementary school students in grades 3 to 6 through online video conferencing and chat programs.
A total of 14 classes are opened, including 10 classes for grades 3-4 and 4 classes for grades 5-6, participating once a week for one hour per class over 11 weeks from the end of this month to early July.
Based on the high response to last year’s classes that allowed enjoying discussion classes without spatial constraints, about 150 students have applied to participate in this year’s online reading discussion class.
Library Day volunteers and community reading instructors in charge of the classes completed training for non-face-to-face class operation throughout March to enhance learning effectiveness.
Moon Seok-jin, Mayor of Seodaemun-gu, said, “Thanks to the volunteers and community reading instructors who actively responded and prepared for environmental changes, we were able to operate various reading programs online. We will continue to prepare diverse programs so that children can discover the joy of reading and get closer to books.”
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