Tutoring Reflection

Date of tutoring session: Jan 22-Feb 6 Student Age & Grade: Fifth and sixth grade

Answer all in complete, grammatically correct sentences.

1. What topic(s) did you cover in your tutoring session?
Some of the topics that were covered in the tutoring sessions that I attended were dividing,
fractions, and review for the benchmark that they are taking.

2. Did you use any problem solving strategies or tools from this class? If so, describe how this
went. If not, what techniques did you use to help your student?
Ever since taking this class, I have been able to better recognize the various tips and strategies
when looking at students problems. There was one situation in particular where I used the
problem solving strategy of solving a simpler problem. It was a problem where there was a two
digit number by an x and it equaled a four digit number. The student, Angel, was confused
when he was looking at the problem. I began to think that maybe the bigger numbers were
confusing him so on a sticky note that I had I just wrote out: 2x=4. I showed him that if you
divided both sides by 2 to get the x alone you would find your answer. It automatically clicked
in his head what he had to do.

3. Describe any challenges you faced in the session. (What was your student’s attitude about
math? Did you notice any knowledge gaps? Was the lesson/homework too easy or too hard for
the student’s skill level? etc.)
I have to try so hard to not just give the answer away to the student when they aren’t
understanding. There was a student named Hailey who asked for help. I thought I asked a
leading question that was clear but I guess that I confused her on how I worded it. Those are
my two struggles that I try to improve every time I help someone with math.

4. Describe any triumphs you had in the session.

The experience with Angel (mentioned in #2) was a eye opening experience. I also had a cool
experience with a student named Blake. It was with a coin problem like we had in class and you
had to figure out the way to get 43 cents with 6 coins. I mentioned the 3 cents and you could
see the rest of the steps coming together in his head. I just love those experiences when they
get excited about math.
 Tutoring Reflection
5. What are your take-a-ways from the session? (Did you learn anything about teaching from it?
What would you do differently or the same to help your students.)
I learned that whatever works with some students don’t work for others. Teaching is constantly
a growing experience and you have to be very creative to help all kinds of different learners. I
want to continue to help the students do the work on their own. I also want to keep using the
problem solving strategies because they are very useful.

6. Other thoughts? (How comfortable were you with the topics? Did you face challenges with
the student’s teacher’s instruction style/rules? Can you relate to your student’s
struggles/triumphs?)
I feel pretty comfortable with most of the topics that are talked about in the fifth and sixth
grade class that I help in. It may take me awhile but it usually comes to me or another student
jumps in to help out. It’s great that I keep learning too.