Perugia editorial team
PERUGIA – After Spoleto and Perugia, the meetings organized by the Network of Umbrian schools for the promotion of shared reading aloud continue, a project promoted by the Itet Aldo Capitini of Perugia which involves 60 teaching directors, comprehensive institutes and first and second secondary schools degree of the region.
After the first two events organized in Spoleto and Perugia in which around 300 teachers took part, the Network organized three other events again aimed at teachers and school managers of the Network’s schools, librarians and educators who collaborate with the schools. This is the calendar of meetings scheduled from 4.30pm to 7.30pm on 17 June in Terni (Maurizio Santoloci room of Arpa Umbria), on 18 June in Umbertide (Marcella Monini nursery school), on 19 June in Orvieto (conference room of Palazzo Coelli ).
These seminars too (registrations open on https://forms.gle/EGpiZywY1kkFwjQR9) are held by Federico Batini, professor at the University of Perugia, creator of the method and scientific director of the Network, and by Martina Evangelista of the Nausika association ( who takes care of the training events), LaAV national president, Unipg Masters teacher and reading expert. With this methodology, the participating educational institutions intend to promote the systematic and transversal use of shared reading aloud to be included in teaching at all levels of school.
«Judging by the pre-registrations, the initiative is enjoying success – explains Raffaella Reali, director of the Educational Directorate Second Circle “Di Vittorio” of Umbertide – and Tuesday’s appointment represents an important opportunity for the Upper Tiber valley and Umbertide in detail that boasts a long tradition in the didactic application of reading aloud. Over the years, specific projects have been carried out in collaboration with the “Parents together for…” association. Reading aloud is a practice that has involved all the schools in the club in a transversal way, from nursery to primary school, representing an element of continuity in educational and teaching planning.” The seminar on 18 June will be hosted in the “Rights Square” of the “Monini” nursery school, a multifunctional agora located at the entrance to the school inaugurated last year.
The objective is to encourage the development and strengthening of all skills functional to scholastic success, participation and educational success, reduce dropout and build a positive relational climate based on mutual recognition. «On this journey towards digitalisation, in this technological frenzy, it is important to rediscover the value of reading as nourishment for the soul», adds Antonella Meatta, head teacher of the Orvieto-Baschi comprehensive institute. «In the digital age we live in, where technological devices dominate much of our activities, reading seems to be an increasingly neglected activity. For this reason, our Institute has joined the “Network for shared reading aloud”, thus being able to benefit from valuable training meetings on this methodology”.
Experiences and research demonstrate that the method, if used correctly, offers important answers in equity and motivational, cognitive, understanding and relational terms. It is no coincidence that in many of the 60 schools in the Network, the methodology had already been introduced. «This teaching strategy has been implemented and promoted for some time in the “Jole Orsini” didactic direction of Amelia since the nursery school», explains the director Tiziana Lorenzoni for whom the founding element of the methodology is desire. «What is done willingly remains more imprinted and the attention is truly aroused only if there is a desire. Reading is a sign of life, a reminder, an opportunity for love, without always being sure of knowing first what you are going to love: it is a discovery.
And little by little the desire disappears under the pleasure, giving way to the passion for reading that we want to grow in boys and girls, nourishing it with the special relationship that is magically created when an adult reads aloud.” Reading, therefore, means establishing a relationship involving touch, sight and hearing. «You read with your whole body», adds principal Lorenzoni. «The experience of reading aloud transforms us, it is a vital adventure, in which we expect something beautiful and interesting from the other, in which we get excited. We chose to promote the project because we believe reading aloud an indispensable tool to “move” and “motivate” girls and boys towards active, emotionally colored reading.”
Federico Batini recalls: «The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now. Let’s look at students now, thinking about giving them the tools necessary to be competent adults in the future
