The Wrath of the Almighty Johnny

I have the greatest tutoring client, "Johnny." He's an eleven-year old boy, finishing up sixth grade. He is very bright but lazy and hated writing, which is why his mom brought me in. The first day I met him, I told him that he wasn't going to hate writing tutoring. He answered me "We'll see about that." It was almost too easy. I found out that he loves fantasy novels and once I told him that he could write in the same genre, he was hooked.

Now, this kid goes to a small expensive private school with very small classes. Why his teacher can't give him the individual attention necessary to find out how to get him interested in writing, I have no idea. It wasn't hard.

I finally got the kid to admit he likes writing fiction. Big victory! He started writing stories about talking animals and animals that fell in toxic puddles and got superpowers and all sorts of things. When I broke it to him that he was going to write non-fiction, he groaned. I reminded him that he could trust me because I had promised he wouldn't hate it and he hadn't. (I think I can get him to do anything now because I proved trustworthy on that one!)

We made a deal. He'd write non-fiction if I played hangman with him. I agreed and after the game, he decided he'd write a newspaper about his family and friends. The newspaper is going to be complete with injury report, pet report ("Pawz has spent another busy day napping and cleaning herself..."), a food section ("We are fortunate to have kept our incredible cook, "Mom."), and more. I can't wait!

The hangman game was also fantastic. I got it at the last minute - he had written a phrase: "You will lose to the wrath of the almighty Johnny." And I get paid for this! It's amazing.

Comments

House Dreams said…

don't you just love the kids' humor...it makes it all worthwhile.

10:15 PM

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