Distractions & Words (A teacher’s post)
(I recently picked up a second job at a tutoring center in Santa Ana. I needed to get back to my roots of helping people. Today was my first day, and it was rather interesting. Each tutor is assigned a student to oversee for thirty minute sessions. In addition to the assigned student, the learning center is filled with countless other kids wanting to finish homework, a nice place to sit, play on the computer, or just talk to some friends. Here is slight except from my day)
My third student of the day sat down across from me and pulled out her homework. She was a third grader named…let say [Jane]. Jane seemed to be a very capable girl who understood how to do her assignments. When Jane came in, she also brought a friend [Jill]. Jill sat down next to us, and also pulled out some work.
When I was helping Jane, I could not help but notice the curious things Jill did. The homework Jill was working on was a multiple choice worksheet. The work consisted of grammar problems—basically, they gave a sample sentence that was inherently incorrect. The student must choose from a list of possible correct answers.
As I was helping Jane, I noticed that Jill spent about 5 seconds on her homework. Instead of reading the questions, she just circled what appeared to be random answers. Without a doubt, this intrigued me.
I said, ” How did you finish your homework in 5 seconds? How do you even know those answers are correct?”
Jill looked at me and responded, ” Oh, the teachers already gave us the answers in class.”
“The teacher gave you all the answers in class?” I replied.
“Yeah, she always does that,” Jill said with a shrug.
Though I forget sometimes, I tend to have a certain mastery of grammar. I briefly looked at her paper and saw that a few of her answers were completely wrong. I told her to erase the answers she picked and redo them. My main assumption consisted of her being lazy.
Since my student, Jane, seemed to be a pretty smart cookie, I told Jill that I would give her some assistance.
“Jill, I want you to read number one and tell me which one you think is the right answer,” I said to her.
“You want me to read?” Jill said with a confused look.
I like to have my student’s read anything they can. I feel that reading anything, even simple sentences, would give them adequate practice.
“Yes,” I said,” I want you to read number one.”
She said ok and proceeded to attempt number one. I cannot remember exactly what the sentence said, but it was something similar to “Penguins have paddle-like arms that help them swim.” Jill tried to read the first few words, but stumbled on everyone of them. At first, I just thought that the words caught her off guard. Most students her age don’t know how to spell penguin and paddle.
I told her to read the answers. She would ad words like “there” and “that” and just guess at them. With every word, there came a new guess. Although she was simply a third grader, she should know these words. However, the entire sentence was a challenge. I retracted my thought of her being lazy. It was far from that. She all too willing to do her homework. Effort had nothing to do with it. The problem was glaring—she couldn’t read. Not a single word. I think, over time, her frustration and inability to read—not even just comprehend, had caused her to be repulsed by assignments. Some teachers might have assumed she didnt try. If they spent just a little time with her, then they would know the truth. This girl needed help.
I asked her,” Jill, do you go to tutoring?”
Jill replied, ” Yea, a few days a week at some other place.”
I said, ” I see. I see. Well, since you are here most days, would you mind coming into the Ed Center when you can. I wouldnt mind helping you with your homework when I don’t have students.”
“I have to see when I am free,” she said as we continued to work on her assignment.
Before she left, I gave her the same speech about coming in to work on homework. I worked the next two days, but didn’t see her. It’s funny how students that get tutored usually are pretty smart, and the ones that really need it never say a word. I hope I see her again. It’s extremely easy for kids to fall through the cracks. Its just weird to see it so early on.
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.” -Mohandas Gandi
