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.