I have been asked again and again if I tutor children in reading. I have in the past but had been taking a break from this work. Then, last week, I was asked again and I decided it was time. Apparently, there is a huge need and I have the skills so it just seemed like the right thing to do. I will be meeting with a fourth grade boy, who does not read for pleasure and is struggling with fluency and comprehension.
In preparation for my session, I re-read sections of Sharon Taberski’s excellent text Comprehension from the Ground Up.
While I was reminded of important research and picked up a few strategies that I will bring to my client, it was the poem at the end of the book that most resonated.
A Lazy Thought
by Eve Merriam
There go the grownups
To the office,
To the store,
Subway rush,
Traffic crush;
Hurry, scurry,
Worry, flurry.
No wonder
Grownups
Don’t grown up
Any more.
It takes a lot
Of slow
To grow.
My hope for my new client is certainly that his reading grades will improve; that he will perform better on our state tests. This is my wish because it is his wish and his mother’s. But more importantly, I hope to give him “a lot of slow to grow.” I hope to share with him books and authors that he can relax in to. I hope to grow him into a reader who sits and slowly devours book after book. It is only through this slow enjoyment of authentic literature that comprehension can grow.
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I have meant since the 2nd to put on a note to say thank you, thank you for this post…it says so well what I often try to convey to people about this “thing” called comprehension.
I have also noted for the first time you are a graduate school Wal-Hoo! My daugher is a UVA graduate (02) and needless to say, we spot that UVA on resumes and other places, always glad to meet another Wa-Hoo!
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