The past few weeks, I have been working with two girls in particular. I worked with them for the first time on a debate they were doing in class, and I could tell that we clicked immediately. I felt like I could really relate to the girls, and they seemed to have a good time working on their debate as well as just generally talking about anything else with me. It has been nice to work with these two girls week-to-week to get to know them better.

Something I found out quickly after working with them was that they get very easily distracted and don’t like sitting for long periods of time while doing homework. Seeing that they were starting to disengage after a while, I asked them if they wanted to walk around the school and talk about their assignment. I brought their worksheet with me and asked them the questions out loud, and we discussed the answers as we walked. They really liked doing this and didn’t even realize that we were answering all the questions as we walked – it seemed so informal and not “school-like.” After taking a lap around the building, we sat down, and they filled out the worksheet with the answers they had given me as we walked. I was impressed by how much they had to say about the topic, and I was amazed how simply changing up the environment can result in a dramatic increase in student interest and productivity. Ever since then, we have gone on “homework walks” every Tuesday and Thursday around the building, and they still seem to really enjoy it!

Contributed by Lauren Cavers

Here’s a quick round-up of what Butler students enrolled in the Writing In The Schools course have been saying about Shortridge this semester. We’re really pleased with all their hard work, which has yielded some stellar returns…

Bridgit Goss: I worked with a student on a persuasive essay last week. Although the assignment was challenging and the student felt somewhat overwhelmed, when the student left our session, she thanked me by saying, “No one has ever taken time to help me like that,” which made me feel really good.

Melissa Rangel: I had an absolutely fantastic day at Shortridge on Tuesday. This applies to most days – when 4 o’clock rolls around, I never want to leave. I stay as long as I possibly can because the kids are great. They’re hilarious, and they make me laugh so hard. And they’re so smart and passionate! I’m always spilling over with compliments for them.

Whitney Hass: When I worked with A–, she did a wonderful job writing a short story in her writing notebook, and I was so glad she was willing and excited to present her piece during her first session with the group. I loved the amount of emotion she was able to pack into her work.

Ginnye Cubel: I think my biggest success yesterday was getting J– to read his poem out loud. The student was really intimidated by reading, so I tried to point out places where the sound worked really well and stressed to him how powerful those instances were when spoken aloud. Even though it was just in front of a few of the other tutors and me, it was still exciting!

I really enjoyed our activities on Tuesday. I know I would have had a great time doing them. I thought the first activity was hilarious [Ed. note: click here to see the prompt], even though it seemed somewhat hard for the them to the grasp the concept of a celebrity performing a random yet normal action. But when we moved on to the second activity [Ed. note: an exercise on setting], the ball really started to roll. I worked with K- and I-, and they both did fantastic on the activity. I asked the whole list of questions to them out loud, and both students responded with answers instantly. They didn’t even have to think about the scene – it was already in their head. They described it like it was a real physical place that they’ve been to, and I absolutely loved the results. When I unleashed them on writing and gave them their space, I- wrote up a storm, and K- also did really well. Unfortunately, I had to leave before the students read their work aloud, but I assume they did awesome [Ed. note: they did].

Contributed by Melissa Rangel

Yesterday was an emotional day at Shortridge. The Goodbye poem exercise truly awakened some of our student’s inner-feelings. In a way, I think it helped them express themselves and their feelings to a trusted audience. They bonded together and supported each other when they were down. One student I was working with wrote a poem about her mother and cried while reading it. Others broke down mid-sentence while reading aloud; however, the one encouraging aspect of the day is that they picked each other up. When one student couldn’t read, someone would read for them. If one student started to cry, they would embrace each other. It was an emotionally charged day, but I think we all grew closer (students and tutors) after experiencing this together.

Contributed by Emily Luc

Last week, I spent time with a student who seemed disinterested in working at first. We were created sentences from a list of vocabulary words. WIth each sentence, we slowly became more familiar with each other, and she started opening up and telling me about her interests. She put her mind to coming up with good sentences, and I supported her by complimenting her creativity and telling her that she was doing an awesome job. When I did this, she became more confident, which carried her through the rest of the exercise. I enjoyed working with her because she wanted her assignment to be correct and she wanted to learn. After we finished the assignment, she mentioned something about wanting to learn on the weekends because she has free time and wants to be a better reader. I have already started thinking of books to suggest to her.

Contributed by Alison Ledbetter