Mikayla Christensen

Date of Tutoring Session: 2/19/19

Student Age & Grade: 11 years old, 6th grade

1. What topic(s) did you cover in your tutoring session?

We covered long division with decimals and finding the area or perimeter from a word
problem.

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?

For the word problems I walked the student through poly steps to help them understand
what they needed to know from the problem. She really liked these steps and she told me
that it helped her keep track of all of her needed information. I also used the scaffolding
method to help her with long division because she was really struggling with it. She
really enjoyed the scaffolding method.

3. Describe any challenges you faced in this session. (What was your students attitude about
math? Did you notice any knowledge gaps? Was the lesson/homework too easy or too
hard for this students skill level? etc.)

The biggest challenge I had was figuring out how to help my student figure out long
division. At first I tried to just do the traditional method, because that is what her teacher
used, but she had a difficult time with that. Eventually, after practicing a few times, she
understood the scaffolding method.

4. Describe any triumphs you had in this session.

My biggest triumph is related to by biggest challenge. When I got to see the student
understand long division and do it on her own I felt really good. She was studying for her
bench mark and she was stressed, but I could see her relief once she started being able to
do the division on her own.

5. What are your take-a-ways from this session. (Did you learn anything about teaching
from it? What would you do differently or the same to help your students.)

I learned that working through multiple examples of a problem can really help a student
understand the concept. Practice really can make such a difference in a students
 education. I think if I had the chance to do this session again I would have spent less
time trying to teach the traditional method, and spent more time exploring other methods.

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 actually really comfortable with these topics, which I think helped me when it came
to helping the student. I didn’t have to worry or question myself about what I was doing.
I can also really relate to the students struggles, long division was extremely hard for me.
So I felt so good to be able to help someone else feel more comfortable with the topic.