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Wednesday, September 14, 2016

The literary festival celebration at Sengdhyen Lower Secondary School



The literary week is the biggest literary festival for the students of Bhutan and has provided a powerful platform to develop students’ passion and love for literature. The students learn through interesting events and innovative activities that mark the week. It is being celebrated in the 1st week of September every year with the aim to pay respect and gratitude to the works of literature laureates. Literature has always shown a greatest strength to conquer physical, emotional and intellectual aspects of humankind. Reading and writing are the primary contributions of literary feast. A literary festival usually features a variety of literary activities – quiz, debate, poem recitation, dramatization, etc.  The week long program is planned in the best way with wide range of activities to make the week meaningful, successful, enriching and of immense learning.
This year Sengdhyen Lower Secondary School has observed the week from 7th – 13th September 2016 with the following goals in common:
  • To instill the love for writing and reading.
  • To bind the young lover of literature together.
  • To infuse the importance of reading and writing.
  • To provide the platform to translate literature into real form.
The some of the activities that are designed for the weeklong literary festival are quiz, debate, poem recitation, nursery rhyme (lower classes), reading and departmental literature exhibition. 

Day 1

The literary festival for the year 2016 was kick-off with the welcome speech by the literary captain Ms. Dhan Lachi Rai, VIII A. She welcomed the principal, staff, students and participants with the Shakespearean quote “I will call for pen and ink and write my mind.”  She highlighted on the importance of the literary festival. She remarked the gathering that writing and reading can enhance the thinking capacity of brain and open neuron parts to showcase imagination, creativity, critical thinking, etc. She also assured that the wide range of literary activities for a week will boost up the writing and reading skills of the gathering. She urges everyone to do actively participate in the activities and make the literary festival wonderful and enjoy the world of fact, fiction and myth. 


The unfurling of literary festival banner
After the welcome speech, the literary banner was unfurled to officially declare start of the literary feast.
As a first activity for the festival, inter house quiz competition was conducted. The quiz competition was conducted on different fields of study like science, mathematics, humanities, art and visual, dzongkha and English. The participants of the quiz squeeze out their intellectual capacity to give their best performance.  About three hours long program was full of knowledge, enjoyable and wonderful in nature.

Day 2

On second day, inter house debate competition was organized. This is one of the most important activities which have diverse impact in the learning of the students. Debate develops skills and knowledge that will help students become a good debater in the future. It helps them develop their speaking skills and ability to express them verbally in front of a group, which builds confidence. It builds their critical listening skills and their ability to respond to what other people are saying.  Learning to debate can help children to develop their research skills as research is an important part of debating. Debate is one method for improving critical thinking and creativity of the human being. It also helps in improving the interpersonal relationship. 
 

The participants enthusiastically debated on the topic “skill is better than knowledge.” The debaters has done the great job in browsing through the different sources to rebuttal the opponent points and to validate their debating points. This shows the research skills of the student. The debate went very well and it was very interesting and successful one. 

Day 3

On day 3 of the literary festival, it was inter house poem recitation competition. This particular activity was designed for the literary week this year as recitation of poem is one of the important and effective modes of learning a language and appreciating a piece of literature. The famous educator Wei Shusheng said: “The sense of language has also been strengthened by reciting more”.  It is the basic means of training language ability. With its colossal impact on the learning for the students this program was conducted with following motives:
·         Poetry recitation is helpful for students to practice natural language and raise societal ability
·         Poetry recitation is an important and effective mode of learning English.
·         Poetry recitation opens venues for speaking and listening
·         Poetry recitation builds pliability in kids and adults
·         Poetry recitation fosters communal and expressive Learning.
·         Poetry recitation aid in team building process.

The six different houses have presented dramatic-poem recitation of different poems. The houses have done the great job to come up with the most presentable house presentation. Poem recitation has showcased the dramatization skills of the students.
Dramatic recitation-the Owl and the Pussy cat
Bumpa house presentation

Bumpa house recited the poem on “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” by   Edward Lear. Bumpa house have beautifully recited the poem with marvelous set of dramatization. The Owl and the Pussycat" features four anthropomorphic animals – an owl, a cat, a pig, and a turkey – and tells the story of the love between the Owl and the Pussy-Cat who marry in the land "where the Bong-tree grows" in the presence of turkey. 

Tlot-tlot, The highway man

Look for me by moonlight, watch for me by moonlight
The recitation of “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes was well presented by Dungkhar house. It is the story of unnamed highway man who is in love with Bee, a landlord’s daughter. It talks about how two lover sacrifices their life because of the jealous Ostler. 
Buddha's death
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Ramesh Chander Dutt’s poem “Buddha’s Death” was presented by khorlo house.

No more fear
William Shakespearean- No more fear


The poem “Fear no more” by William Shakespeare was presented by Meto house.


 
Over the hills and faraway-The daffodils
Thousand at a glance
“The Daffodils” by William Wordsworth was recited and dramatized by Pelyab house.



The recitation of poem “O Captain! My Captain” by Walt Whitman was well presented by Sernya house. 
O! Captain My Captain!
 The whole set of poem was easily understood from the dramatization of the house showcased.




Day 4


Gatey Tshering PP- reading the text
Chungsel Rigcho Lhamo PP
Very interesting program was conducted on 4th day of the literary festival. It was the reading competition among the students from class PP – III both in English and Dzongkha. This program was aimed to instill the value of reading and love reading. Reading is one of the fundamental skills that children need to build up from very small age. It helps in building the vocabulary and understanding. Learning to read is about listening and understanding as well as working out what’s printed on the page. A child who read more performs better in all facets of formal educations than those who don’t. 


Day 5

The Bhutanese artifacts
Model of Dzong
The departmental exhibition was held on the 5th day of the literary week. The exhibition is a great platform for the students to exhibit what they have learned and what they are good at, as well. It was found essential for the schools to organize exhibitions during the literary festival as it gives some chance for students in showcasing their talents. In an exhibition, students get a chance to apply or do the practical aspect of the things that they have learned in the classroom. The exhibition acts as a real opportunity for the students to implement the things that they have learned from schools. It is not enough for the students to learn the lessons from the textbooks, but they should be given adequate space and time for letting the inner talents get a platform to be showcased. The departmental exhibition is one avenue where they showcase their inner talents. With the above importance, the exhibition was organized among five different subject departments. 
The teachers and the students have done the marvelous job to come up with the best presentation of the exhibition show piece. The different models, facts and figures, scientific experiments, history, games and puzzle were the parts of exhibition. 


Day 6

The week long literary festival has successfully comes to an end on 13th September 2016 with awarding of the prizes for the various literary activities that has been conducted throughout the year and during literary week. The prizes were awarded for the various activities like inter house debate competition, quiz competition, extempore speech, lozey competition, etc. The prizes were also awarded to the best performer of the different literary activities.
This small and solemn occasion was conducted during the morning assembly.

Conclusion

The Literary Festival was a great opportunity for students to showcase their talent in various skills of reading, writing, speaking, listening with appreciation and love for the language. The events organized during literary activities were more enhanced and creative in their own way. It was a great success with maximum participation by our students which helped them in enhancing their varied skills. It has served as a greatest platform for the students to exhibit their literary talents.
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