Tutoring Reflections

Math Methods Early & Middle Grades

Caroline Reel

Session 1 - Each Friday evening my mother watches a six year at our house. This little boy

already dislikes school (particularly math) which is why he seemed like a perfect candidate for

much needed tutoring. My mother was an educator and was excited that I was going to attempt

to apply my new math content knowledge and pedagogy through assessment and tutoring

sessions. While most of our interactions took place via Skype, it was important that there was

an open line of communication between my mother and I as we worked together. She needed

to help me set up an environment that was conducive to learning for the tutee.

During our initial meeting, it was crucial that I built rapport even though I already knew

many things about his life from my mother. I asked him to say his alphabet, tell me about

himself and his interests. I then asked him to count from 1-20. He had no problem with this

activity and I believe it is important to start simply and review what a student already knows to

build up their confidence. I then expressed what on-task behavior should look like during

tutoring and had him analyze a number chart with me. While my tutee did know his numbers,

he hadn’t yet been introduced to the terms addition and subtraction. I had my mother grab

some household objects and test his cardinality skills over the video call. I watched him quickly

process the differences in the groups of objects. At the end of the session he received a sticker

and played with counters my mother had pulled from her days as an educator. We both

prompted him with different questions and the co-teaching opportunity with my mother was

very rewarding!
Session 2 – To best prepare and anticipate my tutee’s needs I turned to the internet. Ohio’s

Common Core State Standards were beneficial as I realized a formal introduction to addition

and subtraction was necessary. His strengths in counting and cardinality reassured me that he

was ready for some new vocabulary and open to math language. We talked about difference,

sum, takeaway and add. I made a short infographic differentiating the terms and sent that to my

mother via email. This was a great visual reminder throughout the session. We started by

counting slices of pizza, eaten cookies and marbles. Although word problems are often difficult

for students I could tell that this child was enjoying the storylines. After each problem

answered, whether correctly or incorrectly, he received positive reinforcement in the form of

stickers. Simple subtraction was introduced and the differences increased steadily over time.

Rote memorization was not the goal but it did help to give him the same problem with different

materials when he was stuck; he just needed a new perspective.

Session 3 – It was vital during this session to review what was covered in the previous. I wanted

to make sure there was a deep sense and understanding of properties of operations when it

came to adding and subtracting. He could recognize this on a simple scale. For example, he

knew that 4+5=9 and that 5+4=9 to take this a step further and add another numeral was

difficult. We also dealt with some new behaviors during this session. He was unwilling to

participate at time and seemed completely exhausted. Our session was cut short but positive

praise and encouragement were still important. My mother and I debriefed after this session

and brainstormed ways to engage him. I mentioned that I had found some online videos and

songs about addition and subtraction. She texted me later that evening saying the chosen

videos captured his attention!

Session 4 – Today I had him drawing. Right now, he is really into aliens so outer space was

represented in our addition problems. My tutee continues to wiggle and does not sit still for

very long. To help him with this we then placed objects all around the room for him to seek out,

find and count. Verbally depicted word problems were again exciting for my tutee and I had a

greater chance of trying something new and having him problem solve as he was engaged. We

asked him what he is learning in school and looked at his work in his folder. This helped me gage

where he was in instruction. While I was giving him a taste of more advanced math concepts I

was still reviewing things he was familiar with. Work disguised as play is important to me as an

educator and I hope that if nothing else he really didn’t see tutoring as intervention but rather

playtime.

Session 5 – I was honestly a little sad to see these sessions end. For our last session, I wanted to

focus on money and time. We counted change (mostly pennies, nickels and dimes) and I tried to

explain base 5 and 10 with the coins. I felt that if that was too over the tutee’s head he was still

counting and working on addition problems and grouping. I then focused on time. My mother

had an awesome resource I remember using as a child. It was one of those clocks where you can

set the minute and hour. This tangible tool was again refreshing and I tried to incorporate

hands-on activities as we communicated through a computer. I left my tutee with online

flashcards to and simple addition and subtraction problems. I hope this knowledge encourages

him and lifts him up! Thank you for this opportunity to tutor and go outside of myself. I have

more confidence in math instruction and a better appreciation of trial and error.