EDMU 524 Math Tutoring Project PDF

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Tutoring essay with student on math concepts...

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EDMU 524 TUTORING PROJECT

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EDMU 524 Tutoring Assignment Brandman University Shae Doty

Interview

EDMU 524 TUTORING PROJECT 2 In order to learn more about the student I chose to tutor for this math tutoring assignment, Riley R., I did an interview with her fourth grade teacher, to learn more about her academic achievements and background. During the interview, the teacher let me know that Riley is a great student that stands out in the sense that even despite the fact that she struggles in certain content areas, she always pushes through to work harder and harder to learn the concepts being taught. Her teacher also mentioned that Riley is not currently meeting the academic achievement levels with her mathematical content skills and benchmark skills, but did very well in other content areas such as reading and social science areas. Her teacher advised me that she has observed Riley struggling the most with fractions and multiplication concepts, and marrying the two in equations that ask to solve for both, which has caused her to struggle in other concept areas where the prior understanding of these skills is needed. However, that Riley seemed to do really well with adding and subtracting whole number, and fractions, so it was noticeable that the concept of multiplication was what Riley was struggling with in order to foster an understanding of how to solve these types of equations. The teacher then let me know that Riley comes from a household where she is raised by a single parent, and that parent did not graduate from high school, and additionally works at night, so while the teacher takes the time to tutor Riley once a week, she really does not have a great deal of support within the household to help foster an understanding of the content area skills that Riley is struggling with. Once the teacher brought up Riley’s household learning environment, I then asked the teacher about her familial linguistic background, and the teacher let me know that Riley and her family are English speaking, and from Hawaii, and that she did not thinking a barrier in language was a reason for why Riley struggled in the learning process for certain content areas. Riley’s teacher let me know during the interview regarding the students social-emotional learning strengths and needs, that the she struggles with working in groups for learning activities or games, because she is often very shy and soft spoken and so she seems to withdraw in those types of learning environments, especially with mathematics concepts. Her teacher told me that she has observed Riley working well on her own during independent practice activities when manipulatives are involved, but when it is a group discussion or activity, that is when Riley seems to show signs of confusion and not understanding concepts. Her teacher then went into a discussion how she thinks that this is because Riley struggles with social interaction which is why she may seem confused during these learning environments. She let me know that Riley’s father had disclosed to her at the beginning of the school year, that Riley had started to show signs at the end of the last school year of stress and anxiety when working on projects or homework, and that she was having difficulty controlling these emotions when interacting with content areas that the teacher has now observed Riley struggles with. When I asked Riley’s teacher what her prior positive learning experiences and interests were in relation to a mathematical learning environment, she let me know that because Riley is very shy and seems to withdraw in group settings or settings that would force her out of her comfort zone, she seems to feel very confident and comfortable in small settings with hands-on manipulatives that support her ability of learning new concepts. Because of this, I made sure to make note of this so that I could remember to tailor my tutoring sessions with Riley with these aspects in mind as to not make her feel uncomfortable, and to make sure I provide different learning materials that the she can work with hands-on. Her teacher also let me know that she has observed the Riley reading multiple books in her spare time, during recess and lunch time, and seems to really enjoy diving into different genres of books, so I also made note of this to try and include a book that could relate her love of reading to the concepts that I would be tutoring her on.

EDMU 524 TUTORING PROJECT 3 In the last portion of our interview, when I asked the teacher about Riley’s attendance and whether that could play a factor in her struggle with certain math concepts, the teacher let me know that despite Riley’s home environment seeming unstable, that she is at school every day and has good attendance, however she thinks the missing link is that the practice of the concepts being taught in the classroom is not being carried over into the home environment, and she does not have a lot of help with homework or practicing skills/learned strategies at home, so that disconnect is showing in the classroom environment. The teacher also mentioned that a few months into the school year, when she started to notice Riley struggling with certain concepts and falling behind in the benchmark objectives, she started tutoring Riley once a week in the library right after school, trying to help bridge the gap of understanding that Riley was not able to achieve at home. Lastly, the teacher informed me that any help Riley got would be helpful in fostering a deeper understanding of the concepts she was struggling with, and that if I included hands-on learning activities and worked slowly with Riley, that I should have no trouble working with her and helping her foster a deeper understanding of the given mathematical concepts that the teacher told me I should focus on of multiplying fractions by whole numbers.

EDMU 524 TUTORING PROJECT

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EDMU 524 TUTORING PROJECT

Tutoring Lesson Plan Sheet

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EDMU 524 TUTORING PROJECT Tutoring session 1 2 3

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Date of Tutoring Session: Name of Tutee: Riley R. Math Common Core State Standard(s) Addressed in the Lesson: CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.NF.B.4: Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication to multiply a fraction by a whole number. a) Understand a fraction a/b as a multiple of 1/ b. For example, use a visual fraction model to represent 5/4 as the product 5 × (1/4), recording the conclusion by the equation 5/4 = 5 × (1/4). Objective of the Lesson: Tutee will demonstrate their understanding of fractions by applying their prior knowledge and using multiplication principles to understand how to multiply a fraction by a whole number.

Lesson Plan: 1.

Instruction:

For the instruction portion of this tutoring session, because it was the first session and I wanted to allow my tutee to become comfortable working with me and with these concepts that she has been struggling with, I started the session by showing her a video that we watched together that was a song from YouTube called “Multiplying Fractions with Whole Numbers Song” by NUMBEROCK. This video introduces concepts of multiplication and fractions and marries the two concepts to create an introduction to working with these concepts. After the video, I asked the tutee if she noticed anything specific being addressed in the video about how we could solve a problem that had a fraction and a whole number, and we discussed how the video shows one strategy of multiplying the whole number by the numerator of the fraction and then dividing the new numerator by the existing denominator. I then took out a small white board and wrote on the board, 4 x 2/8, and I said to my tutee, if you noticed that we multiply the whole number by the numerator first, that would mean 4 x 2=8, so now our fraction would say 8/8. I asked her if that fraction looked good the way it was, or if there was anything else we could do, and she stated she remembered if it is the same number on the top and the bottom, then it can be reduced to just equal 1 whole. After solving this problem, in order to solidify a deeper understanding of this strategy, I read a short math poem/story to my tutee from mathstory.com by Mr. R. In the section of his stories titled “Mr. Al Geebrah’s Fraction Mystery” I allowed my tutee to choose one of the chapters for us to read. She decided we would read “Chapter 3: A Strange Bird.” After reading this story which includes the question of multiplying 8 by 1/5, I wrote this problem down on the white board again, and I modeled the same strategy of solving this problem as we did the first one, by multiplying 8 by 1 and then the fraction would be 8/5. I did not have us get into improper

EDMU 524 TUTORING PROJECT 7 fractions yet because it seemed that my tutee needed a lot more instruction in the multiplication of a whole number to a fraction concept, before being able to simplify the solution. Instructional Strategies/Materials: The instructional strategies that I used during this tutoring session to try and understand how my tutee learns best and to try and touch on different learning styles they may have, included modeling with the introduction of concepts and the activity, as well as interactive instruction when working together during the instruction portion of the tutoring session. Additionally, my tutee engaged in hands-on learning with the fraction activity, and direct instruction through the YouTube song and online math story from mathstory.com, as well as experimental learning from practicing the fraction concepts through the IXL learning game. The materials used within this tutoring session included my MacBook Pro Laptop for the fraction song, mathstory.com story, and IXL learning game. We also shared one small white board and I brought two white board markers. For the fraction activity, we also used a piece of white construction paper, one for each of us, and a box of different colored markers. 2. Guided Practice: In order to keep my tutee engaged in this learning process, I pulled out white construction paper for both of us, and a box filled with different colored markers. I let her know that we would be creating a fraction model by folding our papers different ways and using different colors to shade in given boxes. I walked her through this activity of us both folding our papers into four different sections, folding it hot dog style first. We then unfolded our papers and we colored in 3 of the 4 sections we just created with our folds. Then, we folded our papers the other way, hamburger style, into three sections. We then unfolded our paper and focused on the side of the paper that already had coloring on it, and colored in 2 of the 3 sections we just created. During this part of the activity, I made sure to casually ask my tutee as we were coloring, how many squares we created in total and how many we were coloring, identifying that we were creating fractions with our folding and coloring methods. We then looked at our papers and distinguished the 12 different sections that we had created with our coloring, and I then highlighted that some of the colors are overlapping. For example, there were six sections of overlapping colors on our paper that had 12 sections, so what fraction could that create? I wrote down on the white board 6/12 and we discussed how both of these numbers were even, and that there was a possibility to break the numbers down into smaller digits, to possibly create another fraction from our colored boxes. I went back to the paper and we discussed how half of the paper was colored, straight in half. I then posed the question to my tutee, if half (1/2) of these 12 boxes are colored, could that mean we could simplify 6/12 to equal ½? We then worked on the white board and I wrote down 12 x ½=, and 6/12=. We worked together on the strategy that was most familiar to her first, multiplying 12 by 1, and placing it over the existing denominator of 2. Now our problem read, 12/2, which equaled 6, and I reminded her that showed us we colored in 6 of the 12 squares. We

EDMU 524 TUTORING PROJECT 8 then moved on to work on 6/12. I focused on the previous problem of how we found out that 6 goes into 12, 2 times, so our answer would then become ½, which showed us that we colored half of the boxes. My tutees eyes lit up in this moment of realization, as her understanding of these strategies from this activity deepened her understanding of these concepts. Independent Practice: After working on this activity together, I wanted to be sure that my tutee felt comfortable with the one strategy of multiplying fractions and whole numbers that we had been working on, which was multiplying the whole number by the numerator and then dividing by the existing denominator. In order to assess whether my tutee gained an understanding of this concept, or whether we would need to spend more time on it in our next tutoring session, I logged onto my computer to IXL Learning, and pulled up an interactive online game that provided various equations such as ¼ x 4, and allowed her to input her answers and see if she got them correct. I also provided her the white board and marker to work out the problems so that she could then enter her answer onto the website. I really liked this online tool to see whether she had gained an understanding because if you get an answer wrong, it provides an explanation for how to solve the equation and how to get the correct answer. After only getting one problem wrong and understanding that she forgot what 9 x 2 was, I took notes on how she did and how she really liked the activity and online portion of the tutoring session, and used those factors to help prepare me for our next tutoring session. 3.

Tutoring Lesson Plan Sheet Tutoring session 1

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Date of Tutoring Session:

EDMU 524 TUTORING PROJECT Name of Tutee: Riley R.

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Math Common Core State Standard(s) Addressed in the Lesson: CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.NF.B.4: Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication to multiply a fraction by a whole number. b) Understand a multiple of a/b as a multiple of 1/b, and use this understanding to multiply a fraction by a whole number. For example, use a visual fraction model to express 3 × (2/5) as 6 × (1/5), recognizing this product as 6/5. (In general, n × (a/b) = (n × a)/b.) Objective of the Lesson: Tutee will demonstrate their understanding of how to multiply whole numbers by fractions by using their understanding of what was addressed in the previous tutoring session, and applying those new skills to show how to use different strategies of multiplying a fraction by a whole number and getting the same answer. Lesson Plan: 1. Instruction: For the instruction portion of this second tutoring session, I chose to start off by playing another fraction video called “Multiplying Fractions: Rap Song” by NUMBEROCK. I chose to start the session with this song because my tutee seemed to really like it in the previous tutoring session, and I sensed throughout the first lesson that she gravitated more and seemed more engaged in aspects of the session that involved technology. After this song, I chose to play a read aloud of the book “Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin by Pam Calvert and illustrated by Wayne Geehan, on YouTube. I chose to play this book because it creates a story that includes didn’t fraction multiplication strategies involving whole numbers and illustrates the concepts in a fun and engaging way. I then got out the small white board and markers that I used in the previous tutoring session in order to help my tutee understand another strategy she could use when multiplying fractions and whole numbers. At first, I helped the tutee recall from the previous session the strategy that we had discussed by writing an example on the white board and asking her to tell me if she remembers how we would solve the problem 4 x ¼ for example, and she let me know that you multiply the whole number by the numerator and place that new numerator digit over the denominator. After seeing that she retained that understanding of one strategy, I posed an example of another strategy that she could use to solve that same problem. At first, I wrote on the white board 4/1 x 1/4, and I asked her what looked different from the way I wrote the previous problem. After she said there was a 1 underneath the whole number, I explained to her that another strategy for multiplying fractions and whole numbers could place a 1 underneath the whole number and multiply the numerators and denominators together. I pointed out that for our previous equation, we said the answer would be 1, because 4/4 equals 1 whole, and I pointed out that if we multiply the numerators together we get 4, and if we multiply

EDMU 524 TUTORING PROJECT 10 the denominators together we get 4, so 4/4 equals 1. She mentioned to me that she thought this strategy seemed so much easier to understand than the previous, so I told her we would practice more together and whichever strategy she feels most comfortable using, we can use for the equations moving forward. Instructional Strategies/Materials: The instructional strategies that I used within this tutoring session, included direct instruction strategies of modeling new strategies to solve multiplying fractions and whole number equations, as well as with the use of the YouTube song, and read aloud math book, that reiterated important aspects of what my tutee should be grasping about these concepts from these sessions. The materials used within this tutoring session included my MacBook Pro to play the song and read aloud math book, as well as a small white board and white board markers, as well as s’mores ingredients for activity. 2. Guided Practice:

For the guided practice portion of this tutoring session, I decided to focus on practicing different equations involving multiplying fractions and whole numbers and practicing how to model both of the strategies we have discussed, and then eventually letting my tutee choose which one she prefers to use by practicing on the small white board. However, I decided to take this activity a step further and make it a little more engaging for my tutee by incorporating the aspect of food into the equation. I decided to create an activity that I called s’more fractions. If I were to pose an equation on the white board such as 1 x 3/5, we would model this fraction on the table using graham crackers, small marshmallows, and broken squares of a Hershey’s chocolate bar. We decided that the graham cracker slices, because they were bigger, would represent whole numbers, the marshmallows would represent the numerators, and the chocolate squares would represent the denominators. So for example, when we discussed the equation of 1 x 3/5, my tutee broke off one piece of the graham cracker, and then put 3 marshmallows above 5 squares of chocolate to represent the equation visually. Then we went back to the white board and we would solve the equation using both of the strategies for multiplying fractions by whole numbers. We modeled 5 different equations using these same methods, and then I let my tutee eat some of the activity that I had left over, which seemed like a perfect Segway into letting her practice these strategies on her own. 3. Independent Practice:

For the independent practice portion of this tutoring session, I decided that because I had my tutee model her understanding of how to visually demonstrate these types of equations while we worked together during the guided practice part of this session, I had printed out from Teachers Pay Teachers, a multiplying fractions by whole numbers puzzle game. This game has puzzle pieces that have an equation on them, as well as pieces that have a visual representation of the

EDMU 524 TUTORING PROJECT 11 solution to the given equations. This activity would allow my tutee to recall what we practiced during the guided practice, both how to use both of the strategies we have discussed, as well as how to show the solution of these equations using a visual representation. My tutee did a great ...