Birmingham Half Marathon / Volunteer Reading Help Fundraising Update

As regular readers will know, I’m running the Birmingham Half Marathon on 24th October to raise funds for Volunteer Reading Help, after I found out that they need just £510 to fund their helper for 2010-11 at Herne Bay Infant School in Kent.

Well, I'm glad to say we're now more than three quarters of the way there, thanks to some generous donations.

In particular I'd like to thank staff and customers of the Anne Tudor fashion shop in Stratford-upon-Avon, who worked hard to boost my coffers prior to the run!

Just a few hundred pounds will pay for a year’s worth of one-to-one work with the children who most need support with their reading skills, so please click on the justgiving widget at the bottom of this post or head straight to justgiving.com/booksadventures to help out this marvellous charity.

Reading Partners - One to One Literacy Support in California and Washington D.C.

This week Books and Adventures crosses the Atlantic to feature Reading Partners.

This US non-profit literacy organisation, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, helps children to become lifelong readers by developing communities’ ability to provide individual literacy support.

I was particularly excited to discover the scheme as there are many parallels between Reading Partners and the UK literacy charity Volunteer Reading Help, on which you can find more here.

Reading Partners was founded in 1999. A retired school nurse, Mary Wright Shaw, was working in a neighbourhood of Palo Alto, California, when she discovered that many local children were unable to read the books provided in her clinic’s waiting room. Together with two friends, she committed to do something about this – and what was then the ‘YES Reading’ programme was born.

Now known as Reading Partners, the organisation has expanded throughout California and Washington D.C., serving over 1700 pupils and growing from a single trailer outside of an elementary school to 37 school sites.

Volunteers work on school campuses in 45-minute one-to-one sessions with children who need extra help to get their reading up to grade level. Many pupils, coming from homes where English is not the first language, may have stronger speaking skills, but still require support with reading and writing. Reading Partners, whose volunteers range all the way from high-schoolers through to retirees, records an 88% success rate in helping students accelerate their progress in reading.

Development Manager Allison W. Cohen joins Books and Adventures to tell us more.

‘Our model is scalable, high impact, and high quality,’ she explains. ‘In the past five years Reading Partners has grown by over 600% and maintained consistent results for students in the program.’

The Reading Partners scheme has its own curriculum, designed to California Department of Education standards in collaboration with experts from the Stanford School of Education. The organisation uses Houghton Mifflin’s RIGBY PM to assess student progress, alongside state standardized tests.

This commitment to providing measurable results makes Reading Partners an attractive option for charitable donors, as Allison makes clear: ‘Reading Partners gives donors measurable, tangible results that they can point to. It is easy to see how your money is being used and the value of that donation.’

Reading Partners has responded to the challenges of the economic climate by partnering with the federal AmeriCorps programme. As the charity becomes leaner and more efficient, plans for the future are optimistic: ‘We hope to serve at least 100 schools in the next three years and tackle the childhood literacy crisis on a national scale.’

You can find out more about Reading Partners, and read their report ’10 Stories for 10 Years’, here.

Hansel and Gretel, Ghosts and Mirrors: Ignite 2010 at the Royal Opera House

On Sunday I managed to spend some time at the Ignite Festival in Covent Garden, thanks to a tip-off from Claire Massey's Fairy Tale Cupboard.

Over three days, guest curator Joanna MacGregor had transformed London’s Royal Opera House into an enchanted zone whose magic permeated not only performance spaces but also foyers, cloakrooms and cafes within the building.

I guess it’s the academic in me, but my favourite part was the museum-styled Hansel and Gretel exhibition from Ghosts and Mirrors, Drama Centre London’s presentation of moments from opera in a living cabinet of curiosities.

Behind the doors of the subterranean Supper Rooms, visitors to Ghosts… found strange fragments from the world of opera, reworked as English-language vignettes by director Richard Williams, in minutely detailed sets by David Collis and Janey Gardiner.

An excerpt from Tosca, bringing us close to Scarpia’s interrogation of Cavaradossi, was almost too comfortable for anyone who’s spent a night on the sofa in front of Law and Order: high culture neatly equated to primetime police procedural.

At the other end of the spectrum, the scene from La Traviata, which allowed the audience to approach the mourners at the side of coffin, was almost unbearably intimate and felt almost intrusive to watch from arm’s-length distance.

After these tableaux and another taken from Der Rosenkavalier, it was a bizarre experience to step into the Hansel and Gretel room, and be addressed by the curators of a mocked-up museum exhibit, who anatomised the fairytale – and Humperdinck’s opera - through the academic presentation of an archaeological dig.

Laminated academic reports were passed around to visitors as the two scholars, deftly played by Alex Large and Michael Hanratty, explained their aim of obtaining DNA samples from a chicken bone and lollipops uncovered at a 1936 excavation in the German village of Rottweil.

A theory of ‘Old Crone Optometry’ was used to explain how ‘living in an over-aerated and artificially engineered gingerbread environment could result in a serious loss of response from the optic nerves’; similarly there was a ‘theory of crumb consumption’ and a display correcting factual errors in Engelbert Humperdinck’s account of the ‘Hansel and Gretel Incident’.

The atmosphere of W.G. Sebald-meets-Fred-Dineage was perfect, and the performers took every response in their stride, from visitors entirely ignorant of the folk tale through to more inquisitive, difficult types like me!

It would be lovely to see Ghosts… performed in a larger venue one day, with the Hansel and Gretel performers given more time to develop a thorough backstory to the project and slightly more rounded characters, but even in its current form this was far and away the pick of an outstanding line-up at Ignite 2010.

Claire Massey’s post, with information on the whole Ignite Festival, can be found here.

Steve Killick Interview - Being Our Best at Cae Mabon

Storyteller and child psychologist Steve Killick returns to Books and Adventures this week, in advance of his workshop ‘Being Our Best: Bridging Storytelling and Positive Psychology’, run with Eric Maddern at Cae Mabon this month.


The four day event offers participants the opportunity to explore and apply the wisdom of traditional stories in the context of modern psychology.

Steve explains: ‘By Being Our Best we mean looking at the best aspects of human nature, love, creativity, compassion, co-operation, rather than our negatives: selfish, destructive, short-sighted ,fearful. In a sense, this is the symbolic struggle between good and bad that is played out in stories.

‘Stories have always been the most effective ways of transmitting ideas, values and beliefs essential in religion, mythology and simply learning how to live. Education without them is impoverished and, in my mind, impossible.

‘In the course Eric Maddern and I are running we look at what Positive Psychology, the study of wellbeing and optimal performance, and what the wisdom of traditional tales is telling us- and what they have in common- and there are some surprises there!’

Steve is concerned that, in a technologised world, oral storytelling should continue to have a place alongside other media. ‘Storytelling takes place without technology, just “eye to eye, heart to heart and mind to mind” as the proverb goes.’

Often, participating in this oral tradition involves retelling time-honoured myths and fables. This requires a delicate balance of respect and reinterpretation:

‘On one hand, you cannot just change a story on a whim. On the other hand, it is a dynamic thing that needs to resonate again in the present, rather than be a museum piece to be looked at and never touched.

‘A story is a message from the past to today. For me it is about making the tale live now – what values do we find in this story now? We don’t always know what the story meant in the past.’

As an example, Steve points to the radical renegotiations of traditional stories which have been popularised by the like of Neil Gaiman and Angela Carter:

‘Heinrich Zimmer said about myths that they have to be questioned and consulted anew, with every age approaching them with its own variety of ignorance and understanding. If you are working with traditional material you do it with love and care. You retain the spirit and breathe new life: That’s what I think Carter and Gaiman have done fantastically. Carter’s reworkings, particularly, have contributed to the revival of interest in storytelling.’

There’s still an opportunity for participants to sign up for Steve and Eric’s journey of narrative exploration at Cae Mabon from 23rd-26th September. You’ll find more information on Steve’s site at http://www.wordsofwonder.co.uk/Cae-Mabon.html

Anti-Tales Symposium, Glasgow

I was disappointed not to be able to make it to the Anti-Tales Symposium, an academic event on fairy-tales (and their "evil double" the anti-tale!) at the University of Glasgow.

Luckily, Claire Massey of The Fairy Tale Cupboard has written a report on the event, here.

Carnaval del Pueblo, Outside In World, Peru Interviews!

It's taken me a while to get around to posting this, but...

I was in London on 1st August for the Carnaval del Pueblo, the city's annual celebration of Latin American cultures and communities in the city – and the largest outdoor Latin American festival in Europe.

I hooked up with an old TEFL buddy to enjoy the sun, salsa and four stages of live music in Burgess Park.

This year’s Carnaval was special as it celebrated two hundred years of independence for many Latin American nations.

For our own little celebration on the blog – a little nod to Latin America – I’ve brought together Sue Allsworth, an English teacher based in Peru, and Ed Zaghini from Outside In World, the UK organization set up to promote children’s books in translation.

Sue is in charge of English language teaching at Domingo Savio primary school in Ayacucho. The city has a difficult history as the former heartland of Shining Path terrorism, but these days receives increasing attention from foreign NGO’s and travellers. It’s a long way from Sue’s home town of Folkestone.

‘England always felt like a pair of jeans that didn’t quite fit,’ she says. ‘But when I came to Ayacucho five years ago, it felt like a really special place. Nowhere is perfect, but you have to find somewhere where you’re most content.’

Sue had a qualification to teach English as a Foreign Language when she arrived in Peru, but her vocation took time to fully develop. ‘I became a language teacher because it was a way of staying here. I found out I was good at it, and actually enjoy it…Here, I get to make a difference in the world, and now I’m here for the job as much as the place.’

Sue and her business partner Gloria, a primary teacher with 9 years of experience, had each independently planned to establish their own school in the city. When they joined forces, the director of Domingo Savio, an existing primary school, licensed them to use the school’s name in their district.

Today, they offer primary and pre-school teaching in English and Spanish, with activities to develop English language and vocabulary hand-in-hand with the Spanish-language curriculum. It’s a demanding role for both teachers.

‘I must love my job so much,’ says Sue. ‘From 7.30 in the morning I teach adult classes before the children arrive. School runs from 10 until 3 pm, and then we have homework classes right through until seven-thirty or even later. Sometimes it’s hard to get away from the school site!'

Sue’s entrepreneurial attitude and sheer determination to make a difference in a remote and impoverished country has been very rewarding, from the five-year-old pupil who greets her with an impeccable ‘Good afternoon, how are you Miss Sue?’ to children who find the atmosphere of the school supportive and liberating.

‘Local kids with tough backgrounds flourish and develop in the school environment and find the security to be emotionally open,’ she says. ‘Even kids who have relatively good lives materially face emotional challenges.’

While Sue has taken a little piece of the UK with her to South America, the team at Outside In World are bringing the cultures of the world to Britain by promoting literature in translation.

Tying in with our Latin American theme, Ed Zaghini was kind enough to recommend a book by a Chilean author, from the selection at the Outside In World website:

'When I Was a Boy, Neruda Called Me Policarpo is by the Chilean author Poli Delani. Poli was born in 1936 and at that time his family was living in Spain where they become friends with the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and his wife.

'Between 1940 and 1943, Neruda and his wife lived in Mexico City. This memoir is set at this time and follows Neruda’s relationship with the young Poli – and his adventures and misadventures.

'In this book you will learn about Poli and his encounters with the most amazing animals and insects; of his experience of being bullied in a boarding school where he had to stay when the family and Neruda travelled to New York.

'Perhaps the most touching story is that of Poli wanting to buy a fountain pen and a watch and in order to find the money he decided to sell chewing gum at the cinema and clean cars in the car park. When the poor children saw him taking over their job, they violently sent him away. Poli was very angry and frustrated by the incident but his parents and Tio (uncle) Neruda calmly explained that those children needed the job to eat while his motives where purely superficial.

'This memoir is full of facts about Neruda: his passion for collecting things and the time spent in the antique markets in Mexico City looking for strange objects to add to his unique and growing collection; his very strange food habits, including insects and monkeys. But what clearly stands out here in this memoir is his touching relationship with a very young boy.

'There are six of Neruda’s poems included in the book and a short biography of the poet that will clearly serve to introduce his life and work to younger generations. Manuel Monroy’s illustrations perfectly match the spirit of the text.'

You can find more on When I Was a Boy, Neruda Called Me Policarpo at the Outside In website, here. Thanks to Ed at Outside In World for recommending this book!

Birmingham Half Marathon - Fundraising for Volunteer Reading Help

The best thing about July and August is catching up with all my teacher buddies on holiday.

Even though those supposedly ‘long’ holidays are actually pretty full of planning, paperwork, and getting your classroom sorted for September, we still find time to catch up for dinner and drinks and a few giggles. Even if, like me, you’re not actually tied to the academic year and should probably be in the office…

I was especially enjoying the wine and tapas this week, because today I start training for the Birmingham Half-Marathon on October 24th.

I’m running to raise funds for Volunteer Reading Help, after I found out that they need just £510 to fund their helper for 2010-11 at Herne Bay Infant School in Kent.

Just a few hundred pounds will pay for a year’s worth of one-to-one work with the children who most need support with their reading skills.

We’re off to a good start but every little helps, so click on the justgiving widget at the top of this post or head straight to justgiving.com/booksadventures to help out this marvellous charity.

You do your bit and I’ll do mine; I might even try and get my half-marathon time down to something creditable!