Reading text and notes on vocabulary pre-teaching & procedure
Assignment A - Reading text
You must use this text for your reading lesson plan
What made me the way I am?
In our regular column inviting contributors to reflect on how their
past has affected their current life, award winning documentary
maker, Summer Avery, reflects on how her family history influenced
her choice of career.
My parents came from totally different backgrounds. My dad, Dave, comes from a mining village in
Yorkshire. For generations, all the boys in his family went down the pit and that's what dad was
going to do, too. But in the 1980s they started closing down the mines and suddenly there was no
work for young men like my dad. My mum, Lucy, came from a very different family. Her father was
a diplomat, Mum went to boarding school because her parents lived abroad. They expected her to
go to Oxford or Cambridge University and then do an important job, but she was a rebellious girl.
The early 1980s in the UK was a time of great change. Big industries were closing down and
people from communities like my dad's were losing their jobs and their hope. But in other places,
new enterprises were starting up and some people were getting very rich very quickly.
These changes led to political protests and some people rejected mainstream lifestyles altogether.
Among those people were the 'New Age Travellers.' They lived in old lorries and buses and
travelled from one music festival to another. These lorries and buses used to travel together in
convoys and they were unpopular with many people. The police kept breaking up the convoys and
closing down the festivals. The travellers kept regrouping and planning more festivals. There used
to be a very popular free festival at Stonehenge* on Summer Solstice*. In 1985, the Travellers
were determined to hold this festival and huge numbers joined the convoys. Two of the people
who went to join the peace convoy were my mum, who had decided to run away from school and
my dad, who had decided to escape unemployment by going on the road. That is where they met -
when they were arrested at Stonehenge! It's funny to think that they would never have met if they
hadn't gone to that festival.
They were only seventeen years old. I was born exactly one year later on Summer Solstice 1986 –
that's why they called me Summer. Both families were really shocked and disappointed. I didn't
even meet my grandparents until I was seven. When I was little we travelled round Europe in an
old double-decker bus. My dad's a talented musician and my mum was good at gymnastics, so
they joined this strange alternative circus called 'Anarkurkus'. There were no animals or any of the
usual circus things – just human performers doing really crazy things.
I didn't have a very conventional way of life as a child. I didn't go to school. We never ate meat.
We went to lots of music festivals and political demonstrations. I learned a lot about being an
outsider. In some places people were really hostile. There was no need for this; everyone in our
circus was very gentle and very honest. People are just afraid of difference. I'm sure it is this early
experience that made me interested in how society treats minority groups. I doubt I'd be so
interested in social exclusion if I hadn't experienced it. It has been the subject of all my films.
When I was seven my dad got news that his mother was seriously ill. They returned to the UK and
made peace with their families. We lived in a house and I went to school. I was really excited to
have my own bedroom and eat normal food like cornflakes at my cousin's houses. When I started
school I could read and juggle much better than the other kids – and my knowledge of European
geography was way ahead of theirs! I'm sure I wouldn't have known so much at that age if my
parents had been more conventional.
Assignment A - Reading text
You must use this text for your reading lesson plan
What made me the way I am?
In our regular column inviting contributors to reflect on how their
past has affected their current life, award winning documentary
maker, Summer Avery, reflects on how her family history influenced
her choice of career.
My parents came from totally different backgrounds. My dad, Dave, comes from a mining village in
Yorkshire. For generations, all the boys in his family went down the pit and that's what dad was
going to do, too. But in the 1980s they started closing down the mines and suddenly there was no
work for young men like my dad. My mum, Lucy, came from a very different family. Her father was
a diplomat, Mum went to boarding school because her parents lived abroad. They expected her to
go to Oxford or Cambridge University and then do an important job, but she was a rebellious girl.
The early 1980s in the UK was a time of great change. Big industries were closing down and
people from communities like my dad's were losing their jobs and their hope. But in other places,
new enterprises were starting up and some people were getting very rich very quickly.
These changes led to political protests and some people rejected mainstream lifestyles altogether.
Among those people were the 'New Age Travellers.' They lived in old lorries and buses and
travelled from one music festival to another. These lorries and buses used to travel together in
convoys and they were unpopular with many people. The police kept breaking up the convoys and
closing down the festivals. The travellers kept regrouping and planning more festivals. There used
to be a very popular free festival at Stonehenge* on Summer Solstice*. In 1985, the Travellers
were determined to hold this festival and huge numbers joined the convoys. Two of the people
who went to join the peace convoy were my mum, who had decided to run away from school and
my dad, who had decided to escape unemployment by going on the road. That is where they met -
when they were arrested at Stonehenge! It's funny to think that they would never have met if they
hadn't gone to that festival.
They were only seventeen years old. I was born exactly one year later on Summer Solstice 1986 –
that's why they called me Summer. Both families were really shocked and disappointed. I didn't
even meet my grandparents until I was seven. When I was little we travelled round Europe in an
old double-decker bus. My dad's a talented musician and my mum was good at gymnastics, so
they joined this strange alternative circus called 'Anarkurkus'. There were no animals or any of the
usual circus things – just human performers doing really crazy things.
I didn't have a very conventional way of life as a child. I didn't go to school. We never ate meat.
We went to lots of music festivals and political demonstrations. I learned a lot about being an
outsider. In some places people were really hostile. There was no need for this; everyone in our
circus was very gentle and very honest. People are just afraid of difference. I'm sure it is this early
experience that made me interested in how society treats minority groups. I doubt I'd be so
interested in social exclusion if I hadn't experienced it. It has been the subject of all my films.
When I was seven my dad got news that his mother was seriously ill. They returned to the UK and
made peace with their families. We lived in a house and I went to school. I was really excited to
have my own bedroom and eat normal food like cornflakes at my cousin's houses. When I started
school I could read and juggle much better than the other kids – and my knowledge of European
geography was way ahead of theirs! I'm sure I wouldn't have known so much at that age if my
parents had been more conventional.
