talking with kids

            I have just learned that five need to incorporate a response to my work at the writer’s room. So I will start this post off with a brief reflection of my first experience where I actually got to tutor these kids.

            I began my time period in the middle of a class block who was already in the room. I felt awkward just walking in the middle of the action, especially since I didn’t have kids last week. Bryce gave me a brief rundown of the students’ prompts and how they have been instructed to work around those. They were given a series of books and different prompts and they could choose from any of the prompts and use a book to help prove their arguments. They also needed to research their book’s author and incorporate their newfound information into their work.

            After the first class left, only about fifteen minutes into my time there, we had another forty-five minutes to rest before the next group was coming in for tutoring. In our down time, I just simply played some games on my phone and talked with Bryce about our similar music tastes. We also spent some of that time hanging up posters around some of the school for a club that the writer’s room was helping with.

            Then we had our next class come in. I felt like it was my duty to not stop helping with the kids, so after Bryce stationed me at the middle block of tables, I knelt down next to the desk of the student at the corner. I first introduced myself, and asked her how her day has been going, then I started asking her about her paper. I asked for her to tell me her thesis, but not to read it to me. My logic is that if she can explain it as she naturally would, she could more easily argue for it. Her thesis claimed that a survivor is a survivor because of three reasons (I forgot what they were). I had a tough time explaining to her that there are many ways to form a counter-argument, but the easiest for her would be to say that one could be a survivor without having these three reasons, or the opposite, one could be a non-survivor but have all the described traits. I left her with these hints, then kept going around the room.

            My most interesting stop was when I talked to a kid and he couldn’t explain his thesis. I asked why he was having so much difficulty with it and he revealed that he had not read his book. This put me in an interesting spot, because I have been in his place countless times throughout high school, and now it was my duty to push him to read it. As I recommended to him to read, I noticed a small smirk across his face, and I responded with sincerity and told him that I have been in his place, and I’ve heard all the teachers whine to me about doing the readings as their words just went over my head. I then told him that I used to think just like him that I could weasel out of this situation without reading. As I read his thesis, though, it was so obvious to me he had not read, I had to insist the importance of his reading. His arguments were just so vague. I wish him the best of luck, because I know he is still going to try to write his paper without reading.