(Introducing ourselves to the kids. Pic cred: Ms. Gurusinghe)

Reading stories to 4th graders

When I was in 4th grade, my grade had a session where we read stories with some 10th graders. It was VERY intimidating at the time to sit next to these seemingly much older and wiser students and read with them.

As I grew older, eventually in about 10th grade, I became the one reading to younger students – I realized then that there wasn’t much of a difference between 4th and 10th grade, and my illusions of 10th graders being infinitely smart and mature were quite incorrect!

So now, as a DP2 (12th grade) student, I was quite excited to join Mr. Poulus on his idea of reading to children in younger grades. As aforementioned, I had already done this once before – and while it was a bit exhausting to keep the (VERY short) attention span of a group of kids, I enjoyed talking to them and reading stories quite a bit.

Prior to actually reading to these 4th graders, my group (consisting of Sasindu, Filip, Huirong, Chathil, and myself) had to have discussions with Ms. Stella on the way we will carry this event out. The main discussion consisted of first and foremost – setting a date. Although at first, it was a bit challenging to sort out a date that was available for every party involved, we were able to manage this. Our Reading Buddies group had to talk with teachers of our HL/SS block on Thursday the 15th (Mr. Lockwood and Mr. Russo) about potentially missing certain class content. Thankfully, we were able to sort this out and get permission from the teachers to carry out Reading Buddies during this block.

Then, we had to plan the structure of this reading session, and after consolidating within our group and with Ms. Stella, we decided on small groups of 4th graders per person. Ms. Shyamee from the primary school library suggested “reading stations” in which each DP2 student in the group reads one book.

(Sasindu and I introducing the book on King Midas. Pic cred: Ms. Gurusinghe)

We talked about whether there will be partnering up and decided on certain solo readers and some partners. I believe that the planning and initiative leading up to the actual Reading Buddies session was done quite efficiently.

On the day of, we split into two groups – I was paired with Sasindu – and together we read to a group of about 10 or so children a few stories. First, we read a story about King Midas, and the children seemed to really enjoy it! They got very engaged with the story, asking questions and reacting very openly to what was happening in the story. Relating a bit to our L and L classes, Sasindu and I talked a bit with the kids about what the moral of the story was and how they felt about that.

Since we had some time left, we read them another story – this time one on a Monkey King, which happened to be a traditional Sri Lankan story. They quite liked this story too, even I found it very exciting to engage with the kids during this story!

All in all, I think that taking part in this Reading Buddies session was quite great, it was quite nice to talk with the younger students (which made me miss primary school) and I think that they really liked the stories. I look forward to reading to them again!

(Letting the kids decide which book they want to read first. Pic cred: Ms. Gurusinghe)

 

Learning outcomes:

• LO1 – Strength & growth 
  • I think that at first, it was a bit difficult to get the 4th graders to properly engage in conversations – as they seemed quite shy. But eventually, we were able to communicate properly with them and have a fun time doing so. 
  • I definitely saw some growth in my ability to talk and make friends with others of a much different age range, due to the fact that my friends and even my little brother are at an age where they find it easy to relate to me.
  • It was quite challenging at times to keep the reading focus of the group! This actually wasn’t a bad thing, because everyone in the group was so engaged – however, I definitely did see some growth in my communication and leadership in a discussion in that sense. 

• LO4 – Working collaboratively with others
  • There was a lot of collaboration behind-the-scenes and during the Reading Buddies session. We had to talk quite a lot with Ms. Stella, Ms. Shyamee, and as a group in order to organise this event.
  • Furthermore, Sasindu and I had to talk quite a bit in order to sort out how we will carry out reading to the kids. There was a lot of collaboration going on in the sense of taking turns reading, what books to choose, etc. 

• LO5 – Showing perseverance and commitment
  • It took a long time of planning in order to carry this session out. However, for next time it should be much more efficient as we know exactly what must be done. Thus, perseverance is shown in the way we plan to carry these Reading Buddies sessions out in the future.