On the 4th October and 22nd November we had the absolute pleasure of taking part in the primary school reading partnership event and it was a rewarding experience for both us and the primary school students.
It was especially heartwarming for us to see our passion for English translated into those much younger than us, truly consolidating the fact that English is a subject which can be universally appreciated by those of all ages.
On both days we prepared academically enriching sessions for the primary school students which ranged from poetry and prose analysis, decoding meanings of unfamiliar words and delving into the actual process of creative writing. In particular we taught the students techniques on how to break down words into their prefixes and suffixes to take an educated guess on their definitions and aided them in understanding the meanings of texts with “nonsense” words. This allowed them to sharpen their comprehension skills and instilled them with the confidence in their ability to tackle a passage with unfamiliar words.
Additionally, given that many of the students were preparing for their eleven plus exams, we especially felt as though this was an invaluable technique to add to their skill set allowing them to have the tools to grapple with an understanding of challenging texts in the exam!
After having supported them in developing ways of analysing texts, we felt as though this provided them with the core building blocks to be able to write wonderfully imaginative stories and poetry of their own which they did at the end of each session!
After discussions with various students we were stunned to discover one of them had even been inspired to begin writing his own novel after the first reading partnership event! Therefore, we felt that the event did not only academically boost the students yet also demonstrated to them how english is much more than just a subject at school but an outlet for expressing your inner emotions and imagination. We could clearly see their passion for English ignite over the course of the two sessions and it was delightful to witness our work with them aligning with the core goal of teaching: to inspire.
Annissa, NLCS Student
