Reading Room

Our Mission

Our goal of the Reading Room Program is to increase the English literacy of children living in Sri Lanka by helping them lay down a stronger foundation. English is a world-wide medium spoken by 2 billion people across the world. We hope our program will allow students to be able to use their newfound English skills and abilities to attain a starlit future.

Overview

Learning a second language takes time, dedication, and hard work. English is a language built around rules and exceptions which can be hard for new learners to wrap their head around. However, the payoff is priceless. Learning English opens new doors for life changing opportunities and experiences that would’ve never been possible before. The English language is built in such a way that it has many different parts which build upon each other. Therefore being fluent doesn’t mean being good at just writing or speaking, you must be able to master all aspects because you can’t have one without the others. We have identified six different pillars of the English language that build fluency: Reading, Writing, Comprehension, Listening, Speaking, and Grammar. With help from many volunteers, students, and teachers we hope we can achieve our ultimate goal to support Sri Lankan students in all of these areas. With the kick-off of this project, we will begin to develop and hone these skills.

Our Plan

Building these skills will be no easy task. Our current plan is to use in class and online libraries to work on reading, comprehension, and pronunciation. These will be paired with vocabulary, speaking practice, fun projects and more. Over time we will develop a syllabus with the ability to strengthen all six identified pillars of English. Another integral part of learning we have integrated into our plan is live lessons. By allowing students in the United States to read to students in Sri Lanka and engage with each other we are able to captivate students and make lessons more interactive.

We conducted our first Zoom remote Reading Room on September 6, 2020. Below are few photos from that session.