Enchanting: The Reading Aloud Contest for 6th Graders

By the age of 12, reading has long since become a part of everyday life. At the same time, reading well and understanding well remain an ongoing and ever-changing challenge—one that lasts a lifetime. This also applies to reading aloud well, where we can often notice how language has the power to enchant us. Readers can thus become enchanters! Around 20 children from classes 6a, 6b, and 6c embraced this magic at the end of 2022 and took part in the nationwide reading competition for sixth graders. The event was organized by the German Publishers and Booksellers Association.

 

Philian Merle represents Steinmühle at the city level

All the girls and boys gave compelling and moving readings, which were met with applause and admiration from their classmates in the audience as well as from the “juries,” consisting of teachers and, in some cases, fellow students. Only one person advances to the next round in this competition, whether it’s during the class reading or in the second round, which took place in early December and involved reading in front of all classmates in the grade. As the “school winner,” according to Frank Wemme, head of the lower secondary school, Philian Merle will “represent” Steinmühle in the next round at the city level in 2023. He was selected by the teachers’ jury in December—which was no easy decision, given the high quality of reading by all three “class winners,” including Aenna Arnold and Matteo Dörbecker.The school extends its heartfelt thanks to all the brave readers for taking part. Their participation is what made it possible for Steinmühle to compete in the first place.

Our photo shows the participants in the 6th-grade reading contest: (top row, from left) Antonia Mahnken, Fabian Preis, Till Kretschmann, Ben Borawski, Ben Templer, Arthur Böning (Class 6c), Sara Strempel, Lotte Schröder (Grade 6b), Anna-Lena Griesler (Grade 6c), Helena Taschner (Grade 6b). Bottom row, from left: Janna Gosejacob, Julia Hedoch (Grade 6c), Samri Wulf, Aenna Arnold (Grade 6a), Matteo Dörbecker (Grade 6b), Philian Merle, Ceysu Sevinc, Maja Böttcher (Grade 6c), Fenja Schlegel (Grade 6b).