Workshops such as rapping, drama and poetry – during the ‘Step on the Red Carpet!’ event, all sorts of things will be organised for the VMBO students to engage with language. “I want to show them that the world of words is much bigger than just books and spelling,” says rapper Kim Lee Wong, one of the workshop leaders.
Raps
Every year, during National Book Week, Step on the Red Carpet takes place for secondary school students. The event aims to introduce students to creative ways of using language. Initiator Peggy Alderse Baas believes it is an event The Netherlands desperately needs. Language is in decline, but we want to motivate students and show them that language can be used in many different ways.
Rap activities take place at 12 locations throughout the city. These include the Van Abbemuseum, CKE, Effenaar and the Dynamo concert hall. At the latter, students get a lesson in rapping. Rapper Kim Lee Wong often gives language and rap workshops and knows how to inspire young people. “My aim is not to make everyone here a rapper, but to show them that everything they do is a language. From TikTok to films, everything is made through language”. The class aims to show that language can be fun and that you can experiment with it.
The organisation behind the event is training workshop teachers and authors on how to get students to pay attention for three-quarters of an hour. “We know from research that with these students you have to make the lessons particularly interactive so that they find it interesting enough to pay attention,” says Peggy.
Comments
During Kim Lee Wong’s lesson, the students were asked to be less nervous and more confident. Wong immediately put them to work by dividing the students into two groups and having them compete. The students had to take turns running up to Wong when he said a word, such as ‘travel’.
Then they had to tap his hand and say a rhyming word. The students were initially not very keen but ended on a more positive note. “I didn’t like the lesson at first, but I found it quite funny,” said one of the students. Wong’s lesson had a message: ‘Your fears are not your identity. Dare to be bigger than your fear”.
Intiative
The ‘Step on the Red Carpet!’ initiative is being organised annually in a growing number of cities. This is the eighth edition in Eindhoven. There are 120 activities in which 900 pupils play with the Dutch language. This day is an incentive for students to get involved with the language, and the project continues at school,’ says Alderse Baas.
Source: Studio040.nl
Translated by: Anitha Sevugan
