Title: Student Support Services Tutor

Date: September-December 2013

Description: In the fall of 2013, I worked as a tutor for Student Support Services at
UW-Platteville. I worked with college students in the subjects of math, psychology,
literature, and political science. I helped with homework assignments, conducted
test reviews, and helped in the creation of study habits. The following artifact for
this experience is a thank you email from a student that I tutored in psychology.
Wisconsin Teacher Standard Alignment:
I believe this experience aligns with the Wisconsin Academic Standard One: Content:
The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the
disciplines she or he teachers and can create learning experiences that make these
aspects of subject matter meaningful for pupils.
This best aligns with Standard One because in order to become a tutor for SSS, a
person has to have gotten and A or B in the subject he or she is going to tutor in and
for all of the subjects I tutored in, I received an A. This helped with one aspect of
content knowledge, which was knowing the central concepts of what is being taught.
Since I had taken these classes before, I was able to provide insight onto what
exactly the instructor wanted the student to get out of the lesson. However, there
were a few courses that were taught by a different professor so I had to resort to
more pedagogical knowledge. For example, I tutored one student in Intro to
American Government. This course was structured completely different than the
one I had taken. However, I knew the book, and I knew a lot about the content. I was
able to guide the student through the chapters and helped her pick out the
important concepts to add to her chapter outlines. I am more competent now in this
standard because I realized that subject matter knowledge is not fixed but an everevolving body of new ideas and information.
As a tutor, I also understood the need to make the work meaningful to my students.
My content knowledge of General Psychology was very useful in making meaningful
connections for my student. I found out that the best way for this particular student
to understand concepts given to her by the professor was to relate it to the real
world. For example when talking about the differences between a conditioned
stimulus and unconditioned stimulus, the book only sited experiments, and that was
not enough. So I used my knowledge of the content to come up with examples of
stimuli and conditioning in real life. By relating seemingly abstract ideas to
something concrete that the student can or has seen in real life, she was able to
better understand the class and did very well in it.
UW-Platteville Knowledge, Skill, and Dispositional Statement Alignment
This experience best aligns with KSD1.a: Demonstrates Knowledge of Content and
Pedagogy -the candidate displays extensive content knowledge of his/her subject
areas and demonstrates a continuing search for new content knowledge, resources,

and best instructional practices, while understanding student diversity and student
misconceptions and misunderstandings as key to the teaching process.
I believe this experience aligns here because I was able to use my knowledge of the
class and subject matter to find the best and most meaningful way to help the
students. I used my content knowledge when tutoring Math of Finance because I
understood the structure of that discipline. Math always builds on previous
knowledge. When tutoring my two students, I was persistent in making sure they
fully understood one concept before moving on. This sometimes meant we would
only get through one or two problems in one session. However, as the homework
problems increased in complexity, the students were able to realize that having a
good base knowledge helped them to break down the more difficult ones.
Im more competent after this experience because I understood how my students
conceptual frameworks and their misconceptions for these areas of study could
influence their learning. Before this experience I had never worked with a student
one-on-one over an extended period of time. During this experience, I learned how
students learn very differently, especially when it comes to different content areas.
For example, the student I helped in Psychology needed detailed examples and
stories to connect the abstract concepts to formal meanings, while the student I
tutored in Math of Finance needed small reminders of formulas and past examples
to understand the concepts.
Secondary Alignment
KS3.b Uses Questioning and Discussion Techniques
KS3.c Engages Students in Learning
Reflection about teaching/learning
I learned what a huge value it is to know the content that I am teaching. Knowing the
subjects inside and out allowed me to use different approaches with each subject to
make sure the students I worked with truly understood the content. I learned that
each student is different and will learn the subjects differently than I did, and thats
ok. Having a deep understanding of content, allows the teacher to better teach that
subject to the students.
Reflection about myself as a prospective teacher
Through this experience I learned that I feel more comfortable helping students
when I know a lot about what Im teaching. I also learned that there is no way I will
know everything, but I am willing to work with the students to find answers to their
problems. I have found that for students to have a deep understanding of what Im
trying to teach, I will use many tools of inquiry. I learned that allowing students to
work through problems by asking them questions to help guide them, provides
much better results than just giving them answers. I will also try to make every
lesson as meaningful as possible in my future career. When students can relate to
what they are being taught, they will be more interested and will retain more of that
information.