Posts

Art Imitates Life: Reading Journal II

Image
We were working on Louis Sachar's classic novel,  Holes.    The novel features a formerly homeless teen, Zero, who has never learned to read. The main character, Stanley, ends up bonding with him as they work on literacy skills together.   Dear reader, this serves two purposes: One, it reveals Stanley's empathy through his desire to help another youngster. Although the reading lessons are offered in exchange for manual labour, Stanley comes to realise that he could have offered the lessons without any conditions attached. It's an opportunity for the reader to observe his growing maturity and compassion as the book progresses. Having suffered through adversity and made an unexpected friend, he sheds his downtrodden, self-effacing persona and emerges as a confident, resilient and resourceful young man.  Two, these reading lessons teach the reader an important lesson: when you're at the bottom of a deep hole, no education is ever wasted. And without spoiling the book for y
Post a Comment
Read more

Reading Journal: Part I

I was reading the illustrated version of the Harry Potter series with a student. He was utterly immersed in the world of Hogwarts and engaged in passionate debate about the books. For example, we spent at least ten minutes on conversations about: Why was Hagrid really expelled?  Who really opened the Chamber of Secrets?  Who was a better candidate for the heir of Slytherin? Oh no, the thought hit me. I'm going off on a tangent. I'm supposed to help him focus and here I am, setting off fireworks and chasing squirrels again. But I just couldn't seem to get past all his wonderful questions.  These were questions that he came up with on the fly, in conversation, and he was gripped, inspired. Was I going to douse the flames of his enth usiasm, squash the joy he was experiencing, by pulling up a worksheet and making him do it?  Nope. I went with it. " Language and text  can be a source of creativity and joy," right (thank you, Ministry of Education!)? We could focus l
Post a Comment
Read more

Launch Day!

Image
I am a humanities tutor in West Vancouver, British Columbia.  I offer a wide range of services, including: Last-minute homework help in English Literature and Social Studies / History Writing and editing essays, research projects, speeches (my specialty!) and podcast / video scripts Podcast and website development Reading for fluency, comprehension and expression My Purpose My goal is the same with every student: to engage, inspire and motivate them to learn. This requires a learning space in which learning is not so much required as it is inevitable .  Learning is a collaborative, creative enterprise. It's something we do together. To that end, I encourage students to be as forthright as they can about their needs and challenges. What to expect Students can also expect to receive my guidance (and be challenged!) in the following areas: Summarising and note-taking Dividing assignments into manageable chunks  Planning when these chunks are to be completed Stress management and self-
Post a Comment
Read more