Reading Buddies: Potter, Rosen and the non-book-related stuff
For the latter part of last week, I was preoccupied with attending a wonderful Reading for Pleasure conference, organised by the fantastic Marilyn Brocklehurst, (separate post to come), organising a Take Over day for Children in Need, planning our enterprise project for the Christmas fair (a Dragon's Den style challenge for Years 5 & 6) and thinking about the thousand things that need considering for next week's residential trip. This is in addition to the usual amount of stuff that comes with being a parent and a teacher. The one thing that refuses to settle in my mind though, is that I missed reading with my reading buddy last week (conference) and will again next week (residential). We normally do it the next day, on the rare occasions it doesn't happen at the usual time - Wednesdays at 1.30pm - but last week it was impossible: he was on a school trip on the Thursday and it was Children in Need on Friday. Next week, I'm away all week. This has affected me much more than I imagined and has really made me appreciate, even more than I already did, what reading buddies are all about. Hint: it's not all about the reading.
In September 2016, a few children from each class were selected to have a reading buddy. These were children who weren't necessarily vulnerable or struggling readers, but mostly ones who were disengaged in the classroom or reluctant readers. I was given a boy in Year 3 whom I hadn't met before but instantly recognised; he was frequently seen at the table at the end of my corridor where children spent time during break and lunchtimes for 'thinking' about their behaviour choices. (Policy regarding this is currently being rewritten.)
In our first session, he was very quick to tell me that he was a 'free reader' - a term I have loathed since my teacher training year. He desperately tried to avoid reading to me, distracting me with conversations about every possible topic available to him. When he did read, I found that he was a great reader. His decoding was poor but his understanding of story and character, his intonation in speech, his way of using visual clues to help him with the decoding, and his ability to bring real-life experiences to what he was reading were excellent.
Over the course of last year, we quickly bonded, initially over our love of Harry Potter. We would devour the wonderfully illustrated versions by Jim Kay and take it in turns to read randomly selected passages. His knowledge of the stories, mainly from his Potter-obsessed older sister and the films, meant that he could guess some of the more complex words he faced, which in turn helped to build his confidence. Some weeks we wouldn't read at all. We would go on Pottermore and discover which houses we were in, choose our wands from Ollivander's and summon our Patronuses. I already knew I was a Slytherin and he was adamant that he would be a Hufflepuff. Luckily he was, as I feared for some kind of existential crisis if he wasn't. The fifteen minutes I spent with him were quickly becoming one of my favourite parts of the week, and I knew it was the same for him too.
He would leap out of his seat when I went to collect him, run to his tray, grab his book and almost strut out of the room. And this is why I said right at the start that having a reading a buddy isn't all about the reading. It's about being made to feel special. It's about having an adult in the school, who isn't your teacher or TA, who treats you differently in some way than everyone else. It's about having some one-to-one time where there is no expectation, no minimum requirements, no pressure, no judgement - just time to talk and read and share.
When this year school year started, I insisted that I kept him as my buddy. It was just a given to both of us that we'd stay together. I still get the same reaction when I go to collect him but now there are the occasional pleas of other children who want the same. We're now reading Uncle Gobb and the Dread Shed by Michael Rosen and I can't think of a more perfect book for both of us. Firstly, it is one of the funniest children's books I have ever read. We laugh so much as we read it, although I barely get a look in reading these days - it's almost all him. We also get a lot out of it individually; for me, it's reading about the pointless, nonsensical tasks and procedures passed on from government (or Gobb) and the teacher frustration at having to follow them. For him, it's Malcolm, a boy trying to do his best in a school system that he doesn't quite fit in to, despite his best efforts. Everything about our fifteen minutes together a week just works.
So, that's why the one thought that keeps coming back as I'm packing for Derbyshire and making sure that everything at home is left just so, so the husband and kids can survive the week without me, is how I can make up for missing our time next week. That's why I've just ordered my own copy of Uncle Gobb to be delivered tomorrow so that I can record me reading some of it and talking about it for it to be played for him on Wednesday at 1.30pm. It's not perfect but it shows how important our time together is, that I take it seriously, that I enjoy it and that it matters to me, and that's a big part of what having a reading buddy is all about.
If you haven't got them in your school, please consider it. What started off as a name on a list and moaning about missing 15 minutes of my precious PPA has turned into something really lovely.
In September 2016, a few children from each class were selected to have a reading buddy. These were children who weren't necessarily vulnerable or struggling readers, but mostly ones who were disengaged in the classroom or reluctant readers. I was given a boy in Year 3 whom I hadn't met before but instantly recognised; he was frequently seen at the table at the end of my corridor where children spent time during break and lunchtimes for 'thinking' about their behaviour choices. (Policy regarding this is currently being rewritten.)
In our first session, he was very quick to tell me that he was a 'free reader' - a term I have loathed since my teacher training year. He desperately tried to avoid reading to me, distracting me with conversations about every possible topic available to him. When he did read, I found that he was a great reader. His decoding was poor but his understanding of story and character, his intonation in speech, his way of using visual clues to help him with the decoding, and his ability to bring real-life experiences to what he was reading were excellent.
Over the course of last year, we quickly bonded, initially over our love of Harry Potter. We would devour the wonderfully illustrated versions by Jim Kay and take it in turns to read randomly selected passages. His knowledge of the stories, mainly from his Potter-obsessed older sister and the films, meant that he could guess some of the more complex words he faced, which in turn helped to build his confidence. Some weeks we wouldn't read at all. We would go on Pottermore and discover which houses we were in, choose our wands from Ollivander's and summon our Patronuses. I already knew I was a Slytherin and he was adamant that he would be a Hufflepuff. Luckily he was, as I feared for some kind of existential crisis if he wasn't. The fifteen minutes I spent with him were quickly becoming one of my favourite parts of the week, and I knew it was the same for him too.
He would leap out of his seat when I went to collect him, run to his tray, grab his book and almost strut out of the room. And this is why I said right at the start that having a reading a buddy isn't all about the reading. It's about being made to feel special. It's about having an adult in the school, who isn't your teacher or TA, who treats you differently in some way than everyone else. It's about having some one-to-one time where there is no expectation, no minimum requirements, no pressure, no judgement - just time to talk and read and share.
When this year school year started, I insisted that I kept him as my buddy. It was just a given to both of us that we'd stay together. I still get the same reaction when I go to collect him but now there are the occasional pleas of other children who want the same. We're now reading Uncle Gobb and the Dread Shed by Michael Rosen and I can't think of a more perfect book for both of us. Firstly, it is one of the funniest children's books I have ever read. We laugh so much as we read it, although I barely get a look in reading these days - it's almost all him. We also get a lot out of it individually; for me, it's reading about the pointless, nonsensical tasks and procedures passed on from government (or Gobb) and the teacher frustration at having to follow them. For him, it's Malcolm, a boy trying to do his best in a school system that he doesn't quite fit in to, despite his best efforts. Everything about our fifteen minutes together a week just works.
So, that's why the one thought that keeps coming back as I'm packing for Derbyshire and making sure that everything at home is left just so, so the husband and kids can survive the week without me, is how I can make up for missing our time next week. That's why I've just ordered my own copy of Uncle Gobb to be delivered tomorrow so that I can record me reading some of it and talking about it for it to be played for him on Wednesday at 1.30pm. It's not perfect but it shows how important our time together is, that I take it seriously, that I enjoy it and that it matters to me, and that's a big part of what having a reading buddy is all about.
If you haven't got them in your school, please consider it. What started off as a name on a list and moaning about missing 15 minutes of my precious PPA has turned into something really lovely.
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