Oxford Story Tree

Reading programmes are synonymous with innumerable stacks of children's books, from which students derive key information, such as author, illustrator and publisher through a largely efferent reading process. It will not come as a surprise to find children picking up a book, filling out the book report and returning it to the shelf without even reading the story. This poignant death of joyful reading is an unfortunate outcome of monotonous, externally-rewarding reading programmes. 

Thus, I began to look into various types of reading approaches such as narrow reading, extensive reading and intensive reading. The students of SJKT Ladang Yam Seng have been exposed to narrow reading through the graded Peter & Jane series since 2018. Consequently, their reading fluency saw a significant upward trajectory. However, their interest still could not be captivated to the fullest potential. Students still read the books as a means to achieve a target number of stickers. The genuine joy of being captivated by a book was still missing. 

Hence, I found the Oxford Story Tree series. They are a graded book series with simple yet engaging storylines. Currently, we have sets 1-3, which have rudimentary vocabulary and sentence structures. This ease of content enables students to read the stories with little difficulty and enjoy the plots. 

Fortunately, the beautiful themes of our classrooms offered a perfect background for digital book reviews. 

By M. Kasvini,
Head of English Panel

SJKT Ladang Yam Seng