“He helped me with my Spanish, and I helped him to read and write.” —Kerry Birnbach
Kerry Birnbach, Member 2006–2007
The Extra Boost
When I received my list of focus children at the beginning of the year, there were only two girls on the list. Working with boys is, of course, wonderful, but in my experience, six-year old boys don't give you the same affection or appreciation that girls tend to give. After two days of working with one of my girls, my hope that my focus children would accept me into their world of alphabet songs, SpongeBob, and field trips was fulfilled. One of my focus children was a sassy little six-year-old girl, wearing pink outfits almost every day of the week, and she made me feel appreciated immediately.
She was constantly seeking attention, and working one-on-one with me was ideal. Her teacher reported that as a kindergartener, she had fallen asleep frequently and daydreamed. As a result, she had fallen behind her classmates in first grade. Although she was one of the more advanced focus children, knowing the majority of her letters and sounds, she faltered at combining syllables and sounds. She could write well, but her reading lagged behind. When she and I began, she knew three nonnegotiable words (words that appear frequently in first grade and are focused on throughout the year).
Through games like Memory, Hangman, and Bingo, we worked on recognizing nonnegotiables. Additionally, we focused on recognizing syllables within words and breaking down words to read them quickly. With someone giving her full, undivided attention, she excelled quickly. By the end of three months, she had caught up to her classmates in reading and knew 35 nonnegotiable words. She was a prime example of a student who needed some personalized attention and mentoring in order to catch up quickly.
The ACEE program is designed to give students in need of a boost some extra one-on-one support so they can catch up with classmates. Through one-on-one tutoring, we provide children with personalized lessons that focus on critical reading skills with which they are struggling. ACEE tutors nonetheless double as mentors and role models to our students. At times, this aspect of the tutoring is what the child needs most. My student needed someone to fulfill her need for attention. She concentrated much better, and after a short time, she was tested out of the ACEE program.
Testing her out of the program was bittersweet: I was proud and excited that she had excelled, but I was sad to let go of one of my two girls. She had been crucial to my first months as a tutor, giving me affection and love in my first insecure weeks of the school year. She hugged me and clung to my hands constantly. The boys I worked with were amazing, but having a dose of six-year-old pink girly love really helped me feel at home.
Teaching Each Other
Tutoring native speakers in Spanish was an overwhelming prospect when I began working with ACEE. My kids, upon hearing my Spanish, tended to make one of four choices for dealing with a slow, awkward speaker. They decided to (a) avoid trouble and speak to me in English, (b) speak fast, knowing perfectly well I couldn't understand them, (c) speak slowly and help me learn, or (d) disregard anything I said. My first focus child decided to speak incredibly fast, and thus my first lesson was quite intimidating. After feeling like this whole bilingual tutoring thing was a bad idea, I went to find my second student, "Marvin."
Marvin was crucial to my confidence as a Spanish speaker, because he would speak slowly and patiently, which helped me immensely. I told him to correct me if I said things wrong, but he never did. After a few lessons, when he had decided we could be friends. Whenever he said a word I didn't know, and which he couldn't explain, instead of repeating it loudly over and over as other students might do, he would smile and reach for a marker. He drew a picture of what the word meant, and I would guess it. Then, after I said the word, I would have him sound it out to me as if he were the instructor. Through this method, we started putting together words by breaking them into sounds and syllables.
Marvin loved telling me new words, and it was great for me to expand my vocabulary. After several sessions, he would just instinctually reach for the marker, and eventually he would spell out what he was trying to say instead of drawing it. Marvin learned quickly and exited the program within four months. His attitude was crucial in his learning: He was patient and listened well. Additionally, Marvin was honest with me. If I asked him what was too easy or boring, he'd tell me the truth. After several "boring" activities, I discovered the best ways to instruct him. He disliked the readers I gave him, but got excited when we read from library books, taking turns reading pages. He liked fill-in-the-blank exercises, and hated flashcards. I modified our lessons to his tastes, and he excelled.
Needless to say, all children lose their attention at some point and time. All year, as I saw my students daydream during our sessions, I would try to bring them back to the present by saying "paga atencion." Now, in English this would translate to "pay attention," but unfortunately for me, I had been using the incorrect verb for this particular command. During one of our last sessions, Marvin was really preoccupied and I told him to pay attention. Immediately he focused on his work again, and as we finished he looked up and in the quietest voice told me not to say "paga atencion" but instead, "pon atencion." I said thanks, and he looked relieved that I was not mad.
Marvin was the only child I tutored who corrected me directly. I was completely grateful for it, and really embarrassed that I had been saying "pay attention" incorrectly all semester. Working with him was truly a joy, because it was a complete two way process; he helped me with my Spanish, and I helped him to read and write. Technically, tutors shouldn't have favorites, but for obvious reasons, Marvin was mine.