BORDER CROSSINGS

Nancy FawleyHead of User ServicesVirginia Commonwealth University in Qatar

collaborating with faculty and administration to integrate reading activities into freshmen

orientation

VCUQatar

VCUQatar

• Established in 1998• Design curriculum• 40 faculty• 210 students

– 55% Qatari– 6% male– from 29 countries

How this relates

• Increasing number of international students • Students who are residents or citizens but

speak English as a second language• Students with little to no experience using

libraries and their resources

Reading activity for incoming freshmen

• Adapt the main campus’ activity to VCUQatar’s student population

• Introduce students to the academic and intellectual culture of college

Objective number one

• Introduce students to reading for pleasure in order to develop a habit of reading

Benefits of reading for pleasure

• Better reading comprehension, writing skills, vocabulary, grammar and spelling

• Helps to develop reading writing skills in a second language

Develop a culture of reading

• Arab culture is historically an oral culture• Information comes from wisdom, poetry,

songs and folk stories

Objective number two

• Introduce students to a librarian in order to forge a connection

• Students have little to no experience using a library

• Librarians in local schools play more of a role in policing the library

Objective number three

• Combine reading with an art and design-based activity to demonstrate that the two are not mutually exclusive

Objective number four

• Have the students work in groups in order for them to create bonds with their colleagues and benefit from the various levels of reading comprehension

Choosing the book

• Consider the culture and reading levels of the students

A reading program that worked for our students

• EFL students • Visual learners• Oral culture

Color: a history of the palette

• Students were divided into groups and assigned a color

• They then read the chapter that corresponded to their color

• Students met with their groups and wrote their own story of a color

• They created a skit and performed it at the end of the week

Did the activity meet the objectives?

Thank you