Reading support

Until recently I was a volunteers reading supporter at out village primary school. The main object is to listen to children reading aloud helping them as necessary. At first I was with 7 and 8 year olds. As one might expect they varied enormously from fluent to halting. One problem I found after a year or two is that they tended to read from the same small selection of books. I became very bored with “Chicken Licken”.

When the headteacher enquired I mentioned this rather jokingly but she took me very seriously and transferred me to the upper school 10-11 year old children. Their reading choices were very diverse. The reading standard was quite high. I never missed an opportunity to emphasise how important reading is during adult life not to mention the pleasure from reading novels. Roald Dahl is clearly a favourite author and I was able to say I had visited his home and the garden shed where he wrote. The “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series was another favourite. One issue with this is its American origin so naturally it is Americanised English. Mostly this wasn’t a problem but occasionally I was called upon. I had to explain that American English is slightly different while the school context is often much different.

As an aside I sometimes wonder if American English will slowly diverge or whether TV/film etc will bring us closer to American English. It seems likely America will take in more Spanish words as the Hispanic population increases ( despite Trump )

Roald Dahl posed a somewhat different issue. His jokes are just a bit sophisticated and seem to be lost on young children. Incidentally it is quite apparent from my grandchildren that their sense of humour changes. 5 year old Ben is fond of “knock-knock” jokes but completely misses the point and makes up his own surreal versions Jokes I find funny are completely wasted until at least 10..

Incidentally I was told the following scatological joke by a pupil.

Q What do you call a wizard with diarrhoea?

A Harry Plopper

Ahem!

Over the course of several years I found it necessary to keep a notebook. Who read, name etc. Easily the most charming was Jashan, a Sikh girl, who was so enthusiastic that she positively pestered me so she could read more. She was also very talkative and I seemed to have a full family history over our sessions.

Although not a representative cross section when I enquired what they wanted to do when they left education about half the boys wanted to be footballers. Many of the rest wanted to do something a favourite adult did with many seeking to follow in father’s footsteps. There did seem to be a science and technology thread. The outlier was a boy who claimed he wanted to be an all-in wrestler. The girls had a much more mature approach with medicine ( nurse, doctor) the top choice with teaching second..

For both sexes there was a clear wish to go into tertiary education. In an age where nearly 50% go to university this is a realistic ambition. It was good to see that academic attainment matters even at this age.