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BORDER CROSSINGS
Nancy FawleyHead of User ServicesVirginia Commonwealth University in Qatar
collaborating with faculty and administration to integrate reading activities into freshmen
orientation
VCUQatar
VCUQatar
• Established in 1998• Design curriculum• 40 faculty• 210 students
– 55% Qatari– 6% male– from 29 countries
How this relates
• Increasing number of international students • Students who are residents or citizens but
speak English as a second language• Students with little to no experience using
libraries and their resources
Reading activity for incoming freshmen
• Adapt the main campus’ activity to VCUQatar’s student population
• Introduce students to the academic and intellectual culture of college
Objective number one
• Introduce students to reading for pleasure in order to develop a habit of reading
Benefits of reading for pleasure
• Better reading comprehension, writing skills, vocabulary, grammar and spelling
• Helps to develop reading writing skills in a second language
Develop a culture of reading
• Arab culture is historically an oral culture• Information comes from wisdom, poetry,
songs and folk stories
Objective number two
• Introduce students to a librarian in order to forge a connection
• Students have little to no experience using a library
• Librarians in local schools play more of a role in policing the library
Objective number three
• Combine reading with an art and design-based activity to demonstrate that the two are not mutually exclusive
Objective number four
• Have the students work in groups in order for them to create bonds with their colleagues and benefit from the various levels of reading comprehension
Choosing the book
• Consider the culture and reading levels of the students
A reading program that worked for our students
• EFL students • Visual learners• Oral culture
Color: a history of the palette
• Students were divided into groups and assigned a color
• They then read the chapter that corresponded to their color
• Students met with their groups and wrote their own story of a color
• They created a skit and performed it at the end of the week
Did the activity meet the objectives?
Thank you