Read with Me Equips a Child-centered Library in Lahijan

The “Read with Me” Project began its work in Lahijan this winter by holding workshops and equipping a child-centered library.

A team of “Read with Me” experts travelled to Lahijan city in Gilan province in September 2017. In addition to examining the feasibility of the project, they visited Fatemeh Poorkhesalian Elementary School and made discussions with the education authorities of the city of Lahijan. During this visit, the school’s educational conditions were examined and meetings with the members of parents and teachers community were held.  Afterwards, “Read with Me” team started planning to hold “Reading Aloud” and “Rich Literacy Environments” workshops for teachers and librarians of this school and they also started working on equipping a child-centered school library.

Accordingly, “Reading Aloud” and “Rich Literacy Environments” workshops were held for 39 teachers of this elementary school and other schools as well as the pre-school educators on 5 and 6 December 2017. Among 19 primary schools the teachers and educators of which participated in the workshop, 6 primary schools are located in the villages around Lahijan and 13 primary schools are in the city. Teachers from other schools are also expected to borrow books from the same library and hold Reading-Aloud sessions for their students.

Since holding “Read with Me” workshops, the teachers of this elementary school started Reading Aloud, book-related activities and reading promotion at different grades of the school.

Later on, the library team travelled to Lahijan and equipped the school library based on “Read with Me child-centered libraries” principles on 8 February 2018.

This library is equipped with nearly 1,700 volumes of books and handbooks and more than 200 activity sheets along with geographic maps and educational CDs.

Fatemeh Poorkhesalian Elementary School, which is built and equipped by the Philanthropist Hussein Poorkhesalian, has 14 classrooms where students study in two separate shifts. By equipping Poorkhesalian School Library and implementing the “Read with Me” project, 840 students of this school can enjoy the available quality books.