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Viswanath L Swamy
Honors 4930: Detroit Fellows Tutoring Project
Final Reflection Paper
December 16, 2016
Growth
Some time ago I was loitering around on my laptop, hunting for a new TED Talk to plug
my mind into while eating dinner. I came across an interesting talk from the founder of Khan
Academy, Salman Khan, who was discussing the art of learning. Khan elaborates on a
fascinating story about mathematics students in that the United States education system fails at
teaching for mastery. When a math student takes a test on an introductory concept in Algebra
and scores a C on it, the course continues to move forward. In this situation, the C-scoring
student fails to grasp a well-versed, conceptual understanding of the material and is forced to
move onto larger concepts, which, in turn, could cascade into a very difficult situation for the
student. As Khan suggests, we should attempt to review concepts consistently until it is fully
reciprocal instead of forcibly moving students along at the same pace.
Having the opportunity to instruct first grade students in reading posed both a
stifling challenge and a remarkable experience. If an individual pays extremely close attention to
the behavior of first graders minds, he shall notice this type of membrane-like behavior; there
are some things that passively flow into their minds and other things that take a degree of energy.
Towards the beginning of this tutoring endeavor, I noticed some of my students having a
disapproving notion towards heading upstairs to work together. In particular, I recall one of my
students, Jeremiah, rejecting all the material, saying he was bored, and desiring to not move
forward. In turn, I had to become creative in my methods in order for him to find purpose in this

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material. Before I touch upon the various techniques I utilized, I will digress into the overall
impact that I believe I have had on my students.
The moment I walk into Ms. Drakes first grade classroom, thirty-seven hands fly
up: Will you pick me, Mr. Veesh? All I see is the beauty amongst the innocent faces with
smiles that lack many teeth. Perhaps this is the only moment in my life where I have had to say
no to so many young faces. Yet, to the five who stuck with me throughout the entire semester
(Elisia, Jeremiah, Brian, Caleb, Prince), I believe we became excellent friends. I desired to
pursue a Mentor/Mentee relationship with my students and bridge the gap of me being their
Tutor. I deliberately forced myself to give my utmost emotion into each book, rhyme, and
game to make my students feel at home. I became their listener; I listened to some of the most
ridiculous stories that I would struggle to articulate over again. I was their play-buddy; we played
letter and word games, which was a fight to the finish for the renowned set of stickers. I was a
reason for them to look forward to attending school. My students were cognizant of the days and
times I would be visiting, so I made it a crucial point to make sure they came to school that day.
The largest impact I believe I had on my students was their realization of artistic creativity which
co-existed with their learning. I believe that creative expression is the most powerful form of
retaining information even when it does not seem enjoyable.
When I suggest artistic creativity, I would like one to think of non-judgmental freedom
freedom in many forms. I strived to make the learning experience as unique and involved as
possible. In the first few weeks of tutoring, I noticed that my students typically have trouble
focusing (arguably fair as they are only six years old) and can get quite bored easily. Since the
alphabet can touch upon the senses of sight, hearing, and a degree of touch, I attempted to
incorporate all these factors to stimulate these young geniuses. For my students Jeremiah, Caleb,

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and Brian, this was a major component of their long-term success. One particular struggle that
Brian faced was putting whole words together. Most often, he would correctly sound out the
letters; however, if he was unaware of the actual word, he would divert to various words that was
always running through his mind: dinosaur, popcorn, & turtle. We took this into the sketchpad of
an iPad and drew out these things along with words of interest from project read. Within a few
weeks there were full words that he recognized and read without bothering to sound out; he
also learned how to spell dinosaur.
This strategy of physically drawing letters along with picture representations through the
power of touch was also the largest advantage for Jeremiah. Jeremiah posed a significant
challenge for me as he showed the highest degree of frustration when attempting to remember
letter sounds. After careful dissection on how he answered questions, I soon realized that he is an
auditory and visual learner. For example, when I would ask him for the sound of letter P, he
knew the sound without hesitation. However, if P was presented to him on a whiteboard or on
the top of the chalk board, he would recognize neither the letter nor its sound. Some of the
unsuccessful strategies I attempted was standing up and acting out a letter or two. For the letter
B we swung our baseball bats. For C, we started our cars. Yet, even if we went back to the
whiteboard or project read manual to review, we reached no avail take home notecards did not
work either. I realized that his success would lay only in his power of controlling the learning
environment. For letters from Unit 1 & 2, we drew a picture of an object or connection that was
representative of that letter. For F we drew friends; for H, happy; for A, apple. Although
we only made it through eighty percent of Unit 1 & 2, we did not move on until every letter and
picture was mastered. It worked; he got them all correct on his post-test evaluation. I argue that
the catalyst for this eventual success is nothing more than patience.

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Tutoring these students has reinforced my perception of patience as the key component of
attaining anything valuable in life. I believe that one of the common themes amongst students my
age and older is that we are quite focused on the future and/or the past so that we fail to live in
the present. We fail to take one day at a time, and we fail to live fearlessly. In the mind of a first
grader; however, everything worth thinking about is occurring right around them; they are not
worried about what is going to happen in the next few months or the next day but rather the
simple points of the day just like gym and computer time. Although they might be unaware, they
are unconsciously patient for what life has store in them. As college students and adults, we must
revert ourselves into gaining this perspective that we once had as first graders.
Along with patience, I would like to note the greatest reminder that my students
demonstrated to me: Curiosity. These young geniuses are being exposed to an incalculable
amount of information each second. Yet, instead of having all this information diffuse in and out
like many of us do simply because of our hefty schedules, they ask numerous questions. They
want to know what things are and why things happen; they appreciate the simplest pieces of
knowledge that we often take for granted. As a student, it is a notable reminder to maintain and
increase my degree of curiosity of the world. There are many answers still unknown simply
because the right questions have not been asked yet. With the power of the universe at the tips of
our fingertips, we should wake up each morning with the curiosity of a first grader.
Throughout this writing piece I attempted to tap into my inner Salman Khan. I made it an
ideal to instruct my students for mastery, therefore, I envision them taking bits of this learning
strategy and faintly executing them into their further studies. I am proud of what my students and
I have been able to accomplish and the morals and lessons that we indirectly taught each other.
As I reflect back to this paper in the future, I hope to sense growth in my students from afar as

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well as growth in me as a continuous learner. With this future reflection, I aspire to witness the
words of Winston Churchill: Continuous effort not strength or intelligence is our key to
unlocking our potential.