Bilal is a fantastic kid. Perhaps a little too energetic, he was very excited to get to work with some "big kids." In fact, on the first day, while doing some get-to-know-you activities, Bilal was the one that turned to me and said, "when can we read?!"On our first day of tutoring, we read "Be Glad Your Nose Is On Your Face" by Jack Prelutsky. Bilal enjoyed the poem, and he demonstrated comprehension, after working with his tutor, by telling me about all the problems Prelutsky describes in having your nose in others places. The greatest challenge for Bilal was a single word: dread. He understood that it was bad, but he was struggling with the idea that dread is the opposite of looking forward to something.
An example made this all clear. One of our tutors said, "do you ever wake up and not want to go to school?" Bilal responded, "yeah, sometimes I just want to stay in bed."
"Exactly," said the tutor, "on those mornings, you dread going to school."
"Ah," said Bilal, "I get it."
We'll win him over soon enough. In a few weeks that example won't work. He'll be so excited for tutoring that he'll be ready to come to school - at least on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Thanks, as always, for reading.
Mark
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