Selected scenes from actual tutoring sessions. You never know what a student might say next.
A kindergarten boy at a kitchen table next to his mother. He is discovering /f/. He makes the sound.
"That's perfect! Can you think of a word that begins with /f/?"
"F--K!"
"Um….good. That word does start with a /f/."
"That's on me," says a red-faced Mom.
The sweetest, most innocent 8-year-old girl you can imagine. A study table in a quiet den. Winter. Snow. Last session before the holidays.
"Let's play a game. Let's see how many words we can make out of Christmas."
We break down all the possible vowels: /i/, /a/, /ai/, /ar/, /ir/. We identify digraphs: ch, sh, th, ss. We note how the extra "s" can make words plural: sit/sits, star/stars, etc. There are more than 300 words contained in the letters c-h-r-i-s-t-m-a-s.
Guess which one she found first? S—t. And second? A-s. With the sweetest smile on her face.
A third-grade girl, learning to break multi-syllable words. In one of the words, the first syllable was pronounced "ass."
"Isn't that a naughty word?" she asks.
"It can be. But some words don't always mean what they appear."
The lesson continues. About five minutes later, the girl's face suddenly lights up.
"I know what you mean!" she says. "I have a friend named Dick."
A fourth-grade boy. A school study room. A reading exercise.
"Drive."
"You got all the sounds. Check carefully after the /d/."
"Oh, dive. I was close!"
"Close only counts in horseshoes and dancing, buddy. Here's your next word."
A long pause.
"I get horseshoes, but what about dancing?"
"Uh, never mind."