Field Experience Report #3

Cecilia Pena

My tutee Alicia is a bright young lady who enjoys learning but stumbles a little when it comes to
applying mathematical concepts. She is Hispanic and comes from a family whose primary language is
Spanish. She is also a gifted and talented student that leaves the room to attend math intervention with
Mr. Salvesen. I believe that these factors must be considered when designing her instruction and
assessing her learning.

I believe that she understands most of the instruction but struggles with math vocabulary. This can
be due to the language that she hears at home compared to the language she hears in school. It can be
difficult for children who speak a different language fluently in the home to truly comprehend the
English language in school. She speaks English well, but I believe she struggles with vocabulary in word
problems to comprehend them.

In our tutoring sessions, I set aside a few minutes to review word problems and fractions. I have her
work at least 4-word problems each time I see her. The word problems consist of real world problems
that have a mixture of steps to solve them. The word problems contain adding, substracting,
multiplication, division, and sometimes all the operations. This allows Alicia to dissect the problem step
by step and to recognize words that lead to a specific operation at each step. We underline important
key words that have mathematical meaning in the problem and figure out what they mean. We have
also started a fraction interactive notebook so that she may use to review or study for an exam.
Fractions are “scary” for Alicia and this book seems to give her comfort when working on fraction
problems. We have just started to work on finding a common denominator, and she often refers to her
interactive notebook to refresh her memory on the steps to find it. I have found that she is a visual
learner, and the notebook is a necessity until she fully comprehends the concept of finding the common
denominator. She is a bright student, and this is just a stumble in her future success.

The classroom that Alicia is in is diverse. The teacher teaches fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students.
The students come from various backgrounds, parenting styles, and cultures. Mrs. Sauer is a patient and
excellent teacher that caters to all her students needs and is sensitive to them. She must ensure that
each child is learning in a way that is best for that student and with the various grade levels can be
challenging. I am learning that Montessori teaching is special, and it takes a special teacher to be able to
organize the content of each grade level, gender, and learning style.