Yes, I am a kind, compassionate soul. Now bugger off and leave me alone.
I have a new pet project.
For the last few Tuesday afternoons I've been going in to help my son's Grade 4 class with their reading. (Yeah yeah, I'm a regular Mother bloody Theresa.) Anyway, you get your usual mix of readers- the ones who recite Dickens in their spare time, the ones who can get by, and the others who would rather stick needles in their eyes.
There is one particular boy who can barely get through the most basic books. He's pretty much the 'trouble maker' in the class (Think Nelson off The Simpsons). He throws his shoe at his classmates heads for fun, and likes to trip over the teacher as he/she walks past. Yep he's a real charmer, but I feel really bad for the little bugger. When you find out what the blighter's been through it kind of makes sense why he is the way he is. The very least of it is being shifted from foster home to foster home.
Anyway, when it's his turn to do his reading it's not unusual to hear the other kids make comments about the "baby" books he has to read. You know the type- "Binky's day at the circus" and "let's help mummy". Yeah, sure, a 9-year-old boy really gives a shit about this. Now if we could find a book where Binky's pathetic arse falls into the lion enclosure and gets mauled to death I think we might get somewhere, but alas, alas.
Anyway, I asked kidlet if he would like it if I brought him in some comics to read instead. Would you believe that he'd never seen or heard of a comic book? *gasp* He was definitely interested though, so I went in and spoke to the teacher. He was hesitant, but finally agreed as nothing else they've tried seems to have worked with him. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find any suitable comics between yesterday and today (Lots of action and destructive boy stuff but small and manageable words. If anybody can direct me, I'd muchly appreciate it).
So, armed with Cat in the Hat (It was a risk, I know. Didn't want to patronise the kid, but was a definate improvement on Binky the fucking bear) I showed up to class.
Kid was doing what he usually does -tormenting the other kids by spraying them with water as they walked past the water bubblers. I told him I was still looking for the comics, but that I'd brought in some of my favourite books to read. Well, I couldn't believe it. The kid went into class for roll call and actually BEHAVED for 5 minutes, then came outside to do his reading, and actually READ 5 pages. Doesn't sound like much, but believe me, it is.
I don't want to get too excited but I'm really hoping we can improve his reading. Not entirely for unselfish reasons of course (he makes a great guinea pig for my teacher training). I'd really appreciate any suggestions anybody could throw me to make reading more interesting to him. One idea I have if I can organise it is to use the teacher staff room to cook up some biscuits or pizzas or something for his class. Kidlet will have to read the ingredients and instructions as we go along, and the added bonus will be that he's done something nice for the class (unless of course he slips in some laxatives or rat poison while I'm not looking).
I may be a little too optimistic at this stage, but I would definately appreciate some feedback and/or suggestions on how to interest him, or distract him from the fact that he is learning.
For the last few Tuesday afternoons I've been going in to help my son's Grade 4 class with their reading. (Yeah yeah, I'm a regular Mother bloody Theresa.) Anyway, you get your usual mix of readers- the ones who recite Dickens in their spare time, the ones who can get by, and the others who would rather stick needles in their eyes.
There is one particular boy who can barely get through the most basic books. He's pretty much the 'trouble maker' in the class (Think Nelson off The Simpsons). He throws his shoe at his classmates heads for fun, and likes to trip over the teacher as he/she walks past. Yep he's a real charmer, but I feel really bad for the little bugger. When you find out what the blighter's been through it kind of makes sense why he is the way he is. The very least of it is being shifted from foster home to foster home.
Anyway, when it's his turn to do his reading it's not unusual to hear the other kids make comments about the "baby" books he has to read. You know the type- "Binky's day at the circus" and "let's help mummy". Yeah, sure, a 9-year-old boy really gives a shit about this. Now if we could find a book where Binky's pathetic arse falls into the lion enclosure and gets mauled to death I think we might get somewhere, but alas, alas.
Anyway, I asked kidlet if he would like it if I brought him in some comics to read instead. Would you believe that he'd never seen or heard of a comic book? *gasp* He was definitely interested though, so I went in and spoke to the teacher. He was hesitant, but finally agreed as nothing else they've tried seems to have worked with him. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find any suitable comics between yesterday and today (Lots of action and destructive boy stuff but small and manageable words. If anybody can direct me, I'd muchly appreciate it).
So, armed with Cat in the Hat (It was a risk, I know. Didn't want to patronise the kid, but was a definate improvement on Binky the fucking bear) I showed up to class.
Kid was doing what he usually does -tormenting the other kids by spraying them with water as they walked past the water bubblers. I told him I was still looking for the comics, but that I'd brought in some of my favourite books to read. Well, I couldn't believe it. The kid went into class for roll call and actually BEHAVED for 5 minutes, then came outside to do his reading, and actually READ 5 pages. Doesn't sound like much, but believe me, it is.
I don't want to get too excited but I'm really hoping we can improve his reading. Not entirely for unselfish reasons of course (he makes a great guinea pig for my teacher training). I'd really appreciate any suggestions anybody could throw me to make reading more interesting to him. One idea I have if I can organise it is to use the teacher staff room to cook up some biscuits or pizzas or something for his class. Kidlet will have to read the ingredients and instructions as we go along, and the added bonus will be that he's done something nice for the class (unless of course he slips in some laxatives or rat poison while I'm not looking).
I may be a little too optimistic at this stage, but I would definately appreciate some feedback and/or suggestions on how to interest him, or distract him from the fact that he is learning.