Running Head: TUTORING PROJECT 1

Tutoring Project
Jessica Marter
December 4, 2019
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Introduction
I performed my tutoring project at Pugliese West Elementary in Steubenville, Ohio with a

student, who for the purposes of this paper will be called Matthew. Mathew was a Caucasian 10-

year-old student in 4th grade and was identified by his teacher as needing math interventions. He

loved hiking, eating pizza, and playing games. Matthew was an enthusiastic student and very

easy to work with. According to publicschoolreview.com, Pugliese West Elementary has a

population of 438 students with a 23:1 ratio of students to teachers, which is greater number than

the average ratio for Ohio. The school as a whole, has a high rank in the state for math and

readings scores, however, the minority enrollment is 3% less than the state average.

Diagnostic Screening Test Outcomes, Goals, and Strategies

While performing the screening test I gave basic instructions to Matthew telling him that

he should answer each question and if he didn’t know how to solve a problem, he should just do

the best he could. Matthew read each question to himself and answered each one in order, then

once he finished the page, he would look up at me and tell me he was done. I had to tell him each

time that there were more pages and he could keep going but he wouldn’t start until I had turned

the page for him. This might be a practice of the teacher in the classroom, or simply acting out of

uncertainty. This behavior, however, did not seem to have an impact on Matthews scores. During

the assessment he didn’t dwell long on problems he didn’t know how to answer, and answered

all the questions rather quickly, which might have affected his overall scores. Another behavior

that I noted was Matthew’s frequent counting on his fingers, for several of the problems,

especially multiplication, Matthew counted on his fingers to find an answer.

Matthew’s highest scores on the assessment were on simple calculations, total basic

computations, and multiplication with scores of 3.4, 3.4, and 3.3. These high scores were still
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below grade level and still in need of improvement. Regarding multiplication, Matthew scored

higher in this area but demonstrated a need for instruction in multiplying 2-digit numbers, as his

errors in this section were using these kinds of problems. The lowest scores on the test came

from the areas of decimals, simple fractions, manipulation of fractions, and division scoring a

zero for each. Since I administered this assessment in the fall near the beginning of the year,

Matthew might not have been given instruction on how to divide or use decimals and fractions

yet, as this is usually taught later in the year. Matthew’s strengths lied in simple procedures and

his addition and subtraction had minimal errors. He also checked his work and often made self-

corrections on the assessment. Weaknesses include, working too fast, errors in multiplication,

and lack of knowledge of how to calculate problems with division, fractions, and decimals.

Many of the errors that Matthew made on the test I noticed were due to a lack of understanding

of the operations and what each symbol meant as well as misinterpretation of word problems.

Based upon Matthews performance on the test, his scores and my observations I created

goals to work towards during our time together. Knowing I only have a few short visits and

limited time to tutor I focused primarily on three goals. These goals were my primary focus but

as time went on and I found other needs I continued to develop these goals. The first goal I

wanted to accomplish with Matthew was to aid him in learning how to multiply two-digit

numbers, this I thought would be a worthy goal for him, because it would use his strengths to

help him with his weaknesses. Through this goal I hoped to teach Matthew to organize problems

and recognize place value to scaffold for future understanding of division and decimals

especially. Secondly, I wanted to help him identify operations, and know how to read a word

problem to find cues to what operations to use. I chose this goal because it is foundational in

performing any kind of problem so that he could understand what was being asked of him and
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what operation should be performed. My final goal was to help Matthew develop a deeper

understanding of fractions. I at first planned to introduce the student to fractions and work out

simple problems, which after working with Matthew I found he was ready to go beyond an

introduction.

Teaching strategies that I will implement during our time include visual strategies for

computations (Jutendra, 2002). Visual representations will include creating models on a

whiteboard as well as graphic representations using technology. Regarding technology, I will use

technology to play games with Matthew as Buchheister, Jackson, and Taylor found math games

to be beneficial for motivating and meeting individual needs of students (2017). I will also use

direct instruction to teach the student the new strategies I would like him to perform (Al-

Makahleh, 2011). This way Matthew will know exactly what he needs to do and be given enough

support to be able to do it on his own.

Tutoring Sessions Reflections

Session 1. For my first tutoring session I located Matthew’s classroom, briefly met with

his teacher and then began tutoring. To start, I wanted to get to know Matthew better, so I asked

him a few questions about himself and what he liked to do. I told him that I would be helping

him with math for the next few weeks together and we were going to learn but also have a lot of

fun. I think this beginning conversation helped me to build a relationship with Matthew and

promoted a supportive and healthy learning environment. I began the lesson using the

whiteboard and started with one subtraction problem that Matthew got wrong on the assessment.

I asked him if he could figure out the problem for me and had strategies prepared if he didn’t.

However, he performed the problem without any help, and we moved on. I started our session

this way to give Matthew a problem he would feel confident with and also to explore some of the
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things he had missed on the screening assessment. Since Matthew solved the problem without

assistance, we moved onto the focus of the session which was multiplication. The Common Core

State Standard for this lesson was CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.A.3

“Use multiplication and division within 100 to solve word problems in situations involving equal

groups, arrays, and measurement quantities.” I gave him a two-digit multiplication problem that

he had missed from the assessment and asked him to show me on the whiteboard how to solve it.

I watched as he did the best he could and noted his errors. Matthew performed simple

multiplication correctly but when it came time to add the results and put numbers into their

respective place values, his actions erred. I commended Matthew for the numbers he got right

and told him that through the lesson we would figure out the problem together. Next, we made

an array of the problem using squares, lines, and dots to signify the hundreds, tens, and ones.

This was a visual strategy that I learned from Van De Walle, Karp, and Bay-Williams (2019). It

appeared to be useful for Matthew to see the problem out in front of him. We then checked the

answer he got from the multiplication problem with that of the answer we got from drawing out

the array and seeing that they were different I said we should use the algorithm again and see

where we needed to work to get the right answer. I started with showing the standard method of

starting in the ones place and multiplying the ones together first and showing how to carry. I

drew an arrow from the ones place in the bottom number to the ones in the top number then drew

and arrow from the ones place to the tens showing that he was to multiply those second.

Matthew seemed to really like these arrows and for every problem after that he drew the arrows

for himself to remember the order. For the tens I taught him to write a zero first before

multiplying and reminded him of this each time. We solved five problems together and drew

three arrays to check our work. For the last two problems I let Matthew pick the numbers himself
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and by the end he was able to correctly multiply two-digit numbers on his own without

assistance. This tutoring session was very successful, and Matthew achieved the goal I had set. In

future sessions I planned to review the strategies we used to ensure that Matthew continued to

use them.

Session 2. My second session I started the same way I had the first by asking Matthew

about his weekend, he informed me that he had built a fort and played in the forest. Matthew was

very excited to tell me about this and seemed to be happy to have someone listen, again this was

a great way to build repour with the student as well as a healthy learning environment. I started

tutoring by reviewing the strategies we had learned the previous week. Using the white board, I

asked Matthew to name two two-digit numbers which I wrote and then I had him multiply the

numbers together. He had some difficulty remembering where to put his answers, so I helped

him organize it. After we finished this review, we moved on to Matthew’s math homework that

the teacher had asked we work on. The standard that we worked on during this session was

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.OA.A.1 “Interpret a multiplication equation as a comparison.” The

first problem was a word problem that I told Matthew to read out loud, however after stumbling

through the words, Matthew had no idea what he had just read. This observation led me to think

that maybe Matthew’s reading ability had influenced his scored for the diagnostic test. I then

read the problem which was a word problem telling how many minutes a day an adult sleeps

verses and infant and asking how many more minutes in a week an infant slept. I asked Matthew

what he thought he should do for this problem. He said we should add the two numbers together

to get the answer. I helped him read through the question again and focus on the words “day”

and “week” I asked him how many days are in a week and he told me 7. Then we took the

minutes an adult sleeps and multiplied it by 7. We did the same for the infant and then subtracted
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the minutes an adult sleeps from when an infant sleeps. I helped walk Matthew through all of this

but in the end, he still seemed very confused. The problem said to find the answer in two ways so

instead of multiplying we did the problem again and added each number together 7 times and

creating a visual to go along with it. Matthew started getting frustrated at this point so we moved

on to another problem. The next question was about estimation, so I taught Matthew the “Front-

end” estimation that we learned in class from the textbook (Van De Walle, Karp, & Bay-

Williams, 2019). Matthew and I worked to find if the number in the problem was reasonable,

deciding it was not we found a more accurate estimation. Matthew was very confused through

this whole process and didn’t seem to grasp what estimation was. We had to end the lesson then

unfortunately. Overall, the lesson went fairly well but Matthew showed a lot more frustration

than the previous week and a lot more difficulty grasping material. During this session I was able

to use Matthew’s math homework to work towards the goal of reading word problems and

identifying operations, however, I planned to continue this instruction through to the next

session.

Session 3. The standard for this lesson is CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.OA.A.2 “Multiply

or divide to solve word problems involving multiplicative comparison.” I began my lesson as

always, asking about Matthew’s day and then began instruction. For the lesson I had prepared a

typed-out worksheet with word problems for Matthew to complete. I tried to make the problems

interesting by using one problem with Matthew’s name about him going hiking since that was

one of his interests. Matthew loved this. For the worksheet Matthew and I read the problems

together and then if he felt that he understood the problem he circled which of the procedures the

word problem was, similar to the procedures part of the diagnostic assessment. If Matthew was

unsure about a problem, we used the open space to create a visual to display the problem and
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work through it together. Division really seemed to confuse him, but I showed Matthew that if

you draw a picture and have to divide the objects then it meant it was a division problem. The

visual seemed to help him. After completing the worksheet, we worked again on two-digit

multiplication and when Matthew was still struggling to put his numbers in the right place I came

up with a new strategy. On a piece of paper, I wrote out the problem and then using markers I

drew yellow lines for him to work in and keep his answers organized. I noticed that during this

lesson Matthew was counting on his fingers frequently and did not have many of his

multiplication facts memorized. This lesson was successful and Matthew and I had fun doing it.

It aligned with two goals, my first goal for multiplication as well as my goal for working with

word problems. Future lessons I planned to work on improving Matthew’s fact fluency.

Session 4. When I arrived in the classroom to pull out Matthew for tutoring his face lit up

and he was so excited to see me. We began with our starting conversation and he told me all

about his weekend. Then using his school computer, we logged onto mathplayground.com and

played some fact fluency games. I did this to help keep Matthew engaged as well to allow him to

use some of the strategies he had been learning and put them into practice. I also had him play a

fraction game to see what he understood regarding properties of fractions. I was surprised at

what he knew as his score on the diagnostic test had been a zero, but from observing his

participation in the game, he seemed to understand how to add and subtract fractions without

assistance. It was at this point that I decided to change my final lesson from being about an

introduction to fractions to be a lesson about equivalent fractions which the game revealed to be

a challenge for him. After playing the games online I performed a fact fluency bingo game with

Matthew and he liked it so much that instead of playing till he got 5 in a row, we played till he

covered the whole card. As Buchheister, Jackson and Taylor found, math games benefit students,
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and this activity showed me how true this was in playing math games with Matthew (2017). As

we played bingo I found that Matthew struggled with remembering multiplication facts for 9 and

10. To help him with this I taught him some tricks to remember these multiplication facts, such

as using your hands to find multiples of 9 and adding zeros for multiples of 10. Matthew showed

improvement after this instruction. I found that he also struggled with multiplying multiple digit

numbers with single digit numbers, so I showed him how to line up the place values so that the

larger number was on top. We used the yellow lines again as a guide to help Matthew find the

correct place values. This lesson helped me to better understand Matthew’s understanding of

fractions and although fact fluency was not one of my goals from the beginning it was a new

goal that I found necessary to work on from the previous week’s observation.

Desmos Session

https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/5dad9d6571c68249cd496f29

Session 5. During this last session I began asking Matthew how his day was going with

which he replied that “It’s better now that you’re here.” I was happy to hear that he enjoyed his

tutoring so much. We logged on with his school computer again and used the access code

2NTRYM to begin the desmos lesson. I titled my desmos lesson “Pizza Party with Equivalent

Fractions” because Matthew had told me pizza was his favorite food and I wanted to keep the

lesson engaging for him. The lesson was based on the standard

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.NF.A.1 “Explain why a fraction a/b is equivalent to a fraction

(n × a)/(n × b) by using visual fraction models, with attention to how the number and size of the

parts differ even though the two fractions themselves are the same size. Use this principle to

recognize and generate equivalent fractions.” The lesson began with some short questions to

activate prior knowledge and instruction began with a video, but classes were changing as we
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were watching it and Matthew seemed to be very distracted. After watching the video, we went

over what a numerator and denominator were and then began with some math problems.

Matthew had difficulty grasping that fractions with different numbers could be equal. But using

images seemed to help. Matthew enjoyed the multiple-choice questions but did not like the

shading activities. We finished the 13 slides rather quickly and were able to finish our last

session reviewing the strategy I had taught him in the first session, multiplying two-digit

numbers. Matthew used the strategies I had taught him and was successfully able to master the

problems I gave him. It was an excellent way to end our tutoring sessions. As Matthew returned

to his classroom I met with his teacher and gave her two copies of the letter I had written

detailing Matthew’s scores on the diagnostic test and what we had worked on during tutoring. I

told the teacher that the second copy was for her to send home for Matthew’s parents.
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Lesson Planning Template

Lesson Title: Pizza Party with Equivalent Fractions Grade: 4th
Learning Target:
Students will be able to identify and create equivalent fractions using graphs, numbers, and fraction strips.

Grade Level Guide: Content Standards

Content Curriculum Focal
Points (ie: NCTM, IRA,…)
National Council for
Teachers of Mathematics
(NCTM) Focal Point:
Number and Operations:
Developing an understanding
of fractions and fraction
equivalence.
Common Core State Standards Interdisciplinary Connections (if
applicable)
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.NF.A. Could connect this to a social
1 studies lesson that uses fractions
Explain why a fraction a/b is of people in learning about
equivalent to a fraction (n × a)/ diversity or a science lesson
(n × b) by using visual fraction showing equivalent
models, with attention to how the measurements of liquids etc.
number and size of the parts differ
even though the two fractions
themselves are the same size. Use
this principle to recognize and
generate equivalent fractions.

Academic Language: fraction, numerator, denominator, fraction strip, equivalent

Students’ Needs: Students would need previous knowledge of fractions and how to perform basic
operations with said fractions and have an introduction to how to multiply fractions. Students must also
be familiar with how fractions can be represented such as in a pie chart or fraction strips.

English Language Learners Special Needs

Students will be paired with Students with disabilities

a partner to work on the
desmos lesson together and
can read aloud the
instructions to students
when necessary.
will receive modifications
to this lesson as is
necessary for their
individual needs. For
example, the lesson could
be shortened to 9 slides for
a student with learning
disabilities etc.

Materials:
Individual technology for every student
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Projector

Language Function: In this lesson students will evaluate fractions by thinking like a mathematician and
interpreting data to discover equivalent fractions.
Analyze, Argue, Describe, Evaluate, Explain, Interpret, Justify, Synthesize

Lesson Plan
Before: Students will log into desmos on their respective technology and use the student code
to enter the lesson. The prior knowledge of students will be activated by the first two slides of
the lesson. The first will have students demonstrate their knowledge of fractions and how a
fraction can be represented using a pizza. The next slide will have students circle the
denominator of a fraction. Then students will watch a video on equivalent fractions. At this
point the teacher could project the video on a projector for all students to watch it at the same
time. The teacher would then tell students to turn to a partner and tell them what an equivalent
fraction is and together answer the question on the video slide.

During: After completing this, students will complete the rest of the desmos slides on their
own and their own rate. These slides will cover image analysis of equivalent fractions, shading
equivalent fractions, multiplication to find equivalent fractions, using fraction strips to find
equivalent fractions, shading fraction strips, finding equivalent pizza fractions, and an
equivalent fraction word problem. Students will work independently on these slides and will
notify the teacher if they need assistance.

After: The final slide serves as a summative assessment where students will demonstrate what
they have learned by using the strategies of multiplication, visual, or graphs to find an
equivalent fraction. Once the desmos lesson is complete the teacher will bring the class back
together and have students discuss what they have learned. The teacher will then ask students
where in real life they have seen equivalent fractions and give examples, students will be given
time to talk with a partner and then the teacher will call on groups to share with the class what
they came up with.

Assessment:

Type of Description of Modifications to Evaluation Criteria- How good is

assessment assessment the assessment so good enough to meet standards?
(formal or informal; What will students do that all students (related to the learning objectives)
formative or to show what they may demonstrate Include scoring guide, rubric or other
summative) have learned? learning criteria
Every slide has a Students with Student must correctly answer at least
Informal formative question that serves disabilities could 80% of question correctly otherwise
as an informal be given fewer reteaching will be necessary.
assessment of what slides, additional
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the child learns from help, or

each slide. simplified
questions
depending on
their needs.

Formal Summative Complete the final Students with Student must arrive at the correct
slide of the desmos disabilities could answer using any of the strategies
lesson to show what perform this taught during the lesson.
they have learned assessment with a
about finding partner
equivalent fractions

Resources:
Desmos Link: https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/5dad9d6571c68249cd496f29

Student Code: 2NTRYM

YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcHHhd6HizI
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References

Al-Makahleh, A. A. A., (2011). The effect of direct instruction strategy on math achievement of

primary 4th and 5th grade students with learning difficulties. International Education

Studies, 4(4), 199-205.

Buchheister, K., Jackson, C., & Taylor, C. E. (2017). Math games: A universal design approach

to mathematical reasoning. Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom, 22(4), 7-12.

Jitendra, A. (2002). Teaching students math problem-solving through graphic representations.

Teaching Exceptional Children, 34(4), 34-38.

Profiles of USA Public Schools. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.publicschoolreview.com/

Swanson, H. L., Lussier, C. M., & Orosco, M. J. (2015). Cognitive strategies, working memory,

and growth in word problem solving in children with math difficulties. Journal of

Learning Disabilities, 48(4), 339-358

Van De Walle, J. A., Karp, K. S., Bay-Williams, J. M. (2019) Elementary and middle school

mathematics: Teaching developmentally. New York, NY: Pearson Education Inc.

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Appendix
Dear Teacher and Parents of Matthew,

For the past 3 weeks I have been meeting with Matthew twice a week to tutor him in
math. During our first session, I performed a Diagnostic Screening Test to find Matthew’s grade
level in various math operations. Below are his scores. The numbers represent the grade level at
which Maddox is performing.

Procedures: 1.5 Simple Fractions: 0

Sequence: 1.5 Manipulation of fractions: 0

Simple: 3.4 Addition: 3.0

Complex: 2.6 Subtraction: 2.9

Manipulation: 2.4 Multiplication: 3.3

Zero: 2.3 Division: 0

Decimal: 0 Total Basic: 3.4

Matthew showed a strong understanding in performing simple addition and subtraction problems
and made self-corrections when necessary. During our following 5 tutoring sessions, I worked
with Matthew to learn strategies for multiplying 2 two-digit numbers together, identifying
procedures in a word problem, drawing models for multiplying and dividing, increasing fact
fluency, and understanding equivalent fractions. It’s been a pleasure to tutor Matthew as he was
very eager to learn and enjoyable to work with.

Best Regards,

Jessica Marter
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MATH WORKSHEET

A boy had 2 books. He got 1 new book. How many books did he have then? (+ - × ÷ )

Jim has 4 cats. 1 ran away. How many did he have then? (+ - × ÷)

Three boys each have 2 pencils. How many pencils do they have in all? (+ - × ÷ )

Maddox hikes for 2 miles, after taking a break he hikes 4 more. How many miles did he
hike all together? ( + - × ÷)
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If 2 balls cost 1 dollar, how much will 1 cost? (+ - × ÷)

The teacher has 7 apples, if she gives 2 away, how many are left? (+ - × ÷)

There are 3 people at the party, if there are 6 pieces of pizza, how many pieces does each
person get? (+ - × ÷)

There are 3 students in the classroom. They each are holding 4 books. How many books are
there in all? (+ - × ÷)