Story Time

As usual I arrived at the library on Wednesday afternoon to meet Gerardo. He was in good spirits and ready to start our studying for the day. He had me proofread a paper he'd written that was a story for his daughter and another short paper that was about his past vacation to Mexico. I brought the Daily Skiff and USA Today like I promised last week to use during our dictation exercise. I asked if he watched the election results and we started discussing the news and the voting process. He asked how they decided which states were blue or red as detailed in the newspaper's illustration. I told him that they broke it down by county majorities (like one picture explained with several square marks in the state shapes) and that by majority that state was given to the favored candidate and the votes added from there. We discussed voting and he said he was glad Obama won since he voted for him and I told him I did too. We looked at the rest of the paper, trying to find something non-election related (I think everyone has heard and read enough about the election for a long time) and when we were unsuccessful, he produced a children's book entitled Time for Bed, which describes a little bear's sleepover birthday party and all the games his friends and he play until they practically fall asleep. I read it to him and he wrote it down. Though it sounds long, it was relatively short for a children's book and it took up a little more than a page of notebook paper. When I was finished, I had him look at the book and correct his writing, as I think it sometimes helps people to see the mistakes they make and correct them rather than have someone correct them for them all the time. I watched him erase and replace words and correct his grammar, answering questions and offering clarification as he went along. By that time it was time to part and he said he preferred books to the newspapers as they usually had words he did not know. I told him I would look for articles that would work for him at his level so he could learn about the world while practicing his writing and he said he'd bring another book next week as well. When I asked what he wanted to focus on in these next few weeks he said his writing, so I think I will continue to dictate and bring things for him to read and work on to improve his writing and grammar skills.