An Investigation into the Get into Reading Project English dissertation presented by Patrick Scott-Graham, as part of a Combined Honours: Arts degree at The University of Liverpool

Contents

5    Part 1: Introduction 8     Part 2: Methodology 14    Part 3: Session Reports 29    Part 4: Weighing and discussing the evidence 35    Bibliography 36    Appendix

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Preface

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his dissertation seeks to examine the benefits of reading. I have always been interested in why people read literature. Half of my degree has involved reading poetry and prose and exploring authors’ ideas. I have greatly enjoyed studying literature but rarely have I had the chance to look outside the box, outside the curriculum and the university and consider how and why it might matter in the world beyond academe. I was also interested in doing some practical research with people in the Liverpool community. I have been involved in volunteering with refugees and asylum seekers since my first year so this was a good combination of my own interests and a practical, useful project. My main research base has been Get into Reading – an outreach project that brings literature to the Merseyside community. The main aim of Get into Reading is to promote people’s well-being by involving them with literature. Get into Reading groups take place in many locations, including libraries, community centres, drug rehabilitation centres and schools. A major part of my project work involved setting up a Get into Reading group at Asylum Link, a charity that supports people going through the asylum process. Asylum seekers from many countries, of both genders, of differing ages and backgrounds came to the sessions. Group sizes varied between one and ten participants with an average of six participants per session. Narrative reports of what happened in the sessions comprise a large part of this dissertation. These constitute one part of a varied methodology I established in consultation with Dr. Jude Robinson from Health Sciences as is consonant with the interdisciplinary nature of this work.

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Certificate presentation with a group member (left) at the end of the project. Patrick Scott-Graham right.

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Part 1: Introduction The introduction has two parts: the research questions and a short outline of practicalities involved in establishing our Get into Reading group.

1.1: Research Questions

This research seeks to address the following questions: 1. How can the reading group’s effectiveness be measured? Part 2 will offer a methodology suggesting ways to address this. 2. What effect do the standard Get into Reading group techniques of reading the text aloud and discussing it have on the participants? Part 3 comprises three narrative session reports related to this. 3. How effective are the Get into Reading sessions for the people involved? Do the sessions have positive effects on people? Part 4 will use the Part 2 methodology to evaluate the Part 3 narrative reports, to explore the notions of positive, effective progress in detail.

1.2: The practicalities of running the reading group

I held sixteen Get into Reading sessions between October 5th 2007 and January 29th 2008 at Asylum Link, a part of St Anne’s Centre in Kensington, Liverpool. Prior to starting the project, in March and May 2007 I attended Get into Reading sessions at Redholmes Memory Care Home in Liverpool with Katie Peters, an experienced Get into Reading facilitator. During these sessions I observed the key Get into Reading techniques of reading aloud and discussing poetry. The exploration of the poetry helped the patients, who suffer from dementia, focus on memories and emotions. In the weeks before and after the first session at Asylum Link, I met with Maggi Green, the centre’s volunteering coordinator. In our first meeting we talked about the practicalities of the project, including where

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the sessions would take place and what kind of literature we could use. We decided to focus on poetry, the language of which can be simple, yet also meaningful. This balance seemed most appropriate for a group of asylum seekers with varying English abilities. Maggi recommended we start with children’s poetry. It was good for me to get her ideas because she had experience of working with asylum seekers on a daily basis. In our second meeting, Maggi told me she hoped the project would widen the participants’ overall experiences in the UK, involve them in new activities and the English language and offer opportunities to meet new people. She also said the sessions should give the participants a chance to fulfil creative and spiritual needs. Prior to the first session on October 5th I made poster advertisements and I spoke with asylum seekers about their interests. As the project progressed I continued publicising the sessions, to encourage new people to attend. It seemed important for me to integrate into the Asylum Link community. I attended monthly Asylum Link volunteer meetings, to stay informed about the centre’s other volunteering projects. About six weeks into the project I received advice on how to improve my session technique from Katie Peters. Katie explained that if a participant reacted strongly to a specific part of the poem, the facilitator should ask simple questions to elicit what might have caused their reaction. She said it was important for the participants to describe as much as possible their personal ideas on the poem. Katie also recommended I condense my session reports to highlight their main points. The poems came from the following sources: children’s anthologies I Like This Poem and A Poem A Day to offer simple English. Benjamin Zephaniah’s Funky Chickens to offer simple English and touch on subjects like football, which many of the male asylum seekers play, and peace. Staying Alive was a more adult anthology from which I chose Robert Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken.’ Get into Reading project workers gave me some examples of literature that had worked consistently well with other groups including Mary Oliver’s ‘Starlings in Winter’ and Wendy Cope’s ‘30th December.’ Ali A. Jahadhmy’s Anthology of Swahili Poetry and Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat were useful for African and Asian verse. IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain provided Denrele Ogunwa’s poem ‘April’. I developed a good preparation process for the sessions. I would read the chosen text and think carefully about how the text made me feel and why. Then, to prepare for an open discussion in the Get into Reading session, I would put all of my own ideas to one side and generate key questions for the group. Examples included, ‘How did the text make you feel?’, ‘What did you think were the themes in the text?’ and 6

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‘Have you had similar experiences to what is being described?’ I brought photocopies of the poetry to the sessions and the conversation focused on the participants’ responses. We always read the poems out loud, collectively and individually. This was an important part of the Get into Reading method. We read collectively at the beginning of a session, to become familiar with the text. It involved cooperation and did not single anyone out. Throughout the sessions, I would read by myself and other participants would also read aloud individually. The sessions took place in a classroom at Asylum Link. English language classes were taught in the morning but in the afternoon the room was available for my work. Sessions would usually take place on Fridays but sometimes this was inconvenient. Depending on group members’ needs we would rearrange the session for another day. The size of the group varied considerably. People’s attendance often depended on other appointments they had and how they were feeling. By December there was a group of five regular participants who were enthusiastic and came as often as they could.

Some of the core Get into Reading group members, with Maggi (third from left) and Patrick (far right) at Asylum Link. 7

Part 2: Methodology This section will discuss the methodology, developed to measure the effectiveness of Asylum Link Get into Reading sessions. Maggi and I created a set of problem and solution factors to show problems faced and positive changes for group participants. Maggi provided the information about asylum seekers’ situations, which I included in the methodology. Dr. Jude Robinson helped me develop the problem factors with her experience of researching other Get into Reading groups. I have mentioned her name next to any specific details she provided. She also advised me on how to measure the solution factors’ success, which is described in the solution factors section.

Problem Factors

The problem factors relate to isolation, in a number of forms: Problem Factor 1. Social isolation. Sometimes the Home Office moves

asylum seekers between cities, giving them few opportunities to integrate into the local community. This is compounded as they also have to let the Home Office know what they are doing at least once a week, at city-based asylum screening units. With such disruption, asylum seekers often only mix with a small number of people and to a limited degree. PF2. Cultural isolation. Asylum seekers are far from their own countries. Access to arts, literature and music from their own countries is limited. For example, a Kurd may have a lot of trouble finding Kurdish music. They become cut off from their own cultures as a result of these limits. PF3. Economic isolation, which relates to cultural isolation. Asylum

seekers only get £40 a week to cover basics. According to information from Dr. Robinson, this is less than most unemployed people receive, thus asylum seekers are some of the most deprived people in the country. With so little money, there are few opportunities for them to access our culture. If Asylum Link can give them access, that is a valuable service.

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PF4. Language skill problems. Language problems mean asylum seekers

have difficulty carrying out everyday tasks. In addition, the asylum seekers’ inability to communicate is a barrier to learning about different cultures. Dr. Robinson suggested that asylum seekers’ language problems may contribute to literacy problems already present in the UK. Asylum seekers’ opportunities for learning English are decreasing – recent cuts to the ESOL programme mean fewer people can attend English classes. PF5. Lack of poetry experience. This may indicate a lack of education and involvement with literature. Poetry is an important art form because poems are humanly expressive. People with different levels of education can relate to poetry that describes a specific feeling such as love, loneliness or anxiety. Prose fiction is similar to poetry – it is also humanly expressive. However, extra confidence with language may be required to grasp the story’s complex plot. Prose could follow poetry after confidence had developed with language in an Asylum Link group. PF6. Lack of mental stimulation for asylum seekers. It is stressful for

asylum seekers waiting to find out whether they can stay in the UK. They focus on their asylum claims and have to forget about other things. Having to seek asylum is life-changing because it consumes the person. Maggi said, ‘It’s like having serious illness or injury. If you were tortured in your own country you can only think about not returning, which strips life back to its basics.’ PF7. Overall depression, resulting from a culmination of the above factors. Asylum seekers can become unhappy because of isolation in many different forms. The sources of trauma for asylum seekers are potentially irreversible. Asylum seekers come to the UK after experiencing war or torture.

Solution factor 1

This factor relates to the participants returning to the sessions. A graph of registration records is a simple way of showing how often people came back. To complement the statistics, narrative behavioural reports can be used. The reports describe people joining but leaving sessions half way through, highlighting Asylum Link’s chaotic nature. Also, in some reports participants offered reasons why they returned. Relates to: PF1, PF2, PF6, PF7. 9

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SF 2

Evidence of participants taking the initiative to interact in the group sessions. The narrative behavioural reports can show confident interaction developing in the group sessions. Initially, Maggi and I considered observing people’s developments outside sessions. For example, participants may have become more outgoing and talkative in everyday life and this could be linked to the sessions. However, Dr. Robinson explained that looking at what happens inside the group is important because during the session the group leader is in control. External developments are interesting but they may relate to other developments in the participants’ lives, such as external friendships or participants’ involvement with other volunteering projects. I decided it was more realistic to observe internal session developments given the short time frame of the project. Perhaps in a longer term project I could get to know the participants well and then suggest with validity whether or not these developments related to the reading sessions specifically. I have looked at internal, session-based developments in all of the solution factors below. I have also included external indicators of change, which could be used in future research, at the end of SF2. For SF2, questions to ask when looking at the narrative reports include: •

•

• •

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To what extent did I need to encourage people to read the poems? To what extent did I need to encourage the participants to offer ideas, thoughts and comments on the poetry? What instances were there when the participants volunteered to read the poems themselves? What instances were there of the participants volunteering ideas, thoughts and comments on the poetry? What questions did participants ask one another for their comments? How did they stimulate the discussion? What instances were there of the participants interrupting one another? This could show the participants becoming overly confident and not respecting the procedure of discussion. Overall, it is worth thinking about the places where the group dynamic shifts, as these are often likely to be places where the participants are contributing to the group.

Secondary indicators of change to think about for the future: 10

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Do the participants seem more outgoing, sociable and well-connected in other activities at Asylum Link? A good way of telling if they are is by getting members of staff and volunteers to describe their encounters with them and their speaking. Relates to: PF1, PF4, PF5, PF6, PF7.

SF3

Evidence of participants having the freedom and time to develop ideas and discussion points in the sessions. Narrative behavioural reports should be the main source of information here. Questions to ask include: • • • •

What subjects did participants bring up for conversation? To what extent did the participants build on one another’s comments, stimulating the discussion further? Were there subjects and ideas that got ignored or brushed off? If so, what were they? How did people’s conversations deal with personal thoughts and feelings?

Relates to: PF1, PF2, PF6, PF7.

SF 4

Evidence of the participants developing a strong appreciation of poetry in the group sessions. This factor will use behavioural narrative data. In addition, it will use qualitative information from an evaluation interview conducted after the last session of the project. This interview asks participants about whether they enjoyed the literature we looked at. Questions to ask when looking at the narrative reports include: • • • •

What key lines or phrases did people grasp onto from the poem? Were there instances of people drawing connections between their own lives and parts of the poem? If so, what were they? What discussions were there about the overall feeling of the poem? Overall, has the group managed to break down barriers? What 11

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evidence is there to suggest the participants have more confidence and freedom to engage with poetry? Relates to: PF2, PF3, PF6.

SF 5

Evidence of the participants using language from the texts in figurative and functional ways. This factor will be addressed by narrative reports. Questions to ask when looking at the reports include: •

•

•

What were people’s reactions to the word identifying sessions? Are these likely to have improved people’s vocabulary and extended their language? How did people’s understanding of the words develop? Have there been instances when people have understood the more poetic, figurative sense of the language? What evidence is there to suggest that the participants enjoyed these moments? Is there evidence to suggest that the discussion became deeper and more involving as a result of these moments?

Relates to: PF5, PF6.

SF 6

Evidence of the participants becoming more involved with people outside their immediate social groups in the sessions. The different social groups that came along to the sessions are described at the beginning of each session report. The narrative reports can account participants opening up the conversation to people from other social groups and taking an interest in things people from other social groups had to say. A qualitative interview with Asylum Link staff can also be used for this factor. Relates to: PF1, PF2.

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SF7

Did the participants seem happier in the sessions? Overall, progression in the poetry groups can be shown via people addressing issues to do with their personal lives and understanding of the world through poems. Was it the case at Asylum Link that people reached for ideas, perhaps to do with their own lives, through the texts themselves? This could have been therapeutic and overall, improved people’s wellbeing. People may have come to understand that they are not alone and that other people experience the same problems as they do, without having to go into a great amount of depth about their personal experiences. This solution factor is effectively a culmination of all the other solution factors. It relates to Problem Factor 7, which is a culmination of all the problem factors. I will use the behavioural narrative reports to try and show people’s happiness developing. In addition, I will use the evaluative interview with the participants. These will offer a balance of examples of people displaying well-being and people’s thoughts about their own well-being. Relates to: PF1, PF6, PF7.

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Part 3: Session reports Part 3 uses edited versions of narrative reports from three sessions – December 7th, December 11th and December 18th. There are key reasons why I chose these reports. Throughout October and November I experienced organising and preparing my own sessions. By December, I had significantly developed as a project leader. I was planning my sessions carefully by reading different poems and selecting the ones I thought would be interesting to explore. In addition I knew that I had to be patient as a group leader. This involved getting to know people who came back to sessions, as well as being ready for new group members who might only come to a single session. Throughout November, I developed my reporting style and by December I was producing condensed and detailed reports. I would take notes directly after each session and write them up, often redrafting them so it was clear exactly what happened in the session. Also, throughout December and January the sessions were given extra energy through the enthusiasm of a core group of five participants. Participant AA came to almost every session from the end of November onwards. AF was also a very keen participant who had lots of ideas and questions on the poetry. Participants AH, AI and AQ also really seemed to enjoy the sessions. I had to cut down longer parts of my original reading session reports – for example parts where I talk a lot about my preparation for the sessions, or where my ideas on the poems had developed as a result of the sessions. A lot of the editing I did involved cutting out extensive discussions of my input and my reactions to the sessions. With my editing I wanted to draw attention to specific, humanly significant moments. There were moments where group members said or did things that were touching and exciting, which made me think interesting and positive things were happening for the group. In the reports italics are used to highlight lines and words from poems. Italics with quotations are used to show what people said. This formatting differs slightly from the other parts, which do not italicise people’s utterances. It was the formatting I used when writing the reports up. Before going into the reports I offer some brief information on the core participants’ backgrounds and the evolution of my poetry choices. These two pieces of information will be useful for discussing evidence in Part Four.

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On December 19th, I held a Christmas social, which I took notes on, where the core five participants and I talked about our backgrounds. These details are useful because they show the diverse nationalities and professional backgrounds of these participants, who eventually bonded through the group. AA was a writer and could speak seven languages including Farsi, English, Arabic and Pashtu. AH and AI were partners. AH was an academic researcher and AI a school teacher. AF had been training as a nurse before she left Rwanda. She and AQ knew one another because they had volunteered together at Asylum Link. AQ explained she had been a mother most of her adult life, with little formal education. My poetry choices evolved throughout the project and can be placed in four rough categories. These are ‘children’s poetry’, ‘safe and neutral poetry’, poetry with an explicit meaning, and poetry with an implicit meaning. These categories can overlap, especially in the case of poetry with explicit and implicit meanings. My first few sessions in October looked at children’s poetry, which used simple language for people with basic English. Safe and neutral poetry included Benjamin Zephaniah’s poetry, which we looked at in the November sessions. His poetry touches on serious issues like racism and inequality, but often in a light-hearted way. By December the poetry was more complex with deep meanings, both implicit and explicit. The poems in the following reports fall under these categories.

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Get into Reading Project at Asylum Link (December 7)

Participants: AK – 20, Male, Sudanese, speaks Arabic and African Tongue; AL – 20, Kurdish, language not given; AM – 18, Male, Kurdish, language not given; AN – (19)?, Male, Kurdish, language not given; AI – 29, Female, Iranian, speaks Farsi; AH – 37, Male, Iranian, speaks Farsi; AO – 38, Male, Iranian, speaks Farsi; AA – 38, Male, Afghan, speaks Pashtu. Volunteer Jessica was also present throughout the session. AL, AM, and AN left about halfway through the session.

Key text: The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And I sorry I could not travel both And be one traveller, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that, the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads onto way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost 16

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The session:

I chose this poem partly because it discusses making serious decisions about how one travels, which seemed relevant to asylum seekers’ stories. In addition, the poem has a universal message about the difficulty of making big life choices. For today’s session, English student Jessica volunteered to help. She and I met before the session to discuss the poem’s meaning and some language features before going to Asylum Link. At the start of the session we all introduced ourselves – there was a large number of people present. AK volunteered to read through the poem first. Diverged was one word he found difficult to pronounce and the other participants wanted to know what it meant. Jessica and I explained the meaning as ‘a split in the road where you have to choose a direction’. AA suggested everyone in the group read a stanza each and we did this. It was a good idea as it meant everyone was involved. AA in particular has a strong voice while AO has a very soothing voice that brought out the beauty of the words Then took the other, as just as fair… Because it was grassy and wanted wear. When we finished reading, Jessica and I were able to give a helping hand with the basic meaning of some of the words, a crucial matter for this group (PF 4). AH explained he only understood ‘thirty to forty per cent’ of the words. Traveller was a key word from the first paragraph that AK did not understand, and many people did not understand undergrowth. I explained that undergrowth was what hid the tracks from the traveller, which was interesting because it brought up the idea that the tracks were hard to choose because they were hard to see. Only AA, with his strong knowledge of English, said he understood this idea. The other participants did not indicate they had understood the idea about the hidden tracks. The hidden path is something Jessica had highlighted when we met up beforehand. It was interesting for me to see this deeper meaning brought out through the group’s discussion of language features. It was unfortunate the whole group did not understand this deeper meaning. AH said he liked all of stanza number two and he went on to read it aloud. He said, ‘It reminds me of last year when I saw mountains and a lake nearby in England.’ AA said his favourite line was Because it was grassy and wanted wear. He also liked the line In leaves no step had trodden black. He explained that in his culture footprints were very important signs of pride as they show where you are from and what you have achieved. AH brought up the idea of snow as somewhere very important for footprints to appear. I 17

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think he was interested in snow because he had read a lot about it, yet not ever seen it. AK said he also liked the line about grass because the grassy path can lead onto life. He said the path with life was the good path to take. As a group we talked about the word leads, which is closely connected with movement forwards. However, we also kept coming back to the idea of the path diverging, which reiterated the difficulty of making the right decision. I explained that one of the most interesting lines for me was Yet knowing how way leads onto way because it highlights human anxiety about one good or bad decision leading onto more good or bad decisions. I asked the group if we could talk about the poem’s overall meaning. AA brought up the question of whether we make decisions in our heads or our hearts. I suggested the poet might have chosen one of the roads with his head and the other he might have chosen with his heart. AK said that sometimes you can go wrong by following either your heart or head – you probably need to follow both – which is a similar sentiment to that put forward by Frost. AK went onto explain that if you don’t follow your heart and your head together, ‘You don’t know why things have turned out that way’. AJ said he thought the lines And sorry I could not travel both / And be one traveller, long I stood brought up difficulties because ‘you can’t be two travellers’. I suggested the poem was sad because of this. But AJ was certain it was a happy poem – ‘It is interesting’ he said. This seems to be significant for a lot of the participants at Asylum Link – people feel that lots of different types of poems are interesting. Perhaps it is to do with the way in which many of the people who go to Asylum Link are under occupied, with few opportunities for deep thought. AA said to some of the younger participants ‘because you are young, you always want to make decisions with your hearts’. In relation to this, we talked about the difficulty of using your heart all the time in making decisions. AJ, who was one of the youngest in the room, repeated the line And that has made all the difference, placing a firm emphasis on the word difference. I went on to tell the group about Robert Frost and how he wrote in the 1960s in America and how well-known this poem became. I told the group that Frost summed up a feeling a lot of people get in contemporary society. I asked the group if they understood what I meant and most said they did. AA has asked about the poets’ biographical backgrounds before – he has asked about Benjamin Zephaniah’s personal history in the past – and he seemed pleased we were reaching out into the poem’s background. I read the poem through in full, before AA, AO, AH and AI all took 18

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it in turns to read some stanzas, with the help of Jessica too. Everyone read very loudly and clearly, particularly AO. As we read the poem through, I couldn’t help but feel the poem was quite sad. We had looked at the major theme of the difficulty of decision making but I’m not sure whether we got to the bottom of this poem. The anxiety the poet expresses to do with decision making is strong and I don’t know if we made it strong enough (PF5). However, everyone once again seemed to enjoy reading it through. Very importantly, at the end, AO, who had been quiet for much of the session came up to me. He pointed to the third stanza and said it was a very important section for him. ‘This paragraph is my life’, he said. ‘Because I can never go back’. It was really interesting to have this comment – he had been quiet the whole way through, while listening and thinking. This made me think about how reading is treated differently by different people – how some people, even though they seem very quiet in the sessions, are thinking about the poetry a lot, and looking for words to link with their own feelings. This also brought to my attention the close relationship between the poetry and the participants’ own stories and feelings. In future sessions I was eager to find out more about participants’ personal connections to the poems.

Get into Reading Project at Asylum Link (December 11)

Participants: One asterisk indicates participants returning from the December 7th session. AP – 21, Male, Iranian, speaks Farsi; AF – 25, female, Rwandan, speaks Kinyarwanda; AI – 29, female, Iranian, speaks Farsi*; AA – 38, Male, Afghan, Speaks Pashtu*; AQ – (Age not given), Female, Zimbabwean, speaks African tongue (Shona?). AQ came in about a third of the way through the session and AP had to leave half way through the session.

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Key Text: Starlings in Winter

Chunky and noisy, but with stars in their black feathers, they spring from the telephone wire and instantly they are acrobats in the freezing wind. And now, in the theatre of air, they swing over buildings, dipping and rising; they float like one stippled star that opens, becomes for a moment fragmented, then closes again; and you watch and you try but you simply can’t imagine how they do it with no articulated instruction, no pause, only the silent confirmation that they are this notable thing, this wheel of many parts, that can rise and spin over and over again, full of gorgeous life. Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us, even in the leafless winter, even in the ashy city. I am thinking now of grief, and of getting past it; I feel my boots trying to leave the ground, I feel my heart pumping hard. I want to think again of dangerous and noble things. I want to be light and frolicsome. I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing, as though I had wings. Mary Oliver

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The Session: This session took place in the second to last week of autumn term at Asylum Link. I wanted to make the remaining two sessions relevant to the time of year. Another of the project workers from Get into Reading, Angie Macmillan, sent me a selection of poems to do with winter and Christmas. Some of the poems were religious, but she also sent me some specifically less religious ones. Today I took along from her selection ‘Starlings in Winter’ by Mary Oliver, which describes birds and nature, and ‘30th December’ by Wendy Cope, which relates more closely to Christmas. I selected ‘Starlings in Winter’ because I found it moving to read. I thought about how anyone could go through human problems and feel like nature is freer than they are. I was aware these feelings may apply to asylum seekers, but I could also relate them to my time at university, which can be an isolating, overwhelming environment. At the beginning of the session, the participants said they were most interested in the nature poem. We agreed to look at Wendy Cope’s poem next session. Everyone was happy for me to read to start things off. As I read, the poem felt quite weighty. I looked around and felt uncomfortable because people seemed not to be engaging with the text. I asked the participants if they would like to read ‘30th December’ instead, because it has a more digestible, stanza-based structure. However, AF quickly said ‘No, let’s stick with this poem today’, which was really encouraging. It’s good to get this sense of enthusiasm from other people because it means the sessions are shaped by a collection of minds working together. As a group, we talked over some of the words, particularly acrobats. The word is an interesting one to say and its meaning is specific. The word is not used in everyday life, which is perhaps why it was brought up. AA said he thought acrobats were related to ‘magic’. I explained acrobats are like magicians because they perform tricks. The magic comes from the amazing things they do with their bodies, which relates to the other words like dipping and rising. AP said he did not understand very much of the language at all. He explained that he was going to have to leave at one o’clock for another appointment. He didn’t want to discuss the poem’s meaning in a great amount of detail. Instead, he wanted simply to be with us and listen. The group respected his decision. In other Get into Reading groups, group members have taken a back seat and listened. For some people, simple listening seems to have a value. AA had an idea on the poem’s meaning. He explained ‘It is a very long poem and that makes it hard because of the language barrier. 21

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However, I really like this poem – it is about life.’ AA drew up the comparison between the starlings, which flit, swing and dip in the air and eagles, ‘which fly very high’. This put a real emphasis on the very small movements of starlings, which make them such interesting birds to watch. The poem consists of two long sentences. The second sentence is the one that includes a lot of information on the poet’s thoughts and emotions. AA highlighted this, saying that the bird’s thoughts and feelings are ‘not paid much attention. Where is the bird coming from? What is it doing?’ AQ came into the room around this point. AF beckoned her over to take a seat. AQ looked very excited when she saw we were reading poetry together. Without prompting, she read aloud the poem’s second section. Her pronunciation was great and her voice was very passionate. She read with a lot of energy. As she read the lines I feel my heart / Pumping hard, she beat her fist against her chest, placing emphasis on the assonant syllables heart and hard. Her reading had a great impact on me and the others, because the poem was brought to life by a totally new voice. AP had to leave around this point, which was a shame. He returned me the photocopied poem despite my saying he could keep it. AF, who comes from Rwanda, said that she was surprised that birds go to Africa in the wintertime. She said that birds ‘are always flying’. Human beings change in winter but birds of all kinds stay in the air regardless of season –‘in spring, in summer, in winter’. AI, who does not speak much English, added to the conversation with the help of AA’s translation, saying that in the poem, ‘there is faith that something good will happen’. She explained that there was a feeling that this good event had not yet happened. AF added to this, talking about the importance of lines I feel my boots / trying to leave the ground, which suggest the weight and limits the poet may be feeling. ‘They keep the person glued to the floor and tied down,’ she said. AF asked about the words as though I had wings, which she thought meant that the poet definitely had wings. She asked the same question two or three times in the session: ‘Why does the poet desire all of these things but then she actually has wings?’. It took me quite a while to pick up on AF’s question. As a native language speaker, I take for granted the meaning of as though. I explained the end of the poem does not say the poet has wings, it imagines a scenario of a person having wings. AF seemed very relieved when the meaning of the final line was explored. For her it must have felt like the final piece of the poem’s puzzle had been put in place. 22

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We came back to the line think again of dangerous things. AA said that birds take more risks than us: they live without boots, they do not stay in their houses for winter, preferring to continue flying outside. AA gave the example of birds that fly to a lake and are able to remember how they got there. AQ added that on the other hand, birds lose track of their babies easily. The separation from their children happens quite easily for them, but it would be very difficult for humans. AA and AF seemed to think this was a sad poem because the focus lies on the way in which birds are free and humans are not. I think AA and AF grasped onto a key message here, that all humans experience pain and restrictions in everyday life. However, AI said that the poem is happy because it focuses on the cycles of life. AQ also focused a lot on circles and drew connections between happiness and circular movements (SF4). Maggi the volunteering coordinator came into the room toward the end of our discussion. She read the poem one last time for all of us. As she read, she particularly emphasised Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us, placing a firm focus on world as if she was talking to the world. As she finished there were lots of smiles and we said thank-you. AI and AA said their favourite lines were Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us, / even in the leafless winter. In particular AA focused on the lessons that the world prepares for us and how the full lesson, including the bird’s feelings are not explored. AF and AQ said they liked the lines I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing, / as though I had wings. AF said that she chose these lines because they ‘have heart and are mindful’. AA told me how keen he was to come to next week’s session. Everyone took away their copies of ‘30th December’ to have a look at, ready for the next session.

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Get into Reading project at Asylum Link December 18 2007

Participants: One asterisk indicates participants returning from the December 7th session; Two asterisks indicate participants returning from the December 11th session; Three asterisks indicate participants returning from both sessions. AA – Male, Afghan, 38 years old, speaks Pashtu***; AH – Male, Iranian, 37, Farsi*; AF – Female, Rwandan, 25 years old, speaks African tongue and French**; AQ – Female, Zimbabwean, Age?, speaks African tongue and English**. AF and AQ arrived a little way into the session, but not too late.

Key text: 30th December

At first I’m startled by the sound of bicycles Above my head. And then I see them, two swans Flying in to their runway behind the reeds. The bridge is slippery, the grass so sodden That water seeps into my shoes. But now The sun has come out and everything is calm And beautiful as the end of a hangover. Christmas was a muddle Of turkey bones and muted quarrelling. The visitors have left. Solitary walkers smile and tell each other That the day is wonderful. If only this could be Christmas now – These shining meadows, The hum of huge wings in the sky. Wendy Cope 24

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The Session: In the previous session we agreed we would look at ‘30th December’ as the last poem before Christmas. I chose the poem because it describes British cultural traditions at Christmas and it also addresses a universal feeling of loneliness, which everyone – Christians and non-Christians – may experience at different times of year. I took more of a backseat as a facilitator in this session. Katie Peters recommended I allow participants to lead the discussion when the group was confident with one another, so they could develop their ideas. After the success of the previous sessions I felt I could do this. What resulted was a space where participants brought forward many of their own ideas. Today’s session began with just AA and AH. I read through the poem first and then both participants read through the poem. AH in particular seemed to have come a very long way. When I asked him to read he seemed very keen and as he read he pronounced each word well, with clarity, emphasising the poem’s simple, clear rhythm. This was quite different to his less confident approach in earlier sessions this month, where he would mispronounce words (SF5). AA helped AH understand the words in the poem, although again AH seemed to understand a lot of the vocabulary on his own accord. One word that both participants wanted an explanation of was hum. I said it related to the sound of the word – it is a long, low sound. AH said that in his language, the word for hum was ‘zam zamin’- another quite onomatopoeic word. We repeated the words and enjoyed the humming sounds we made by saying them (SF6). Other than hum, it did not seem necessary to translate more. AH said he was ‘eighty per cent sure’ of the meaning of the poem’s words. This built on the small percentage of words he explained he understood in the session on December 7th. Neither participant knew what a hangover was, although the word has quite strong connotations – just the words hang and over denote ‘suspense’, which AA kept referring back to throughout the discussion. I explained the word related closely to drinking culture and ‘the bad feeling you get after you’ve had too much to drink’. It was around this point that AF and AQ came in. AA said the word hangover was very important in the poem. He referred to specific parts of the poem, including the sound of bicycles, everything is calm and the visitors, leaving. He listed these elements as if they were a list of dates of events and said that the poem relates to changes happening in life. He said that the hangover related to ‘nature reflecting on you, as the changes in your life take place’. 25

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Adding to this, AQ said that almost everything in the poem depended on the word hangover. She said, ‘this poem is about asylum’. She explained that in the opening of the poem many problems are described, but then the hangover comes. ‘This is what Christmas is,’ she said. She highlighted how after hangover, Christmas becomes related to the idea of visitors, and it seemed that generally Christmas could offer a distraction and a change so that any asylum problems with the Home Office were forgotten. She offered her explanation of the poem while also reading aloud parts of the poem that immediately stood out for her. She focused on startled, the slippery bridge, turkey bones and muted quarrelling. ‘This is Christmas’, she said again. She spoke very quickly, placing a great deal of emphasis on some of the harsher sounding words like startled and bones. Finally, she explained rather more slowly that Christmas was an opportunity for change, which gave me a mixed impression of anger and positive thoughts about Christmas. I thought AQ was agitated and angered by the poem. I asked her if she was angry. She said she was not angry. She referred back to her life in Zimbabwe, explaining how Christmas is a time when everyone – all humans – come together, including ‘Born-Agains, non-Born Agains – everyone’. AF agreed that this was similar in her country – all people of all faiths come together to celebrate Christmas. People had talked about life back home in previous sessions, but with less direct reference to the poem. I had previously relied on key questions to find out about participants’ lives back home. On November 23rd I asked participants about their personal achievements after we looked at a poem about a successful footballer, to try and draw a link between the poem and people’s lives. AB talked about playing music in a band in his home country of Iran and AC talked about passing a driving test in Iran. Throughout this session on December 18th, AQ in particular talked more about her life in close connection to the poem (SF4). AQ talked more about the poem. ‘I like the poem’, AQ said. ‘It is easy to read and understand.’ She explained that she did not like the beginning of the poem – it seemed chaotic and problematic. After hangover, however, things became better in the poem. It became more enjoyable and more closely associated with the good-will of Christmas. Following on from AQ’s comments, I asked the rest of the group whether they felt any other strong reactions to the poem. AH explained that he liked the two swans and the fact the sun had come out. These elements he said were part of the poem’s romantic imagery. He went onto explain that he did not like the third stanza. This section talks about bones, which are associated with death. He said this section of the poem 26

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was difficult and uncomfortable to read. In contrast to the third stanza, he said the final stanza was specifically ‘romantic’. This is something he often says about sections of the poem he likes. He said that The hum of huge wings in the sky was something closely associated with a big eagle. As he told me this, he made the gesture of a large pair of wings with his arms, flapping, emphasising the bird’s grand nature. Overall, AH said the poem held a lot of happiness for him, but he felt there was severe difficulty in the third stanza. AQ offered another idea about the poem. She said it was to do with ‘being born again’ , which she specifically related to Christmas and the lines If only this could be Christmas now – / These shining meadows. She related the shining meadows to her own resurrection, or return to her country. She talked about her family in Zimbabwe who were waiting for her and the idea of coming back to them through the shining meadows. This related to her ideas on Christmas – how it related to being with family, who would be waiting for her, and forgetting about other problems like the asylum process. She also drew a link back to the idea we had explored beforehand, about the beautiful birds ‘coming down’ from above. I went onto say that ‘30th December’ is important because it is about the time between Christmas and New Year, which is a time to spend with nature; a time for change and reflection. With these words – ‘change’ and ‘reflection’ – AQ silently nodded. She did not say much else, but she made this gesture clearly, firmly emphasising the importance of reflection that she had referred to earlier on with her talk about Christmas being a time to spend time together. The group seemed visibly excited when I asked them about their personal experiences of festivals in their own cultures. I asked everyone if there was a particular festival that was like Christmas for them. AA told us about the spring festival in Afghanistan, which is a single day near the beginning of the year where people come together and celebrate. He said that lots of people prepare special food together. AH specifically got my attention and told me that in Iran the spring festival is also celebrated. He also talked about Iran’s day, which takes place near the end of the year. It celebrates 2,500 years of the country’s history. In addition, there is an Iranian bonfire party toward the end of the year, around the time of Winter Solstice, which many different social groups in the country celebrate. While I was talking with AH, AA, AF and AQ had been talking about Christmas. I overheard little snippets of their conversation. AA, who is a Muslim asked AF and AQ, who are both Christians if they were looking forward to Christmas and they said yes. On the one hand I was frus27

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trated about the group splitting into two separate conversations. On the other hand, it was excellent that the Middle Eastern and African participants were talking together. AQ explained that Christmas in Zimbabwe was about all types of people coming together. AF and AQ added that Christmas was about going to church and eating well (SF6). I raised my voice and got the group’s attention. I asked them if we could look again at the poem. By the final session on January 29th, AA and AF had developed a very positive relationship with one another. AA, male, from Afghanistan asked AF, female, from Rwanda what she thought about the poem. He explained that AF should put her opinion forward first if she wanted to. However, AF said it was OK and that AA could go first. He had a lot of ideas on the poem, so was pleased to go first. On December 18th, AF and AQ wanted some extra explanation about the meaning of the poem’s final stanza. I said that If only it could be Christmas now was like a wish. AQ, who had highlighted the chaos of the poem’s beginning so well, said that ‘that would be everything’, as she related the wish back to the peace and calm that is talked about in the poem, which occurs around Christmas-time. To round the session off, AH read the poem confidently. AA also read it through a final time, with his well-pronounced reading voice. Finally, AQ read the poem through. Before we left the room, AH explained he thought the poem held a mixture of happiness and sadness. Talking about the poem overall, he said, ‘It is like waves.’ He went onto explain, ‘It is like reality’. He gestured with his hand, demonstrating a movement going up and down.

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Part 4: Weighing and discussing the evidence This part investigates the methodology discussed in Part 2 to consider developments and progress in the sessions. The part will end by drawing conclusions on the project. Dr. Robinson advised me on important questions to ask when looking at the evidence. These include: • • • •

How did the group develop throughout the project? What did individual participants gain from the sessions? Did the poetry give participants a space to discuss issues facing them? Where did the project and methodology work and where could they be improved?

A) Attendance: The graph below is useful in relation to SF1. Attendance at the reading group was voluntary – people came as often as they wanted. Good attendance suggests the sessions were worth attending.

Graph: Individual attendance at sessions

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The participants’ names are listed chronologically – Participant A was present at the first session; AS at the second to last. The graph suggests the growth of a core group of five participants: AA, AF, AH AI and AQ. These participants returned to sessions between December and January.

B1) Narrative behavioural evidence to suggest why the core group developed

Individual participants’ enthusiasm and skills were major factors contributing to the initial development of the core group. AA attended many sessions. He often led discussions, asking for people’s ideas. He also translated discussion points. AF encouraged AQ to join the discussion on December 11th. AF and AQ attended the December 18th session together. They held common ground outside the reading group sessions as Asylum Link volunteers. As the only African females they may have felt marginalized individually, but together they attended sessions with confidence. As sessions progressed, participants showed signs of crossing cultural divides and forming new friendships. This was a new factor that can be suggested to have maintained participants’ enthusiasm for the sessions. On December 18th participants took the initiative to talk together about cultural holidays. By January 29th AA and AF, Afghan and Rwandan respectively, spoke to one another respectfully, with enthusiasm (SF6).

B2) Narrative behavioural evidence to show participants’ individual progress

On December 7th the text’s meaning was not fully explored (PF5). Language problems existed for group members (PF4). However, by December 18th AH’s confidence with the language of the poetry had improved (SF5). This allowed him to discuss the poetry more independently, with confidence. In addition, after announcing how secure he was with the poetry’s language, AH introduced the group to a word from his language (SF6). This helped open the group up and ensure it was not dominated only by English language or culture. I think AH developed the confidence to do this as a result of attending a few sessions, thus building up confidence with other people and the English language. Throughout the December 18th session I took more of a backseat as a facilitator – this linked to the comments AF made on December 30

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11th (SF4). She took the initiative to show her enthusiasm for reading challenging poetry. This suggested to me participants were becoming confident and wanted to set the agenda for sessions. AQ in particular related many elements of her life in Zimbabwe to ‘30th December’. The connections she drew illuminated the poem’s universal meaning. The Christmas theme was still strong in this poem, but AQ’s individual voice brought out strong notions of isolation, separation and the possibility of being reunited (SF4).

C) Reports after final session: Interviews with participants and staff

What follows is a methodology behind the interview conducted with participants, followed by the questions and sample responses. Dr Robinson said I should ask Maggi to conduct the interview – in my absence the participants would be more likely to give open and unbiased answers. Dr Robinson said it would be good to ask participants why they joined and returned, and about the nature of the project overall. It was also important to inform participants that their responses would be reported anonymously to guarantee confidentiality. After the final session I left the room and Maggi asked participants the following questions. Four participants were interviewed. Their responses are anonymous and they are summarized and grouped numerically, except when extra information is useful. 1. Why did you get involved with the reading group?

3 ‘Interested in literature.’ 1 – No comment 2. Why did you come back to the group?

2 – ‘Interested in poetry from a variety of cultures.’ 2 –No comment 3. What worked well in the group?

3 – ‘Liked the musical elements of poetry.’ 1 – No comment 4. Can you give some ideas and suggestions on what could be done to make the group better?

One participant said it would be important to have an exam in future sessions and a certificate for attendance. This participant also suggested holding a writer’s group. 5. Reading poetry can seem like reading a special language. People often find poetry creates a lot of interesting images in their heads. For example, in the poem ‘30th December’ the writer describes

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Shining meadows and Swans flying in to their runway. What has it been like for you to read poetry in English?

One participant related reading poetry to happiness. Following on from this all four participants said they were ‘generally happy in the group’ (SF7). Two participants explained that the participant from Zimbabwe, who was not present at this session, had come to recent sessions and introduced a happy note.

I also spoke to members of staff and volunteers at Asylum Link about how they thought a reading group could help asylum seekers. I have the ideas of Mr. Euan Roberts, the centre manager for Asylum Link, to illuminate a single SF. He was not involved with the project on a practical level. However, he understood asylum issues thoroughly. He suggested a reading group may tackle problems with racism between asylum seekers. He explained there had been cases of racism at Asylum Link. He suggested that with a reading group people become ‘poetry readers’. This is a common ground where people can value each other’s thoughts and ideas without regard for race (SF6). D) Final conclusions and ideas for future research

As individual participants developed confidence in the group with one another and with the English language, they started to lead the discussions. I gained confidence in choosing poetry and I left discussions open. I selected ‘30th December’, which has an implicit meaning to do with loneliness under a more obvious theme of Christmas. The group members’ increased confidence and the progression to more challenging poetry helped create a talking space where the participants were able to speak about themselves through the poem. By the final session I had learnt a lot as a facilitator. I found that sessions can benefit from a mixture of participants’ contributions and the facilitator’s key questions. In the December 18th session I took a backseat but I also asked the group about their cultural holidays. In the middle of the January 25th session where we looked at ‘Swahili’, a poem to do with language, I asked the group if we could share some words from each of our languages. This engaged all participants including AS, a new member who spoke little English. The key questions focus more on the topic of the poem than the poem’s key meaning or feeling. They are important in easing participants in and out of sessions and can elicit ideas from participants with limited language skills.

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In addition, in the final session I brought a dictionary for all participants to use together. It was a simple device, which participants could access if they had trouble with a word’s meaning. This allowed the group to work together to access the text’s meaning. A future investigation could look into which poems help participants deal with particular experiences or issues. These could be categorised for the benefit of future project workers. A prospective researcher would have to be aware that sometimes participants discuss issues that are separate from the poem, such as personal problems. In light of this, it is important for the researcher to have a literary background, to consider with authority whether the participants’ comments relate directly to the text or are influenced by personal issues. In relation to the group’s unlocking of the universal meaning of the poem, it can be suggested that looking at poetry from different cultures helps bridge cultural divides. AQ’s connections between Christmas and her own situation of loneliness helped make a British cultural tradition seem human. Underneath all of the presents and food it can be suggested that people feel particularly lonely around Christmas. Asylum seekers may recognise similar festivals in their own countries which appear happy yet are ultimately isolating. This deepened understanding of Christmas may lead to a deeper understanding of UK culture overall. Further research on poems and culture would benefit from fine tuning. Control could be exerted over groups so that membership was homogenous or heterogeneous in terms of nationality and culture. Poems from various cultures could be used with groups to see how different combinations of nationalities react to different poems. It may be the case that poetry from diverse cultures is not as useful with all groups as it was with this one. The multi-stranded nature of the methodology was good to use for this project. The three types of data made a good balance that could be drawn. Four to five SFs or PFs were good for directing the reports toward conclusions. It was good to use abbreviations to indicate progress rather than interrupting the report’s narrative flow with sentences. SFs were also good for summarising points in the post-session interviews. SFs 2 and 3 were similar – they related to the development of participants’ ideas. Both SFs were fundamental to the development of other SFs such as 4 and 6. For cultural connection to take place, participants had to put forward and develop ideas together. A future methodology could amalgamate SFs 2 and 3 as a single starting block for the development of other SFs. The interviews conducted with the staff at Asylum Link were useful because they showed what people thought a reading group could provide for asylum seekers. An improvement to the methodology for a 33

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future project could include asking more staff and volunteers what they would like to see from the sessions, before the project commenced. This could give the facilitator an immediate idea of the problems faced by their members. As a final note, it would be good to consider whether poetry groups had helped members’ confidence in everyday life. This was touched on in Part 2. This research would require a longer-term core group at Asylum Link. The methodology would benefit from observations outside sessions made by volunteers and staff, and evaluative interviews with participants about how the group helped their day to day confidence.

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Bibliography Primary sources: BOOKS Astley, N. (ed.) Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times (Highgreen: Bloodaxe, 2002) Morgan, G. (ed.) Read Me: A Poem a Day for the National Year of Reading (London: Macmillan, 1998) Newland, C. and Sesay, K. (eds.) IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain (London: Penguin, 1999) Webb, K. (ed.) I Like This Poem: A Collection of Best-loved Poems Chosen by Children for Other Children (London: Puffin: 1979) Zephaniah, B. Funky Chickens (London: Puffin, 1997) TRANSLATIONS Jahadhmy, A. (ed.) Anthology of Swahili Poetry (London: Heinemann, 1977) Khayyam, O. Rubaiyat. Trans. P. Avery (London: Penguin: 2004) CHAPTERS Dunmore, H. ‘My Polish Teacher’s Tie’ in Ice Cream (London: Penguin: 2001) Secondary sources: BOOKS Dorwick, C. Beyond Depression: A New Approach to Understanding and Management (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) McCarty Hynes, A. Biblio and Poetry Therapy: The Interactive Process: A Handbook (St. Cloud: North Star, 1994) Oliver, D. Poetry and Narrative in Performance (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1989) ARTICLES Curran, M. ‘Evaluation Report of the Get into Reading Project: a qualitative evaluation of the impact of participation in reading groups’ (M.A. Thesis, Lancaster University, 2007) Hodge, S.; Robinson, J.; Davis, P. ‘Reading between the lines: the experiences of taking part in a community reading project’ in Medical Humanities, 33 (2007), pp. 100-104

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Appendix

Poems from weekly sessions Session One – October 5th 2007 ‘The Months’ Christina Rossetti Session Two – October 19th ‘The Cuckoo’ Anon – From A Poem A Day Session Three – October 26th ‘It’s Only the Storm’ David Greygoose Session Four – November 2nd ‘I’ve Had This Shirt’ Michael Rosen Session Five – November 7th ‘The Road Not Taken’ Robert Frost Session Six – November 9th ‘This Orange Tree’ Benjamin Zephaniah Session Seven – November 16th ‘Good Hope’ Benjamin Zephaniah Session Eight – November 23rd ‘Football Mad’ Benjamin Zephaniah Session Nine – December 4th ‘The Wild, The Free’ Lord Byron ‘Watering The Horse’ Robert Bly Session Ten, Eleven, Twelve – December 7th, 11th and 18th See relevant reports in Part 2. 36

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Session Thirteen – January 11th ‘My Polish Teacher’s Tie’ Helen Dunmore Session Fourteen – January 17th Opening 6 verses of the ‘Rubaiyat’ Omar Khayyam Session Fifteen – January 25th ‘Swahili’ Shaaban Robert Translated from Swahili by Ali A. Jahadhmy Session Sixteen – January 29th ‘April’ Denrele Ogunwa

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