COVID-19 PANDEMIC - TRANSFORMING THE WAY WE WORK , STUDY , PLAY AND LIVE | LUMEN
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Book Week Online goes
Following the success of last year ’ s “ Gardens of
Tomorrow ”, the Committee for Book Week 2020 comprising English teachers Mr Azhar Ghazali , Mrs
Mishaelle Chua and Teacher- Librarian Mrs Boey Wah Fong , began planning in
January for another exciting round of activities for bibliophiles this year . The theme “ Lifting Others ” was identified for this year ’ s event , based on a quote from Robert Ingersoll – “ We rise by lifting others ”, which was particularly suited to the school ’ s mission .
Book Week 2020 bookmarks designed by Annemarie Lim
( left to right ): Samuel Lim and Lim Bo Shi achieve Platinum Certificates for ' Read A Classic ' Challenge while Xie Ruichuan is winner for Feature Article Writing Competition
Among the activities planned include Author Talks , various competitions , a Primary School Outreach Programme and a Teacher Panel Discussion .
However , all these plans had to be significantly curtailed and modified , and further contingency plans hatched when the COVID-19 situation gradually escalated . The Author Talks and Teacher Panel Discussion were regretfully cancelled as it was no longer possible to hold gatherings of more than 50 people . In line with social distancing rules , inter-class Scrabble Competitions and Read-a-thon which were to have taken place in the Library , became intra-class competitions instead . As part of the “ decentralisation measures ”, teachers were also encouraged to read out loud to their classes and share their own reading with their students .
The Book Week Committee was delighted to hear of how teachers took up the challenge of conducting extra reading activities in their own classes . Not only English teachers did this – a few teachers from other faculties also read out loud and discussed books with their classes . Mr Chong Jun Hien , a Science teacher collaborated with his co-tutor , Ms Karen Williams to engage their form class , LE103 with reading from various picture books about selfawareness and empathy . Mr Chong also read The Coyote Road : Trickster
Tales to his Josephian Formation Journey ( JFJ ) and Science classes , which evolved into Inquiry-through- Dialogue sessions , in which the classes discussed themes such as self-identification and self-love . Miss Jessica Cheng , an Art teacher , read an excerpt from her favourite book Fahrenheit 451 and inspired her form
by Mr Azhar Ghazali and Mrs Boey Wah Fong
class so much that nearly half the class requested to take home a copy to read over the HBL period .
In anticipation of the school moving into HBL mode where students may have more time to read but have no access to the Library ’ s books , the Reading Challenge period was extended to close only in September , and the focus was on Classics which are easily available online . The ‘ Read-a- Classic Challenge ’ proved to be a success : 63 classics have been collectively read and 65 Challenge Awards been given out including 3 Platinum Awards , 9 Gold Awards , 16 Silver Awards and 37 Bronze Awards .
The online writing competition , ‘ Who ’ s a Quiet Hero ?’ attracted an overwhelming number of entries from Year 1 and 2 Josephians . Participants were to write a feature article on a person they knew and were in a position to interview , or they might feature a book character they knew well , and conduct an imaginary interview . It was heartening to see that many students chose to feature their own parents and grandparents , and several featured their siblings and classmates . The stories they told of the wonderful things done by these shining examples of “ men and women for others ” in their lives were indeed inspiring and uplifting . The winning writers for this competition are : Zachary Howe ( FN101 ), Shanjay Sivalingam ( MN103 ), Xie Ruichuan ( MN202 ) and Zhang Ruowei ( MN202 ).
‘ Who ’ s Helping ?’ was a book guessing competition , where participants had to identify the author , title and helpful character from three short excerpts . The winners are : Jayden Lam ( LE103 ), Aidan Tseng ( MN101 ) and Chiong Kung Yu ( MN101 ).
The activities of Book Week 2020 have inspired us in unexpected ways . For the teachers in SJI , we bear testimony to the words of Louis L ’ Amour , the great American writer , “ A Parent or a Teacher has only his lifetime ; a good book can teach forever ”.
Book sharing - The Secrets of the Immortal Nicolas Flamel- by Jack Wigmore ( FN103 )
Innomakers meet Laurence Liew of AI Singapore
FN103 participated in Readathon , where students took turns to stand in front of the class to read aloud and share their thoughts about their chosen book