3 minute read
Big Buddy Little Buddy
Big Buddy Little Buddy
Lilypad Reading Club Makes a Difference
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Many students at Canadian International School of Hong Kong (CDNIS) delve into their passions in the MYP Personal Project, and for Grade 11 student Alvin, the story was no different. Inspired by a CAS trip he embarked on in Grade 9 to Myanmar, he set out to develop a reading programme activity for Upper School students to engage with Lower School students. Taking the project further, Alvin co-founded the club Lilypad, which is currently in its second year of operation.
“The trip to Myanmar was an eye-opening experience for me,” explains Alvin. “It was a huge challenge to interact with children that spoke next to no English. Some of them only spoke four words of the language. Each CDNIS student on the trip was in charge of nine to ten other children, and after days of spending time with them, we were sweaty and exhausted. The language barrier meant that we had to constantly think on our feet and come up with new activities too. The positive feeling I got from our efforts to be a positive influence in these children’s lives stayed with me though, and made me want to continue to work with children in this way when I returned to Hong Kong.”
Buddy reading opportunities already existed in CDNIS, in the form of The Reading Tree and Kids4Kids, but Grade 11 student Natalie, a co-founder of Lilypad, sought to differentiate this group from the alternatives. “The reason why we designed the programme to be conducted during the Upper School lunchtime was because we felt that signing up to volunteer for Kids4Kids was a big time commitment,” says Natalie. “By fitting in the activities at lunch time, I think that this became a more attractive proposition for potential US volunteers. The aim of our programme was to have an engaging experience for volunteers and Lower School students alike.” There was pressure on the Lilypad group to deliver this, as they had convinced the LS class to disrupt their regular school schedule to take part in the programme.
Alvin received a good grade for his Personal Project, but Lilypad’s first attempt to implement the programme activity, in the 2016/2017 academic year, proved to have teething problems. For one, the student volunteers did not anticipate just how active the younger students were! The basic premise of having older student volunteers read with younger students was sound, but the club leaders realised that the programme needed tweaking. “We had five levels of reading ability, but volunteers were not sure how to tell when a student was meant to move from one level to another,” Alvin says. “We realised that we needed to communicate much more closely with the class teacher for the programme to be more effective. In addition to this, the length of the programme meant that there wasn’t enough urgency to help the students to improve. This is why we’ve streamlined the programme activity this year into a six week window.”
The feedback that Lilypad received for the current programme has been positive, testament to the changes that the club executives made. Alvin and Natalie noted that the legitimacy of the club had been strengthened after a year of operation, and that setting up separate emails gave them an identity which made them feel more like a family. In addition, the creating of name tags for volunteers also added to an official feel of the programme. “This year we tried to recruit volunteers from different grades, and we expanded our planning team so that we could have different ideas. Our vision is to make Lilypad an accessible club for all Upper School students who want to contribute to improving literacy in Lower School kids. I’m really happy that our volunteers are motivated to help, and we haven’t had to chase any of them to be on time so far this year!”
Ms. Lauren Adams, who taught Lower School students who participated in the reading programme last year, and whose entire Grade 1 class has participated this year, is greatly encouraged by Alvin’s efforts to bridge the gap between US and LS students. “The young students love having an older student as their buddy, and they are always keen to share what’s going on in their lives! Alvin realised that there was room for improvement from last year, and this year’s curriculum is well tied into our current Unit of Enquiry on exploration.”
Looking back at Lilypad’s journey so far, Alvin and Natalie are extremely proud of all the hard work that the planning team has done. “We’ve had disputes about what direction to take, but what unites us is the desire to channel our energy into something positive. The ability to share joy with others is what keeps us going.”
