Amanda Ybarra EDMA 3153 July 3, 2011 Assessment Chart Test Questions What number comes 9 after 999?

I am 45. I have 25 ones. How many tens do I have? Is it reasonable to say that three children can stretch their arms out together to make 15 feet? What is 20 times 40? 80 800 Pre-Test Student Responses 1,018 70 No Post-Test Student Responses 1,008 2 tens It depends

Amanda Ybarra EDMA 3153

July 3, 2011 Student Tutoring Reflection 1. Results and changes in learning from pre to post tests During the pre-test, this student struggled with calculating triple digit number problems. He was fairly good at knowing what operations needed to be used, but had a difficult time finding answers when the problem used numbers higher than 100. I noticed he resorted to counting on his fingers when he could not figure it out in his head but then would lose count and get frustrated. When the student was given base ten riddles, he could solve the problem when given the ones and tens place, however, when in reverse the student got confused every time and gave up on trying to find the number of tens when given the number and ones place. During the post-test, the student showed great improvement in these areas. When asked to add numbers higher than 100, he would think in terms of ten and could calculate 999 + 9 by adding 9 to 1,000 then subtracting one to get 1,008. He quickly answered this question without using his fingers or scratch paper. This student also became very familiar with place value and using base ten to figure out riddles. I let him use the bean sticks and beans to solve I am 45. I have 25 ones. How many tens do I have?. He recognized the problem immediately from the pre-test and knew he needed to subtract instead of add like he did before. He laid out the sticks and beans to show 45, then took away 25 and was left with 2 sticks which stood for 20 so he said 2 tens. I was very impressed because this was a dramatic change from when we worked this problem before. I did not even help or explain anything and he solved it with the base ten models. When we worked on the reasonable size problem, he still had trouble understanding how

long 15 feet was. This student was trying to be literal and could not understand how 3 childrens arms length could equal 15 feet. He said It depends and I had to explain that your arms stretched out equals about that persons height. He was still confused and did not understand the comparison. 2. The challenges of mathematical teaching and learning After conducting several tutoring sessions, I learned that students learn best when given the opportunity to use their own strategies. When I tried to teach certain methods of solving problems, it only confused the student because they were so focused on following steps rather than understanding what the question was asking. When students are use to their strategy they tend to always resort back to it rather than using the taught strategies because they are more comfortable with theirs. Once I incorporated models into my tutoring, this helped student tremendously. Visuals are best for children to use while problem solving and makes it easier to for them to grasp the concept. I also learned that relating math to what interest them makes students feel confident and excited in solving problems. 3. What I learned about myself as a teacher This assignment has showed me that in order to effectively teach, I will need to know how each of my students learn. I will have to pay close attention to each students strategy use and what they are struggling with. I learned that it will take extra time in preparing exciting hands-on activities but will be worth it in the end instead of using worksheets. The football field activity brought a lot of fun into learning math and kept the student interested. As a teacher, I will want to provide collaborative assignments so my

students will be able to work with peers in problem solving and asking questions regarding the different strategies each use. 4. What I would do differently if I were able to conduct the tutorials again If I were to conduct these tutorials again, I would present my student with more challenging tasks. I would have loved to do more activities if time permitted because I there were many opportunities for learning that did not have to be planned out. Activities such as, making cookies using measuring cups and having student double the recipe amount to practice adding fractions. I would have incorporated this fraction practice into the multiplication session. I believe this student enjoyed all the tutoring sessions and would have been more than happy to continue doing math practice throughout the summer. 5. What would you do next if you were this childs teacher? If I were this childs teacher, I would start practice with fractions and show student visuals to represent fractional parts along with comparing two fractions. This correlates with Common Core Standard 3.NF that says, Explain equivalence of fractions in special cases, and compare fractions by reasoning about their size. 3. D. Compare two fractions with the same denominator by reasoning about their size. Recognize that comparisons are valid only when two fractions refer to the same whole. E.g., by using a visual fraction model.. Also, I would then go from this into teaching student about making decimals out of these fractions. This follows the Common Core Standard 4.NF Understand decimal notation for fractions, and compare decimal fractions: 6. Use decimal notation for fractions with denominators 10 or 100. 6. What activities did you use that met the fun factor requirement?

I used several activities that were both fun and educational simultaneously. My favorite one that seems to interest the student most was the football field poster board game. I made a football field on green poster board and created a deck of cards that included multiplication facts as well as football word problems. Student drew a card and if he drew a math fact he had a few seconds to solve it to move 10 yards down the field. If he drew a word problem he was able to use a scratch piece of paper to solve it. Student would keep track of how many touchdowns he made and at the end had multiply that by 7 to find his total score. I invented this game because my student loves football and I knew he would enjoy the visual of a football field as the game board. Another activity I used involved estimating time. This one had different performing tasks and the student had to guess how long each would take then actually do each of them to record the real time. This was fun for him because it was active and called him to physically move in order to fill out the estimation sheet. He also enjoyed seeing how close his estimation was after doing each activity. The high card game was also a game my student liked. This game was using place value and student drew 4 cards from a deck of one digit numbers to form the highest possible number. We played this one against each other and it was made it more fun for him to try and beat my score. The competition factor made student excited to draw cards and at the game ended in a tie. To solve this tie, we changed the rules and had to make the lowest number instead of highest. This was great to see him correctly switch over to making the smallest number and he won!