Big Brother Mouse

18 August, 2012 - 19 August, 2012, Phou Khoun, Laos

Reading room workshop: When we set up village reading rooms, they're run by volunteers. These volunteers are eager to help people in their village, but they have no experience with books. They've probably never been in a library or reading room anywhere else. We bring them together for workshops, to share ideas about what makes a reading room successful. A primary goal of these workshops is to encourage them to read aloud, and to help them learn skills for doing so.

This event was sponsored by Planet Wheeler Foundation (Australia). Thank you!

Forty-one villages are nestled in the mountains of Phou Khoun, the district between Luang Prabang and Vientiane. They all have reading rooms, sponsored by Big Brother Mouse and run from the homes of volunteers, and 40 of the 41 volunteers came to our 2-day training workshop. Many had to walk for several hours or more in the summer heat, then traveled by road.

At the workshop, we taught the read-aloud techniques that we've introduced at other workshops. We interspersed games, to keep things lively: Number games and strategy games that teach useful skills, as well as being fun.

Then, the group split up and went to nearby villages to practice their new skills. Many volunteers were pleasantly surprised at how easily they could hold their audience's attention, by using the techniques they had learned.

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