Revista simpozionului Eficiență și calitate în educație - 19 mai 2017 Eficiență și calitate în educație | Page 40

calmly and work together to resolve the issue. Empathy refers to our ability to understand
the emotions of those around us.
Teachers should use stories at school with the aim of motivating and exploiting fully
students’ learning potential. What are the reasons why parents/teachers should read
stories to their children? Let’s enumerate some of the most important arguments:
 You show him that to care about him and you relax him
 You help him develop his imagination and his creativity
 You help him understand better his own emotions and the emotions of others
 You train his memory, his attention, his concentration
 You enrich his vocabulary with new words
 You convey him values (honesty, kindness, good)
 You help him overcome his fears and shyness
 You prepare him for different situations during lifetime
 You broaden his horizons
 You stir his desire of knowledge
Psychologists believe that children need stories, legends and fairy tales when they
grow up. They are a part of children’s intellectual life. They provoke their fantasy and give
them answers to important questions of a child’s life. They “can help develop positive
attitudes towards the foreign language, culture and language learning”. 3 They are
meaningful and effective item of their socialization. “Stories may bridge the gap between
language study and language use and also to link classroom learning with the world
outside.” 4
I have chosen to speak about stories as a tool to teach English at school because I
have often felt the need of attracting the attention of the secondary school students. Their
constant preoccupations with something other than school made me think at how I could
make them feel interested in my English lessons. The secondary school students are
sensitive about their individual identity. They value love and friendship very much. They
feel they are misunderstood and they constantly need to discuss about their problems. It
came into my mind the idea of using stories in order to stimulate them to acquire new
knowledge and to actively participate to the lesson. The Usborne Publishing, the
largest and most successful independent children’s book publisher in the UK, launched a
bestseller Reading Program which offers extra support to learners and teachers of English.
There are fiction and non-fiction titles graded in seven levels from Elementary to
Advanced. The levels are labeled by colored groups. From one level to the next, there is a
gradual but clear progression in terms of subject, style, narrative length, sentence
structure and vocabulary, giving children the satisfaction of mastering real books and
making measurable progress without overstretching them and causing them to lose
enthusiasm. The Usborne Reading Program combines vivid, engaging writing with
captivating full-color illustration on every page, featuring the work of artists from around the
world, together with superb contemporary and archive photography. From classic tales to
lively non-fiction, and from exquisite watercolors to cartoons, there is something to appeal
to everyone. 5
Each title includes:
 Audio CD with full reading of the text in both British and American English
 Free downloadable student's worksheets
 Free downloadable teacher’s notes
3
Gail Ellis and Jean Brewster, “ Tell it Again!”, London, Penguin 2002, p.6
Gail Ellis and Jean Brewster, “ Tell it Again!”, London, Penguin 2002, p.24
5
Usborne Reading Program, 2008. London. Available at
http://www.usbornebooksandmore.com/pdf/youngreadingprogram.pdf
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