How Many Books?

    Our local library is currently sponsoring a 1,000 books before kindergarten program. It's where families read books to their babies, toddlers or otherwise pre-schoolers in an effort to prepare them for kindergarten. That's where I come in as a volunteer to tutor kindergartners in reading.

    Teachers set up a desk in the hall and one-by-one the students come out and read from either a book the teacher has provided or a book that the student brings from home. I help them sound out words or give them encouragement as they learn the complexities of the English language.

    It sounds straightforward and often it is as the kindergartners know the drill. But every kid is different and I never know quite what to expect. After one kindergartner came out and took a seat at our shared desk, I push the assigned book in front of him and ask him to read.

    “No, you read it,” he said, pushing the book back at me. I did get him to eventually try reading but the book, which was scrounged up by a substitute teacher, turned out to be an advanced reader which the first few students struggled mightily to read. I eventually gave up and got a different book though students sometimes came out with their own books they brought from home.

    That should have made reading easier for kids.  Then one book a kindergartner pulled out described an insect called a “morpho butterfly.” I don't think morpho butterfly belongs in a beginning to read book for a number of reasons. One, the word morpho is not a word that you would encounter anywhere else as it only is ONLY used to describe the morpho butterfly. And the morpho butterfly is not even native to the United States though it can only be found in Central and South America.

    When I asked one boy to read, he announced, “I can't read. My mouth hurts.” That was a new one on me. I asked him to try though and he read fine. Another boy said he needed to finish quickly as the class right now was having playtime and he didn't want to miss all of that. I told him to try to read more quickly. He rolled his eyes and complained, “But the words are getting harder.”

    That wasn't true however as the book used pretty much the same words over and over. I did read a couple pages myself to help speed things along so he could get to playtime. Once in a while I'll get a student who is more interested in chatting that reading. One little girl started out by talking about the lunch her mother packed for her. Naturally I had to ask what she was having.

    She said her mother made her her favorite donuts, Arabic donuts. I thought I misunderstood what she was saying but there actually are Arabic donuts.  This little girl went on to say, "I can speak Japanese. But I can't do it today." That was fine as I had more students to help read.

       And the book the students all read the most had quite a few pages. One student after finishing leafed through the book and said, "I can't believe I readed all these pages." I guess that was a teachable moment. I could have explained the tenses involved with the word read. But I figured that was a lesson for another day and another senior volunteer.