Tuesday night I arrived at the Family Life Center to work with a 5th grade boy, Dillon. I saw Dillon in the hallway on my way into tutoring. He told me that he did not want to come for tutoring. After talking with him for several minutes we made a deal that he would come in for only 20 minutes. The first thing we did was read his book for a book report project that is due in 3 weeks. I could see that he was losing interest as we read so after the 1st chapter we stopped. The story was a mystery about a mummy and the pyramids. I asked him if he knew what the pyramids looked like and he said no.
We went over to the School on Wheels computer and searched for pictures of the pyramids. I told him how some people thought the pyramids were made by aliens which really piqued his curiosity. As we were doing more research, he started to ask questions about the mummies. How were they created? What did decaying mean? Who were the mummies? After 10 minutes at the computer, Dillon was very excited about his book report project. We went back to the table and created a timeline for Dillon to follow so he could finish his book before his project was due. We decided he would read one chapter a day. I had to laugh because he asked me if he could read more of his book when he went upstairs to his room. This was a student who did not want to come to tutoring that night. Before we knew it the entire of hour of tutoring was up and Dillon did not want to leave. Dillon is a student who does not like to read and shows avoidance behavior when it is time to read during tutoring. To see him so excited to continue to read his book after tutoring was the BEST feeling!
Jacquelyn
Jacquelyn Hylton
Education Director, School on Wheels of Massachusetts
