One way to grab a youngster's attention is by making up stories with him or her as the main character. For my first grade student, I work on a story no more than 500 words long, usually fewer words.
I asked him what kind of stories he would like about himself. He made a list - with my help - of the things he wanted in his story. His list included do magic, a magic hat, rabbits, a magic wand, and a magic cape. Magic stories I can do, piece of cake. How hard could it be, since I made up stories and characters for my daughter when she was young?
I double space each story and use a nice large font and wide margins at the top and bottom. The more white space the better for a young reader.
When I bought the first story for the next lesson, he read about himself. He learned he could fly to the top of a tree and that he could understand what a kitten was telling him. We were building up to super powers, kid style. Since I tutor him for an hour after he has been in school all day, we take turns reading aloud. He likes that.
When he asked how many stories I could make up for him, I told him as many as he wanted. He liked that a lot!
This time he wanted space aliens and guns and swords and guns that shot swords and a space ship bigger that ten houses, and cannons. Hmmm, not so easy.
I created Fitzu, a space alien.
More on Fitzu later.
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