“I have seen him gain confidence in himself, and gain the skills that will allow him to read in the near future.” —Julie Franz
Julie Franz, Member 2002–2003
One of the best stories that came out of my tutoring this year involves a kindergartner who I will call Tom. From the beginning, Tom was very hard to engage. He did not seem very interested in any of the books I read to him, and did not readily look at or speak to me during any of our sessions. For weeks, he looked at the letters in the alphabet as very "foreign" and "strange" and did not seem to recognize them no matter how I presented them.
Then, one day I read him a book about trains, which really fascinated him. As he was looking closely at the colorful pages, his eyes found the letter "s" on the page. Suddenly, he jumped up from his seat and pointed several times at the letter. "Hey!" he exclaimed. "That, that is in the ABCs!" Thrilled with his discovery that those funny scribbles I always showed him actually made stories, I explained how all of the letters in the ABCs make up every story that we read together. I got out the alphabet chart and he went through the book and pointed to each letter, and tried to find it in the book. It was one of the first times I saw a huge smile on Tom's face.
Through the semester, Tom's interest and excitement about learning grew. By Christmas he had learned all of the uppercase and lowercase letters and nearly all of the letter sounds. Each time I come to tutor him he smiles and gives me a hug. When we sit down at the desk he makes sure that I have the alphabet chart out so that he can find the letters (even though he really doesn't need it any more). I have seen him gain confidence in himself, and gain the skills that will allow him to read in the near future. This is what makes my job so incredible.