 to Classroom Resources
This lecture was recently presented by Wendy at the Children's Book Council of Australia 6th National Conference in Perth. She was invited to speak on the subject "Keeping them Reading in Upper
Primary".
What can I do? What can I be?
Part One: Exploring the World Through Books
The problem with asking someone like me about how to keep kids reading is that it suggests I write with this sort of worthy purpose in mind. In fact, for me, the protagonist and the target audience tend to be blurred: I write for the kid in the story, who in one way or another is always me. I'm also never completely sure what age a book is supposed to be for. I write the story as I see it, and usually leave it for other people to decide what reading level it's ended up.
My thoughts are therefore based on the letters and comments I get from readers and their parents, on experiencing dyslexia in my own family as well as in my former occupational therapy practice — but most of all, on the memories of the reader I was at 10 or 12. That child read for the same reasons I read and write now: to explore; to discover what happens; to try and understand what life means.
At all ages we read for variety of reasons: entertainment and escapism, information and peer conformity; to broaden our horizons or reinforce our own identity. To keep kids reading in upper primary, we also need to acknowledge the special needs of this age. Perched between young childhood and early adolescence, their literary needs are also often transitional between the teenage search for identity and the younger child's enjoyment of craziness, grossness and word play. All of those can still be relevant, and there's a lot to be said for the theory that as long as they're reading something, let' s not worry about its quality — but it's my belief that when we're hoping to inculcate a life-long habit of reading, strong narrative and strong characters are more often the key.
They are, after all, the essence of story. If you want to find out what happens, and care who it happens to, you simply have to keep turning those pages. So it's not just action — characters need to be real enough that the child can identify with them. There's no formula, but at some point the reader needs to recognise something, not so much in the characters' lives as in their minds or hearts. Only if, for however briefly, you can think, 'Yes, that's me!' will you experience what the character experiences, learn what he learns. Which is surely at the very core of why we all read.
This is an age of great dreaming, when children's feet are on the ground but their heads in the skies — a state that we could all be encouraged to return to from time to time! Their own potentialities and the world's possibilities have been opened wide by their increasing knowledge and skills, and not yet crushed by realities. Life's big questions — Who will I be? What will I do? — are wide open to be explored.
However, although reality usually hasn't impinged on their own dreaming, they are becoming increasingly aware of the reality of the world around them. They want to explore it in the books they read, and they want that exploration to be treated with respect. In a Sydney bookshop recently, I met a mother bewailing the fact that her year 7 daughter was not yet reading adult books. The culture that demeans age-appropriate literature for kids, is treading a fine line with demeaning kids themselves. Let them explore the subjects that set them on fire, that are relevant to their own lives now; let them explore relationships and broaden their horizons at a level they're comfortable with. Read books that they enjoy now and they'll have the rest of their lives to explore the classics of adult literature. Force feed Patrick White at 12 and they may never read for pleasure again. You notice I said force feed: if they get a kick out of reading something difficult, even if they miss much of the meaning, it's not such a bad thing to add to their compendium of self knowledge: 'I am someone who reads books that adults find difficult.' Or, 'I am so cool I read Dolly fiction.' But we can always offer the books that are likely to be more meaningful for them, as well as offering permission for something I still find very difficult to do: not to finish a book they're not enjoying. There are so many books in the world, and it's frustrating enough to realise we'll never read them all. No need to make it worse by finishing the ones that haven't been written for us.
Part of the 'us' that develops with the wider interest in the world around them, is a sense of compassion. Kids at this age often experience an early sense of idealism that may be lost with the self-interest of puberty but returned to in later adolescence or early adulthood.
go to Part Two: Finding the Key
|
