Tutoring

Last week I met with Kim for thr first time after giving her the Anne Frank book.  She was excited to share her ideas and made great use of her journal! I was so happy to see her at ease and chatty with me!  She’s really coming out of her shell and her personality is shining!  She read three chapters and used all three of the sections in her journal which were- word study, burning questions and can you believe that….

First Kim pointed out the word ‘frenzy’ and that this was a new word to her.  We found it in context and discussed why the author chose this word to describe Hitler and his interactions with the Nazis.  We used our computers and looked the word up, then added in our own words what the word meant to us.  Kim had been telling me of how much fun she’d had over the weekend at a fall festival and how she loved winning prizes from the games.  Without prompting, she connected ‘frenzy’ to her weekend winning experiences and how she worked herself into a frenzy each time she won a prize.  It was great to see her make personal connections with new knowledge!  She is a very smart individual!

From there we dove right into what questions emerged from her reading and prior knowlege of Anne Frank and the Holocaust.  I was impressed with her inqueries.  They were:

How did Otto survive when so many perished?

Why did Anne Frank fight so much with her mom?

If Otto was German, why did he and his family have to flee?

These questions will guide our time together today.  I found great resources that tap into her ideas.  I’m thrilled to see Kim’s background knowlegde influence so much of what she’s reading now.  You can really see the new knowledge interacting with her established ideas.  It’s driving advanced questioning,  which in turn is prompting advanced studies during our time together!

Mostly, I’m thrilled to see Kim passionate about what she is learning and her capacity to get involved in discussion more and more as she gets comfortable with me and gains confidence in what we are doing.