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It seemed almost impossible, because all studies showed the same thing: that the enjoyment of reading declines as puberty blossoms. All summer, the Danish teacher Michelle Leth Malmstrøm had therefore thought, put her brain to work. But the solution did not materialize.
Was it even possible for her to maintain the joy of reading in the students when the opponents were the hormones, the teenage years and the enticing screens? Or was the battle already lost?
She went on vacation to New York with her family. Summer was almost over. Ahead awaited the start of a new 6th grade, for which she was to be the class teacher.
But then suddenly, out of the blue, it was there. In a random bookstore in Brooklyn, she saw the sign.
“I thought, there it was. It was a short, simple slogan”, says Michelle Leth Malmstrøm.
Books are magic, stood there.
When the summer was over, it was time for the first day of school, she was ready. Wearing her blue trousers and a T-shirt with the slogan printed in large yellow letters, she entered the class. Seen out of the corner of her eye, she must have almost looked like a superhero.
What happened next was also pretty magical. Because when she opened the book she was holding in her hand, she blew glitter out of the paper pages. The students looked wide-eyed at their new class teacher. She meant it literally. Books are magic.
Politiken meets 44-year-old Michelle Leth Malmstrøm, who has been nominated for Politiken’s Teaching Award.
»With her great passion for books and reading, she has simply managed to get the children interested in the lessons«, it says in one of the settings.
The recommendations were written by five parents of the students in 7th grade, who emphasize that the class was characterized by great unrest and many conflicts before the new class teacher came along. Today, the conflicts have largely disappeared, and the professional level has been raised significantly.
The coveted place
While the youngest students have a great appetite for reading, the joy of reading declines later. According to Bogpanelets rapport 64 percent of 5th grade students enjoy reading in their free time, but that number drops to 49 percent when students enter 8th grade.
And that’s a shame, says Michelle.
Because books are magical and fantastic. They can convey thoughts in a way that movies cannot, and change our view of the world and ourselves:
“We can be in a science fiction novel, which takes place in another galaxy, or we can be in a bullying situation in the schoolyard”.
Books also take up a lot of the teaching. On the board behind her hang boards with illustrations from books that the students in 7th C have read. ‘Narnia’, ‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas’ and ‘Whispering Game’. And as it was International Reading Day, the class was divided into small groups and given friendship classes in the 2nd grade, to whom they had to read the children’s book ‘Vitello’ aloud.
When Politiken visits Kastrupgårdsskolen in Amager, there is silence during today’s dance lesson. The students’ computer screens are closed while Michelle introduces an assignment, which involves writing a blog post.
The students are welcome to sit away from their fixed place in the class when they have to work. Some may sit out in the hallway or on the classroom couch. It is Michelle who decides who will sit where.
It is clear that one place in particular is most sought after.
“Who will sit in the reading corner?”, asks the class teacher, as the assignment is about to begin. A pair of hands quickly fly in the air.
The little reading nook is an invention that Michelle, together with a colleague from the school library, has created herself. She has removed the lower shelves in the wooden bookcase, put in cushions and hung posters on the back of the bookcase.
Four boys from the class won the coveted places and are now huddled together in the bookcase.
“It’s nice to sit here. There is more calm”, says 13-year-old Tobias Frydenlund.
Not even a reading child
The students have noticed that their teacher’s passion for books is a little out of the ordinary.
“Michelle, she loves books. She reads constantly. If she had to choose between reading a book or watching a film, I think she would read a book”, says 13-year-old Bertram Lauridsen.
Asked what he himself would choose, he has no doubts:
“Me? I would probably choose a film’.
But in the last year there has been a slight change.
“I’m actually not that fond of books, but I’ve started reading more after I had Michelle”, says Bertram Lauridsen, who has recently read Harry Potter.
Even though it will probably come off the back of some, the class teacher can understand that it can be boring to read, because that’s how she herself felt when she went to school.
“I wasn’t actually a very well-read child. There wasn’t really anything that grabbed me,’ says Michelle.
It wasn’t until later, when she entered high school, that it changed, when she started reading novels by the British author Jane Austen and suddenly discovered that literature could be exciting.
“And then it slowly sprouted from there,” says Michelle.
“Now that I myself have discovered this great joy in reading, I have been concerned with how I can pass it on”.
For Michelle Leth Malmstrøm, there is nothing better in the world than when she gives her students an aha experience. When she succeeds in making what was previously boring or difficult exciting.
“I believe that if you talk about something you are passionate about, you will also be passionate about it”.
Nominate your tutor, teacher or master at politiken.dk/insttil.
Janus Engel Rasmussen (photo)
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Source: politiken.dk
