When teaching kids with reading difficulties how to read, it doesn’t always have to be in a class-related environment. In fact, there are a wealth of skills that budding readers can learn outside of the class, especially how valuable reading can be in a real-world situation.
Our favorite teaching guru, Debbie Valette, in Boulder Colorado, takes time out to bring some of her readers out and about during the summer break, to see how they cope in the real world. She was in contact recently to let us in on how one of her summer lunch trips went.
Hi, I hope all is well with you! We’ve been having a great summer. I met with my two motivated summer readers yesterday. We met at a fancy restaurant called Q’s where we had the tasting menu: chilled pea soup with creme fraiche, trout on a bed of poblano hash with mole sauce, and a variety of yummy desserts. The girls especially liked the creme fraiche! (They said it tasted like ranch dressing!) The pea soup was a little challenging for them, but they loved everything else.
The lunch went splendidly – so many teachable moments. They learned new food-related words, how to calculate….
….a tip, what valet parking is, that sometimes you need to dress up, not to eat with your elbows on the table, etc. They asked me a lot of questions about the cost and the menu. Both of them are thinking about bringing their families there. (The lunchtime tasting menu is very affordable at $15 per person for three courses.)
It became evident right away that the girls read and enjoyed the book we
chose: Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr. It acted as a catalyst for so many great conversations. That’s what books are great for! The main conflict in the story is that this teenage girl can’t rid herself of the reputation of school slut. She made a mistake when she was thirteen and her dad hasn’t been able to look her in the eye for the past three years. The kids at school razz her hard, as well. Anyway, this book led to the conversations about the following:
-Relationships with parents
-Relationships with boys
-Birth control
-Sex
-Friendship
-Reputations
-Mistakes
-Perception
-Misinterpretations
-Teen pregnancy
-Dreams and goals
-Emotions
-Inferences, inferencing
-And Other topics I can’t remember
With so much to talk about, lunch flew by. After lunch we took some pictures in the hotel foyer (see attached). The restaurant is located in Boulder’s oldest hotel. Oh, yea, we also took a trip to the third floor which supposedly has a haunted room, room #304. Exciting.
We’ll be catching up with Debbie and the rest of the lunch trip next week, and are heartened to see that her unique reading program doesn’t just stop at the school gates or when holidays commence. As always, she gets lots of support from us at Catalyst Exhibits.
