What a good reader can do
NQT Reading Survey Shazia
NQT Reading Survey Amy
NQT Reading Survey Harriett
Teachers’ reading survey
Children’s perceptions of themselves as readers
Case study upper primary: Group reading Rebound
Rebound by Kwame Alexander is the third in a series of verse novels about basketball with The Crossover and Booked. Joy Buttress is working with a group of three girls and three boys drawn from two Year 6 classes who are familiar with this verse novel. Starting with pages 61–62, a comic strip double page, Joy wants to explore the writer’s craft with the group:
- the issues the author raises.
- how his writing makes you feel.
She focuses on thinking questions (see Chapter 8) as this group are very capable of going beyond the literal. Joy draws their attention to the double page comic strip section where Charlie, the central character, is imagining he is a basketball ace. Joy asks the group ‘Can you remember at what part of the story this was?’ and in the conversation that follows, continues probing and extending their answers, challenging at times to help them make their ideas clear.
Grace: It was when Charlie … he imagined himself playing it … very good, but in reality…
Joy: What was the reality?
Grace: The fire alarm went off and he slipped and he had to go in the ambulance with his friend.
Hussain: … and the sirens went off … he remembers sirens… he doesn’t like them because it reminds him of when he dad died… and the ambulance…
Joy: How is Charlie feeling at this point in the story?
Abraham: Devastated.
Joy: Oh, devastated… say something more about that…
Abraham: … he had missed the shot.
Joy: Was he devastated about anything else? Anything else in his life not going well?
Brooklyn: Basketball.
Joy: Basketball at this point is not going well, anything else?
Maryam: I think that’s only part of it. [To Brooklyn] I’d like to challenge you. He was living his own fantasy so he was like really happy that he was able to go for the goal – to get the ball and aim straight for the dunk and even though he missed I don’t think he remembers it… he remembers what they did together and everything they did on the courtyard together matters more than anything.
Joy: I think Maryam is talking about this moment [points to the extract on the page] am I right, Maryam? In this moment he’s really happy, his basketball is going brilliantly… he’s visualising that in his head, but in the bigger picture, he is, what did you say?
Abraham: He’s devastated.
Joy: What do you think about that? Is that true to say?
Abraham: Every time, he does something bad then his Mum gets angry…
Joy: How would you describe the relationship between him and his Mum?
Hussain: It’s not a good relationship… after his dad died it’s not been a good relationship. Charlie’s always getting angry and she shouts at him a lot.
Joy: What do you think about that?
Hussain: Sometimes Charlie is wrong. Sometimes he’s not wrong.
Joy: What about his Mum?
Hussain: She’s just trying to help him but he’s taking it the wrong way.
Joy: Grace, what do you think?
Grace: I feel that because … he’s hurt, but he doesn’t want to speak about it… instead of talking about his problems he takes it out on his Mum.
Joy: What about his Mum, though, because his Mum’s the adult…
Hussain: He needs to go to her first, though…
Maryam: I don’t think she’s the only person to help him … I feel like he’s damaged and he’s disappointed his mother so he takes it out on her by becoming hostile towards her and not friendly towards her so it creates more tension with his mother so his mother gets angry but all she wants to do is love her son and make him feel just the way she’s feeling right now, which is just what’s happening right now, but at the same time she feels worried because she wants a great future for him.
Abraham: His mother’s trying her best to like help him out but he doesn’t understand...
Joy: So they’re both feeling like that, is that what you’re saying Abraham, they’re both feeling like they’re hurting? That’s really difficult, though, isn’t it? Isn’t that difficult?
Brooklyn: Well he could talk to C.J. [his friend]
Joy: What do you think – we see this relationship between Charlie and his mother, it’s going wrong, isn’t it? It’s difficult, it’s challenging. What do you think Kwame Alexander could have done instead through the book? What different course of action could he have taken? How else could he have taken that relationship. Grace?
Grace: How… showing instead of making them have a sort of sour relationship, making them very more together…
Joy: Which do you think is more realistic? Is it realistic that they’re both having a difficult time – that they’re not good together. Do you think that’s what could happen in real life or do you think it more likely that the mother would… she’s got her stuff going on, hasn’t she and she’s not there for Charlie because she’s 32… what’s more likely to happen in real life do you think?
Abraham: I think the second one… where the mother is feeling very sad.
Joy: So you think that where they’re having a difficult time that’s more true to life?
Hussain: Why?
Joy: No right or wrong…tell me more..
Abraham: The thing about the Dad could be true but the thing about his mother and him, being angry.
Joy: Derbah, what do you think?
Derbah: I think it could be true… because they’re both angry and they can’t get along…
[long silence]
Joy: When you’ve got two angry people, what happens?
Derbah: It gets worse…
[laughter]
Grace: Based on own experiences, my Mum, she, like, she put her own problems aside so she could care about me so I don’t think the way he wrote it was they stayed on happily after that.
Maryam: I think that the way how he portrays it is true, but also I think it’s not true because maybe… they’re both hurting so they want… space and time alone… because it depends on how people take out their anger, because there’s so many different ways of taking out your anger and if I were Charlie and I had a passion for basketball I would go with Skinny and CJ [Charlie’s friends] and practise my basketball skills (they’re not all that good) erm.. and then I would enjoy my time with them and expressing my feelings with CJ and Skinny.
Joy: Why is Charlie struggling with basketball at this point? Hussain?
Hussain: Because he’s losing his confidence … because he’s missing shots.
Joy: But why is he losing confidence?
Hussain: His Dad… he’s missing his Dad…
Joy: tell me about his Dad.
Hussain: Because his Dad has died… because they used to play together …
Joy: So when he plays basketball, because he used to play with his Dad, it’s bringing back all of those memories about him and he’s finding that really difficult, and he overcomes that in the story, doesn’t he? Maryam?
Maryam: I think he’s carrying the burden on his shoulders so he finds it really difficult to express his love for basketball on the courtyard so it’s very difficult for him to go straight forwards when all he’s thinking about is his father and about what happened on…the 6th of March.
Brooklyn: I think the reason why he’s not doing well in basketball is he’s got a lot on his shoulders, like he’s arguing with his Mum.
Joy: That’s a really good point, he’s got too much going on. Now, just really quickly, because we have to stop soon, could you turn to page 152 because this is where we found out what happened to his dad.
Maryam: My favourite part.
Joy: Is it your favourite part?
Hussain: Yeah.
Maryam: Yeah because it has so much emotion in it.
Joy: It does have so much emotion, absolutely. So ... how does the poem, and the language Kwame Alexander uses, how does that convey Charlie’s emotions, because it’s so deep and so sad? Grace?
Grace: Like, it… he wrote it in a way that shows that he’s channelling all the emotions into one place.
Joy: How? How does he do that?
Brooklyn: it’s more like a story [than a poem like the rest of the book]
Grace: He puts capital letters … and there’s no… he put it all in one… there’s no speech, it’s just the whole thing…
Joy: Because it’s one long, is that what you’re saying, it’s one long train of thought? But how does he do that? He does have capital letters but what else?
Abraham: Short sentences.
Joy: Are there short sentences?
Group together: No… Yes...
Joy: Give me an example.
Abraham: “OKAY… it’s unfair… it’s just unfair…”
Maryam: I think it’s just associated with page… 76 …erm it’s kind of like his defeat all in one page… and it’s all that information just spiralling out … and now he’s hurt and he’s broken and “he was smiling” and now he isn’t …
Joy: It’s incredibly personal isn’t it? I can almost hear him reading it. How do you think that should be read aloud?
[Grace reads the first few lines aloud]
Joy: Ok I’m going to stop you there. There’s a lot of clauses there and commas, what’s the impact on you when you read it?
Derbah: There’s lots of feeling…
Abraham: it’s almost like his thoughts… he’s thinking…
Maryam: It shows trauma and like anger and all the emotions he’s getting out and on to the page and every time you read it, the capital letters just shout it out and all then all your anger you’re just taking it out on someone.
This group discussion is an authentic conversation between Joy and the children, where each builds on what the others have said, just like in an adult conversation. From the start the group build on each other’s comments about their feelings for the book and discuss their different opinions. They are not afraid to disagree with each other, and with Joy, because she has developed an environment where reciprocal conversation is welcomed and where she clearly respects the children’s views. At no point does it seem like she is asking questions to which the children should supply a ‘right’ answer. This extract shows more than a very impressive set of young people and their sensitive responses to a powerful verse novel. It reflects the teaching that has gone before and the environment that Joy has created to make such discussions possible, as Grace shows when she draws on her own experience to comment on events on the novel. Maryam is able to use the phrase ‘I’d like to challenge you...’ and the group often begin their responses with ‘I think’ or ‘I feel’ because Joy has modelled the language of thoughtful discussion. She uses teaching talk as outlined in Chapter 2 to stretch and strengthen the children’s use of the language of reflection and response.
References
Alexander, Kwame (2015) Crossover. Andersen Press. ISBN 9781783443673.
Alexander, Kwame (2016) Booked. Andersen Press. ISBN 9781783444656.
Alexander, Kwame (illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile) (2018) Rebound. Andersen Press. ISBN 9781783447206.