Tutoring Reflection

Date of tutoring session: ​April 1-10 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 I covered in my tutoring session was sales tax, multiplying fractions,
prime factorizations, and absolute numbers.

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?
It was fun because we were learning about fractions while the class that I help in was learning
about them. It was nice to see what I could work on and apply what I was learning in the
classroom. I could also do the same things with price factorization same absolute numbers. I
showed two students how to do factor trees and stacked division. One student liked the factor
trees and the other liked the stacked division. I’m glad that I had multiple options to help the
students learn in their own way.

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.)
There was one student that wasn’t making the fraction improper before multiplying and dividing
the fraction and it was throwing all of her answers off. I showed her how to do it, walked her
through problems, and watched her do it. It seemed like she had it and then the next assignment
that she turned in she forgot to do it again. It was kind of hard and I could tell that she was
getting discouraged and frustrated. I tried to stay calm and kept a positive and uplifting attitude.
We are still trying to work through this problem. It’s interesting how some people just get stuck
on some simple things no matter how many times they have been reminded.

4. Describe any triumphs you had in the session.

I think my triumph was being able to know what the students are asking about especially when
we are talking about it in class. I feel so much more confident in explaining what I’m doing. I
also enjoyed seeing how the different students liked to find prime factorization in different way.
Its great to be in the classroom and hear the concerns and struggles of the different students.
 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’m just continuing to learn that students learn in different ways. I love that we learn different
ways to represent and solve for one problem. I think that’s why I’ve always loved math so much.
It’s important to keep focusing on the positive and helping the students not feel frustrated. The
other day I was helping a girl but I had the hiccups and I couldn’t hear her very well because she
was talking quiet and it seemed there was some tension but we had a good learning interaction
once my hiccups had gone away which was reassuring.

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 was pretty comfortable with the topics. Right now we are learning a lot of different things about
decimals and fractions so it has been great to learn how to teach it better so that it becomes more
clear to the student. It’s also good to better understand the why and help the students understand
that too.