First and Second Place for Lara Khatib in the Reading Contest

A great achievement for Lara Khatib from Class 6i in our International High School Program: At the end of November last year, she won the school-level reading competition, advanced to the next round—the city and district finals—and ultimately placed among the top competitors there as well.

One student each from the Steinmühlen classes 6a, 6b, 6c, and 6i competed in a reading contest in November, reported teacher Lisa Braun. Nilay Dedeoglu (6a), Leni Ochs (6b), Sophia Kirschning (6c), and Lara Khatib from 6i presented their readings. First, they read a passage of their own choosing from a novel of their choice; then, they had to read aloud for two minutes from a text they hadn’t chosen themselves. The audience evaluated the performances using rating sheets, focusing on reading technique, interpretation, and the choice of text passage. The participants enjoyed a great atmosphere and read before an interested and eager audience. Lara Khatib emerged as the winner of this round by a narrow margin.

 

A close call

Winning at the school level automatically qualified them to compete in the next round of the competition—the city/county finals on February 26. On that day, all the school winners gathered in the conference room of the building department to once again try to win over the jury, explains Lara’s German teacher, Laura Cubillas. And once again, the jury’s decision was a close call. However, this time it wasn’t Lara but another contestant who came out on top, and Lara was delighted with a very strong second-place finish. The jury explained that Lara, who recited her own text from the book *Emmi & Einschwein* by Anna Böhm, had truly missed the win by a hair’s breadth.

“I was so excited, especially after the jury had deliberated,” Lara recalls today. Some of her classmates had come along to support her and were rooting for her during her presentation.

Lara is taking it in stride that she missed the win by a hair: “I wasn’t really disappointed, because I also thought the other kids read beautifully. It was a wonderful experience for me.”

Steinmühle participates regularly in the annual reading competition and organizes activities on a regular basis through the German department to improve students’ reading skills.