In the coming weeks one primary school student will emerge as Grenada’s top reader and will join winners from the OECS to vie for the title of Courts OECS Reading Competition.
Courts officially launched the 5th OECS Reading Competition last week Friday at the Concord Government School, and at the end of that first round, Dean Bedeau of Bonaire Government won with 132 points. Second was Dilonna Hamilton of the Grand Roy Government, and third was Rivaldo Smith of the Florida Government School. The other participants were: Andrew Cadore – Concord Gov’t School; Neisha Mitchell – St. John’s RC School; Lauriann McGuire – Samaritan Presbyterian; and Tewaa Andrews – St. John’s Anglican School
According to the rules of the competition, each participant is given the reading material three minutes before and shall be assessed on their reading fluency on two passages of between 100–200 words in each round. One passage will take the form of a narrative or story and the other a news. The narratives and news items for each participant will be different, but at the same level of difficulty and assessment of reading fluency will be based on participants’ reading accuracy, smoothness, confidence and expression and will include the:
- Accurate reading of words
- Effectively reading the phrases as complete units
- Correct interpretation of punctuation
- Distinct pronunciation of ALL words
- Emphasis of key words
- Effective conveyance of moods and feelings
- Effective use of volume
- Effective use of pitch
- Appropriate rate of reading selection
- Participants level of confidence and ability to recover if a mistake is made
During the ceremony which was attending by Member of Parliament for St Mark, Clarice Modeste; representatives from the Ministry of Education, participating schools, parents and students there was a constantly called for students to engage in more reading as “reading is to the mind what exercise is to body.”
Marketing Manager for Courts Grenada, Deleon Walters, made a special appeal for more young people to get involved in the competition by calling on parents to read to their boys. “We have observed that mainly girls are excelling in the competition over the years and so I encourage parents to reading to your boys,” he said.
Modeste who is also the Minister for Health said that reading keeps the brain functioning as part of wellness mental exercise. “Take time out to read and you will see how it enhances your academics… it makes us communicate better,” she said, while encouraging the students to do their best.
