A-day: Session 4

Affect:

Hoping to work with Andrew again, I created another lesson focusing on the introduction of the terms, multiple, factor, lowest common denominator, and least common multiple.  A mastery of these skills would aid the student in his success in solving algebraic equations for Module F. 

Once again, I felt confident in my ability to teach this information effectively to my tutee.  Having already implemented a similar lesson to both an ELL student and multiple struggling math learners (as a result of Andrew’s previous absenses), I felt like these experiences prepared me for situations such as this one. 

Behavior:

Once again Andrew was absent.  But I learned this was because he had moved to another school.  In his absences I was able to work with David, another new student to Lakeshore.  David informed me that he has attended Lakeshore for two months and that he was been held back twice.  His age suggests that he should be in eighth grade, while he is only in sixth.  The tutee appeared to be very shy when we first started, however with positive reinforcement and encouraging language he became for comfortable with me and was willing to speak freely. 

David brought a worksheet centered around adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions.  I was excited that my current experiences with implementing lessons on factors, multiples, LCD, and LCM would help me in explaining this concept to the student.  After reviewing the work he had completed thus far, I realized David did not understand the rules for finding the least common denominator between a pair of fractions.  Therefore, I began the session by teaching him the terms definition, working through examples, and creating a flash card.  Afterwards, we were able to complete half of the worksheet he brought with him.  David’s greatest struggle seemed to stem from his lack of knowledge about the rules for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions.  His multiplication and division skills were excellent (quick and accurate).  Therefore, we focused on repeating the processes for finding the LCD of a set of fractions and solving the given problem.  By the end of our session, David could accurately repeat the steps necessary to complete this process.

Content:

After working with David, I once again questioned the impact of student mobility of academic success.  After introducing myself and speaking with the student, it was evident that he had attended multiple schools.  I believe that his academic standing was greatly influenced by this academic instability.  Unlike Devan, David had not moved from a private setting to a public one.  However, the possibility of poor tracking of student records and progress is real.  It saddens me to think that David’s needs have been inadequately addressed for this reason.