LRF Team Visits Dowen College, Lekki

As part of its national advocacy to #IgniteReadingCulture, the Literary Renaissance Foundation Team paid a visit to Dowen College, Lekki on Wednesday, May 22, 2019, to engage students in the junior and senior classes of the school about the various benefits of reading.

The programme commenced by 2:30 pm with the introduction of the Literary Renaissance Foundation team to the Staffs and Students of Dowen College seated in the school hall by Mrs Yinka Babalola the school counsellor. Thereafter was the opening prayer by the head boy. Shortly after the prayer was the talk with the students by the Literary Renaissance Foundation’s (LRF) Project Coordinator, Hannah Abe. The main idea of the visit was to stress the importance of a good reading culture among the students.

Aligning with the objective of the foundation of which is to ignite a reading culture in Nigeria one person per time. She spoke on the power of Reading, emphasising that the zeal students apply while acquiring skill in playing musical instruments, learning how to swim, shooting free throws at basketball should also be applied to reading to achieve excellent academic performance.

She also highlighted the anatomy of reading practices which are:

• Comprehension: the extent to which the students understand.
• Volume: the time students spend reading each day
• Challenges: the difficulty and complexity of the text they encounter.

During the talk, she explained the benefit of imbibing a good reading habit with the following points:

• Reading contributes to college and career readiness
• Reading closes reading gaps
• Reading helps students to read more and better.
• Reading impacts vocabulary exposure

She concluded her talk by encouraging students to take Ben Carson as an example who was a laidback pupil whose turnaround could be traced to a reading habit instilled in him by his single and illiterate mother, and how Carson rose to become one of the best neurosurgeons and bestselling author. The visit thus gave more insight on why the students need to read more to become better in life.

The programme was brought to an end after an interactive session with the students and closing prayer by Mr. Sunday Egbowon and a photo session.

Further Action

The team had a brief discussion with the school counsellor and the coordinator of the literary club intimating them about our foundation, to encourage their students to take part in the Modern Shakespeare competition and give room for a subsequent visit in other to establish the 16/16 Challenge and spelling competition.