(I will do some quality blogging soon but for now I just want to record my tutoring experiences for the paper I will have to write.)
2nd Session:
Today was really wicked. I worked with 3 different students and their math homework. (I also got pulled out early and got the chance to speak with Kelly, who is the social worker coordinating the program about my own experience and hers... really kool) So the first student did not really need my help at all. If anything, he is probably better at math than I am. The only thing he needed a little help with was his place holders when multiplying with decimals. It's been a while since I've done mathematics like that without my calculator. I need to brush up a little bit.
The second student I worked with was another male and he had to figure out questions about perimeter and area (more on the area). He was pretty good as well, but he needed my help a little more than the other student. There were a few places he got stuck and I think the biggest help I was to him was just enforcing the concept of going back over your steps if you come to a solution that you do not think is right (or in this case, that is not there in the multiple choice options). I was thinking that multiple choice was not a really good way to ask students questions because they could just look at the solutions provided and test them out, rather than do all the work BUT maybe that is not a bad thing. Plus if kids so end up doing work and coming up with an answer that isn't there, they know they have to go back and fix or change something.
Lastly, and one of my most rewarding experiences, was working with a girl who does addition in a completely different way than I am used to. It blew my mind. At first I thought she was doing things wrong and didn't know where to start, like from the right side in addition or subtration, BUT she actually knows her place values really really well and can do her addition/substration from the left. It's crazy! Pretty kool actually because I certainly was never taught that way. I actually kept a sample of her work so I could study it. :D I got to see the person who usually work in the overflow room try to tell her where she had to start and I also got to watch the child say no, and that her way worked fine (which it did). I just got really excited because instead of jumping on her right away and saying she was doing it wrong, I sat back, watched her work, and tried to figure out what she was doing. I couldn't figure it out at first, but I knew that she was getting the answers right. So i asked her to explain her methods to me, and they made sense. It's true that just because there is a 'traditional way' to do something, does not mean that it is necessarily the best/most efficient/ clearest demonstration of an understanding of the concepts.
Where I would do 123
+ 87
------, starting from the right, 7 + 3, 10 , put the 0 carry the one, then 8 + 2 + 1 = 11, put the 1, carry the 1, 1+1 =2 so 2 1 0
she did 123 + 87 = ____? (picture the 12 and the 8 circled with lines going to 200 circled and then the 3 and 7 circled with lines going to 10 circled ---> 200 + 10 = 210
I learned a new way of doing math today. :)
2nd Session:
Today was really wicked. I worked with 3 different students and their math homework. (I also got pulled out early and got the chance to speak with Kelly, who is the social worker coordinating the program about my own experience and hers... really kool) So the first student did not really need my help at all. If anything, he is probably better at math than I am. The only thing he needed a little help with was his place holders when multiplying with decimals. It's been a while since I've done mathematics like that without my calculator. I need to brush up a little bit.
The second student I worked with was another male and he had to figure out questions about perimeter and area (more on the area). He was pretty good as well, but he needed my help a little more than the other student. There were a few places he got stuck and I think the biggest help I was to him was just enforcing the concept of going back over your steps if you come to a solution that you do not think is right (or in this case, that is not there in the multiple choice options). I was thinking that multiple choice was not a really good way to ask students questions because they could just look at the solutions provided and test them out, rather than do all the work BUT maybe that is not a bad thing. Plus if kids so end up doing work and coming up with an answer that isn't there, they know they have to go back and fix or change something.
Lastly, and one of my most rewarding experiences, was working with a girl who does addition in a completely different way than I am used to. It blew my mind. At first I thought she was doing things wrong and didn't know where to start, like from the right side in addition or subtration, BUT she actually knows her place values really really well and can do her addition/substration from the left. It's crazy! Pretty kool actually because I certainly was never taught that way. I actually kept a sample of her work so I could study it. :D I got to see the person who usually work in the overflow room try to tell her where she had to start and I also got to watch the child say no, and that her way worked fine (which it did). I just got really excited because instead of jumping on her right away and saying she was doing it wrong, I sat back, watched her work, and tried to figure out what she was doing. I couldn't figure it out at first, but I knew that she was getting the answers right. So i asked her to explain her methods to me, and they made sense. It's true that just because there is a 'traditional way' to do something, does not mean that it is necessarily the best/most efficient/ clearest demonstration of an understanding of the concepts.
Where I would do 123
+ 87
------, starting from the right, 7 + 3, 10 , put the 0 carry the one, then 8 + 2 + 1 = 11, put the 1, carry the 1, 1+1 =2 so 2 1 0
she did 123 + 87 = ____? (picture the 12 and the 8 circled with lines going to 200 circled and then the 3 and 7 circled with lines going to 10 circled ---> 200 + 10 = 210
I learned a new way of doing math today. :)
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