Falcons to be roped in for a week to promote reading in classrooms

The initiative will see 12 children reading aloud to one falcon.

To celebrate the upcoming UAE National Day, the country's national bird, the falcon, will lend an ear at story time to help students build confidence in reading.
Next month, five to six falcons will take the place of man's best friend in schools across the country, as part of the Reading Dogs UAE initiative.
The project sees dogs entering the classrooms so that students can read aloud to them, and the initiative primarily aims to improve reading fluency among children.
In a 2016 peer-reviewed article, Children Reading to Dogs: A Systematic Review of the Literature, researchers said that "reading to a dog may have a beneficial effect on a number of behavioural processes that contribute to a positive effect on the environment in which reading is practiced, leading to improved reading performance."
Karalynn Thomson, founder of Reading Dogs UAE, said the same theory can be applied to most human-animal interactions.
"Reading aloud to animals like this gives students confidence in a situation where they'd otherwise be nervous. Reading to peers or a teacher often leads to nerves and mistakes being made, but here, they feel like they are taking the role of the teacher and the falcon is not judging them."
During the week-long initiative, which will kick-start at the end of November, the sessions will last about three to four hours, with a maximum of 12 students reading to one falcon.
"Each student will read a couple of paragraphs each, and because the birds eyes are covered, they are very relaxed. Lots of parents have actually reported back saying the kids are reading more at home to soft toys and pets since we introduced dogs to the classroom. It's a good way to encourage students to take reading home. Introducing falcons this time brings with it a sense of cultural connect for the National Day," Thomson said.