During this week we have been celebrating Read Across KIS at Korea International School. One of the many activities planned for the week was to have my 9th grade students read to students from the elementary school; also, the elementary students could read to the 9th graders. I’m happy to say it was a smashing success. My high school students were absolutely fabulous with the lower elementary students, especially the grade 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades. The elementary students loved it! They liked reading to their older classmates and really enjoyed being read to by older students. Two of the classes shared writing projects with my students.
Afterward, the comments from the high school students were wonderful. They didn’t want to act like they enjoyed it too much of course, because it was reading and school, but I saw them all having a good time. Some of them were shocked at the sophistication of the stories that the low elementary students has written; others were surprises by the reading ability of the younger students. One boy even stated, “He reads better than I do!”, when referring to his reading buddy.
More and more of this type of activity should be done. Possibly even once a month, because it clearly builds positive interactions between the grade levels and a sense of the school as a shared community; also, it helps to develop that elusive “learning environment” that is the buzz phrase in education these days.
