I spend one afternoon per week at the Queen Elizabeth Home for Children helping the children with their homework and their reading skills. Success comes in small steps, so I like to celebrate each one. Yesterday, I had two steps to celebrate!
The first one involved a group of six boys (ages 7 to 9). After sitting in a classroom all day, the last thing these boys want to do is to sit and read! They want to run and jump and play and create and explore, but most of them are significantly behind in school and need the extra help. I was happy to discover that they had received some new books that had been donated, and they wanted to hear the stories. I decided to try and make it as interactive as possible to keep them engaged, so I asked questions about what they thought would happen next or why a certain character acted in a particular way. They also had questions throughout, and we had several lively discussions. There were lots of giggles and big smiles. I hope that experience will spark more interest in reading in the future.
The second celebrated step was a big one. There is a girl (about 7 years old) who can only read a few words. I’m not even sure if she knows the full alphabet. I (and others) have tried to work with her, but I think she’s afraid of failure and refuses. Yesterday, something changed. She brought two books to me to read. I read the first one to her. Then she wanted it read again, but this time she took my finger and would point to each word that she wanted me to read. We made a little game of it. She’d run my finger quickly across the words, and I would read them fast. Or she’d run my finger slowly across the words, and I would read them very slowly. Then she would run my finger backwards over the words or would run my finger over the same word over and over again. I sat in amazement as she then tried to read the sentence that I had just read. After reading two books with her twice each, she ran off to play, but I could not help but smile. Just like the six boys, I hope that experience will spark an interest to read in the future.
