5 indications of *MLP’s positive imapct on my students



Introduction

           The results of the Arab Reading Index, released during the Knowledge Summit in December 2016 in Dubai, revealed that, on average, the Arab citizen reads around 17 books and 35 hours per year. For Northeast Africa, Egypt led the pack with 89% (64 hours and 27 books per individual per year), followed by Sudan with 43% (33 hours and 14 books), and Libya with 23% (18 hours and 10 books). Morocco, meanwhile, led the Maghreb region countries with a score of 87% (57 hours and 27 books), followed by Tunisia with 70% (47 hours and 22 books), and Algeria with 51% (36 hours and 17 books).  https://www.prnewswire.com . Yet , despite the aforementioned reassuring results, I can personally state that people including students and teachers do not read. In this article, I would like to shudder the gloomy black attitude of some people who  work day and night to persuade us that it is useless to try to make Moroccans take up the habit of reading. To that end, I would like to share 5 indications during 2018/2019 academic year in my school. But first and foremost and on behelf of all my students, I should thank from the bottom of my heart Mrs. Barb Mackraz, the founder of Morocco Library Project, simply because without her tireless efforts, all this would not have taken place; students could not have developed their reading and writing skills, practiced their English language or broadened their imagination and creativity. Thanks to MLP, a new wave of hope, love and knowledge is crashing against the shore of despair and ignorance spraying a message
      
1. More than 30 students who have never read a book in their lives managed to read this year at least  two books ( in English). Twelve other students who have already read some books some point in their lives  have successfully read more than  ten novels and various other genres. Most of these students have written book reviews and given presentations before their peers sharing with them their reflections and thoughts. Other fewer students have been reading almost a book per week during the whole school year.
Mrs. Barb's visit to Ibn Sina high school
2015/2016

      2.       About 20 students managed to actively participate in “literature Circles” project which needed 
Literature Circles 
    endurance and perseverance from their part. Amazingly, these students showed a great degree of interest, love and eagerness to reading books. They have even been meeting under my supervision almost every week to analyse, discuss and reflect on the bookss’ themes, topics and issues.
Students analysing and sharing their reflections on
 the book being read


    3.       Kaoutar Lakhr, a 14-year-old common core student, won the first award of the MedStoryWriting contest which was organized by Rooted Everyday Foundation. Kaoutar is one of those students who started reading books in English this year thanks to these activities and of course the generous support of Morocco Library Project.

     4.        Another indication is EnvironmentalChange Makers project which aimed mainly at promoting students' awareness and knowledge on various environmental issues. Indeed, about 24 students could read different books on different topics. They worked in groups, did research using those resources and outstandingly  came up with wonderful rich presentations.


Getting resources to do research on
various topics on environment
      5.       Reading club in my school invited poets and writers in Arabic and Amazigh languages as guest speakers. In the beginning, the organizing committee was afraid and worried about whether students would attend their presentations or not. Surprisingly, a great number of them attended and enthusiastically interacted with our guests.  

Conclusion

The hypothesis that Arab people do not read by nature is totally Fallacious . However, research should systematically examine what makes them read less in comparison with other nations across the world. Certainly, many variables and factors are behind that low readership. To my mind though, I can venture and claim that the two main reasons are lack of quality appealing books and absence of effective ongoing guidance.
·         MLP : Morocco Library Project  https://www.moroccolibraries.org/


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