One of my first hour Composition students just stopped in. He was interested in some books I had recommended to him in some comments I made on one of his essays. This student has been failing Composition for most of the quarter. His work ethic is not the strongest and he had several missing assignments. However, the one thing he loves to do is read. In fact, that is what he wrote his essay on - his love for reading. While it was short and needed plenty of developing, it was written well enough to get his point across - he struggled with reading until his mother paid for a tutor/reading specialist to help him. After that he began devouring books, mainly the works of Stephen King and then Dean Koontz and most recently John Saul. I mentioned to him that I too had cut my teeth on those same authors (and I have to wonder - to the chagrin of many of my old colleagues and teachers - how many English majors has Stephen King been responsible for? I know of dozens of students who became interested in English because of his books and their love for him). I also recommended some other authors to him and mentioned that I had some books he could borrow.
So as soon as school was over, he stopped in with the a gleam in his eye I had never seen before. He was practically dancing when I gave him the books. And it was all because I had just made a few comments on his paper.
It wasn't much, but it was a wonderful way to end the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment