A second experience that stuck in my mind after a session of tutoring at the Easley Center dealt with the resources that were available to the children. I was working with Jessica again as we attempted to finish her English homework. This particular homework consisted of a section that required finding the word that did not belong out of a group of four words. Whenever Whitney did not know what a specific word meant she would make a trip across the room to the bookshelf. The Easley Center provided a good amount of resources that the children could use to be proactive in their search for information.
After we had finished working on Whitney’s homework, we began looking up random words and made it into little a game. Whitney would turn to a random page in the dictionary and quiz me on the meaning of a word. Honestly, quite a few times even I did not know exactly what the word meant. She would giggle when I did not know the answer and read the definition aloud to us both. Then we would talk about how that word was used in the real world. After she had asked me a question, I would take my turn asking her what each word meant. It turns out that both Whitney and myself learned a lot just from playing that silly dictionary game.
I found it interesting that a younger girl, like Whitney, could enjoy learning the meanings of different words by simply making a game with only a dictionary. Her excitement for learning was refreshing because it seems as though many children today dread going to school and doing their homework. Most children will simply to the bare minimum that is required to get by. I could tell that Whitney was already much more mature than many of her classmates because she was constantly striving to do her best.
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