Tutoring for the first time

Yesterday evening, four girls who had an interest in reading appeared at the Cliveden Park House at about 6pm. The two going into fifth grade immediately dove for copies of Harry Potter 1 and Harry Potter 2. They seemed to think they could read fine on their own, and went upstairs to find seats and settle in. After a few moments, I followed suit with the copy of Half Magic I'd been reading. I sat by the stairs and made it plain to them that if they had questions I'd do my best to answer.

One girl, we'll call her R, fidgeted and fussed about while she was reading. She couldn't sit still. She lay on the floor, she spun around in circles in a chair, she clicked her nails to the book, she tapped a toe. I found it very distracting and eventually found that I spent more time observing than reading my own book. But after all, that was basically the point.

Originally I had imagined hosting a read-aloud session to several kids with a book we picked together. I had several contenders on hand, depending on who the children that came to the session were. I would read-aloud for a half hour and then spend time helping each child choose a book to read alone for a longer spell. I would then be on hand to help each child with difficult words, et cetera. A fond hope for a first day.

After a while of R bothering B with questions about how much she had read (13 pages vs. 9), I asked B if she would like me to read her selection, Harry Potter and the Sorceror's (Philosopher's) Stone, aloud to her for a while. It had taken her probably forty minutes to read 9 pages. Which seems like a long while, although I don't usually count pages and time when I'm reading, so have nothing to judge it by. B said yes please, so I took over. For a while R sat and listened, but when we reached the end of chapter one she took leave of us and went downstairs to do math instruction with my husband.

There was a brief interruption when M arrived with her Mom. M is older, in high school. She is interested in music and dancing, but not reading. Unfortunately, she has been issued a long and arduous assignment for school. The book is Dan Brown's Digital Fortress. Totally the wrong book to give a teenager uninterested in computers and technology. The assignment deals with crytpography, essay after essay, followed by research and yet more essays. I found the whole thing a little distasteful, myself. I'm not sure what M's Mom hoped to achieve by asking me to help her daughter. I can't do it all for her, aside from the ethics of doing someone's homework, the book really doesn't appeal to me, either. Oh well. I promised M cookies and lemonade when she finishes the work. She's a bright girl and can obviously do it, but not without much complaining and melodrama.

So I read to the end of Chapter two in HP1, at which point I called it a night on reading. B hugged me and thanked me, and I assured her we'd read some more next week. The fourth girl, T, is interested in reading, but is obviously already A Reader. She professes to enjoy a good mystery, indicating a current favourite as Joan Lowery Nixon. I hope to lay hands on a few other selections with her in mind, although from what she told me I understand that she is a frequent Free Library of Philadelphia visitor.

Next week I will put my original plan in motion. Read aloud time followed with quiet time reading. A note made about who is reading what, etc. I expect to spend the summer reading the Harry Potter books in sequence, as these are kids who have not seen the movies and don't really know the stories. Instead of letting the kids pick Big Books to read next week, I want to encourage them to choose smaller, shorter, easier books to focus on. It's not that I want to tell them what and when to read, but the more reading they get under their belts, the easier it will become. And it's a confidence builder to remember that you read (2, 3, 4, 5!) books this summer!