Read to Reconstruct

In “Reading with Young Children” training, Jumpstart Corp Members are constantly told that children can be paying attention, even if they seem like they are not. During this training, I accepted this research, but often found myself doubting the attentiveness of my Jumpstart friends during the more rowdy reading sessions. 

One day in particular, I was reading Peter’s Chair during Read for Enjoyment, when one of my Jumpstart friends spent the entire fifteen minutes distracting her peers from the story.  I tried all of the classroom management techniques, saying her name to engage her in the story, using large hand gestures to captivate her attention, even touching her arm slightly to have her shift her focus. I was convinced that, not only did she keep herself from learning the content of Peter’s Chair, but that every other child had also tuned me out.

The following session, I entered the classroom with a slight feeling of dread.  I knew my Jumpstart friends would not remember any part of Peter’s Chair, much less be able to answer open-ended questions about the content. The child who had been so distracting in the previous session acted extremely tired, so the challenge of the day became having her participate more, instead of distracting others less.

When I would address questions to her, she would just look at me and sigh.  To my surprise, though, the other students remembered Peter, Willie, and Peter’s sacred chair very well. We worked our way through the story, and the students reconstructed the plot through observations and answers to my questions.  But then we arrived at the page where Peter tries to sit in his chair, and none of my Jumpstart could remember the punch line. 

I knew they knew the answer, so I tried rephrasing my question to jog their memories of Peter’s Chair.  To my delight, when I repeated my inquiry “what was wrong when Peter tried to sit in his chair,” my Jumpstart friend who had been completely quiet, and was so distracting during Peter’s first read through, stated loud and clear: “HE DON’T FIT.”

Since she stated those three emphatic words, I have no longer doubted her attentiveness, and am experimenting with different methods to keep her hands busy so her mind can be even more engaged.  I have learned to focus on the content of the Jumpstart curriculum, and less on how I think the students are receiving the information. 

~Deborah Carey

Corps member

Team Opportunity