On Friday I tutored Paul, age 8. When I met Paul I was introduced to him as "Pole" by a previous family's mother. "Are you sure his name isn't Paul?" I asked. "No. Pole," she reiterated. It wasn't until I met him and had him write out his name that I knew his name was Paul. Many of these families are Christian, so I asked him if he knew where his name came from. "He has two names..." the boy told me. So I guess they are Christian.
Okay, so I use Mad Libs as a teaching tool because it helps the kids learn their nouns and verbs adjectives and adverbs. Usually the kids take forever telling me the part of speech I ask for--like any english speaking american.
"Verb."
Uh... "Running. I mean..." Uh.... "Squat"
Not Paul. He thought this game was a race. I'd say, noun and then he would start to shoot them off his tongue as fast as they'd come. "Shirt! Bed! Stone! Cloud! Sun!" So I'd just choose the one that was funniest in the text. When I read it back to him he cracked up to tears. It was a joyful tutoring session indeed.
