How Mr Spot turned the tide

I had already been listening to first-graders read for a couple of years when I was asked to tutor four fourth-graders tutoring first-graders.

'Have you been seeing Spots?' he asked her instead.Did Mr Spot assist in any way Dot? No, not a lot. Not piddly squat.Things changed considerably after that. To this day I don't know whether it was because of my stern admonition or whether our Mr Spot project brought about the change, but each day they breezed through their reading more quickly (even eagerly) so that we could work a little on our Mr Spot story. And while I came up with the more difficult words like spats, kumquat, and cravat, and had to explain why I transposed some words in a way that was a little off beat (to keep a bouncy rhythm), Jeff, I think, came up with the name Spot for the dog, one of the girls mentioned the tots sitting on a pot and screaming a lot, and so on and so on.There once was a man, Mr Spot, who dearly and truly loved spots. He had spots on his hat and spots on his spats. His cravats were tied at his throat with large spotted knots.So a ticket Dot got and left Mr Spot and her tots and the dog she called Spot. She sailed on a yacht to a hot sunny spot. Under a tree--a kumquat--she rested a lot. Quite soon her Spots she nearly forgot.Barbara Weddle has been writing book reviews and essays for fifteen years. Her pieces have been published in more than 150 magazines, including The Missouri Review, Chelsea, Chicago Life, and The Southern Review. She recently completed a mainstream novel and a young adult book and is in the process of looking for publishers for both.But soon lonely Dot got. She could not blot from her mind all her Spots. She missed Mr Spot and her tots and the dog she called Spot. So home again she set sail on the yacht.So Spots there were lots: Mr Spot, Dot Spot, Spot tots, the dog too a Spot, all playing and staying in one little cot and perhaps without and not including Dot all behaving not quite a lot.Soon Dot began feeling dizzy from all the Spots and whatnot. In a fast trot she went to see Doctor Gott. Doctor Gott examined Dot on the spot. He gave her a shot, checked out her heart, but her eyes he did not.'Get away from your Spots,' said Dr Gott. 'Blot out the whole lot. Go to some hot island spot. It will do you more good than the shot.'The Spot StoryOne day things were especially bad. Jeff's pencil tapping had risen to unbelievable proportions, Wanda stubbornly refused to read, and Erik and Ashley were at one another's throats big time. When I tried to get control with a firm 'stop that' and ominous 'or else's'--whispering so as not to disturb the rest of the class--and got nowhere, I decided I'd had enough.'I don't have to take this,' I said. I grabbed up my car keys and started to walk out. As I did I gave the kids a last fleeting glance. What I saw surprised me. Instead of the smug expressions I had expected to see, I saw instead what can only best be described as bewilderment, disbelief, and even regret. I realised that underneath their defiant facades they actually liked me.Things had to change, however. The next day I brought to class a small rhyming story that I'd been playing around with. Well, these kids were already of the mind that reading was a drudge. I wanted them to enjoy reading. And I did not want our experience together to be a bad one. Since I'd always had fun reading with my then five-year-old granddaughter, I thought I could have a little fun with my students by not being so serious and being a little more playful instead. My granddaughter and I had always 'played around' when we read together. For example, we would wonder a little, asking ourselves What if this happened or what if that happened in the story. I had begun writing the Mr Spot story a couple of years before (with my granddaughter), then had shelved it for some reason. I thought perhaps the kids might have fun helping me finish it. With Mr Spot and my four students, we did a lot of 'what-iffing'. And they became involved. When they became involved they began to enjoy reading more. Actually, they became excited about it.A week later their bad attitudes had not disappeared. Nor had the knot of anxiety in my stomach each day I entered the classroom. I had already given up on the 'learning-was-fun' idea, but now I was wondering whether or not I could even last out the semester. When I made appeals for them to behave, they only stared back at me with pie-plate expressions that made me feel that any problems there might be were of my own making, not theirs.They did not want me to quit on them. Too many others had quit on them. I sat back down.Finally, though the story itself may have been a little too juvenile for fourth graders, at last we were having fun learning. I applied this 'involvement' with our regular reading lessons also. For example, I would ask, 'What kind of person do you suppose Kit Carson really was? It didn't go over quite as well as Mr Spot, but it did improve their willingness to read a little if I involved them directly, asked their opinions, involved them.But my charges did not appear too enthused by my little 'learning-was-fun' speech. Conversely, they appeared sullen, recalcitrant even, a far cry from the well-behaved and enthusiastic first graders I was used to. Jeff was tapping on his desktop loudly with his pencil, Wanda was staring into space, and Erik and Ashley were sniping with one another.These students are 17-18 now. When I recently attended my own step-grandson's high school graduation (he was in the same class as Erik, Wanda, Ashley, and Jeff) I did not see their names on the program. Wherever they are, I firmly believe I left them with something (especially Erik) even if that something was only a little more confidence in themselves and the fact that learning can be fun. They were making discoveries about how language works, how words can tickle their imagination ...Mrs Spot bought a dog, thinking the tots the dog they would play with a lot. The dog, who also had spots, she gave the name Spot. But Spot liked to bark and he did bark a lot. Quite often a nice dog Spot surely was not.No one said a word for a long while. I think they knew by the tone of my voice that I would not tolerate a minute more of their disruptive behaviours. It was now time for the second phase of my plan. I picked up the copies of my story. 'This is something fun I've been working on,' I told them as I passed copies around. 'I came up with the name of a character, Mr Spot, and I have been trying to think of all the words that rhyme with spot so that I can write a rhyming story. I want you to take your copies home and add to the list any words that you can think of that rhyme with spot. Once we finish that, we'll work on a story'.'Why yes I have,' exclaimed Dot. 'I nearly forgot. I've been dizzy a lot, before my eyes I see Spots. I worry and fret and my stomach's in knots. Often I fear a good mother I'm not.'To this day Dot has not left home any more for some hot island spot. To lay in the shade of a tree--a kumquat.The first order of the day, of course, was laying out what I expected of the kids from that day forward. My voice wobbly, but very firm, I said, 'Jeff, no more pencil tapping. Wanda, if you refuse to read, that's fine. Ashley, Erik, the sniping stops.'It had been a win/win situation so I jumped at the chance to spend an hour-and-a-half each day with Jeff, Erik, Wanda and Ashley, helping them with their reading among other areas. On the first day of the new school term as I settled myself behind a desk in a corner of the fourth-grade classroom where I was to conduct my tutorial duties, my newly assigned charges seated before me, I was aglow with anticipation. I smiled, introduced myself, told them how much fun learning was, and reached for the course outline that had been prepared for me by the teacher.

Barbara Weddle has been writing book reviews and essays for fifteen years. Her pieces have been published in more than 150 magazines, including The Missouri Review, Chelsea, Chicago Life, and The Southern Review. She recently completed a mainstream novel and a young adult book and is in the process of looking for publishers for both.