March 30, 2010

Date: March 30, 2010
Hours Tutored: 1
Grade Level: 5
Age: 9/10
Gender: F

The goal of this session was to complete the Oral Math Facts program for the last time. P was somewhat distracted and worked slowly and did not complete many sections. The environment was distracting because it was very close to the students’ Spring Break and they did not want to do any work. To help P learn, she was verbally corrected and new problems were reviewed before each page. None of the aspects of multiculturalism were particularly relevant to this session.

March 26, 2010

Date: March 26, 2010
Hours Tutored: 1
Grade Level: 5
Age: 9/10
Gender: M/F

The goal of this session was to continue the Oral Math Facts program orally. P was very hyperactive and competitive, but reluctant to actually participate in the tutoring session. N did not pay attention in the slightest. The environment was incredibly distracting again because the teacher was teaching other classes that came in and out of her classroom about the baby possums, so there was a very large influx of other students along with noise movement. To help the students learn I verbally corrected incorrect answers. It is possible that age or gender affected today’s session again since P was still largely unaffected by the presence of the animals and N was very distracted by them.

March 25, 2010

Date: March 25, 2010
Hours Tutored: 1
Grade Level: 5
Age: 9/10
Gender: M/F

The goal of this session was to continue the Oral Math Facts program orally. N was incredibly distracted and barely paid any attention to the tutoring session. He did not complete one page and almost twice as long as usual to complete each section. P was very eager for her tutoring session (she came early and started answering N’s problems) and wanted to do division problems. She was also very eager to complete the entire booklet of multiplication as she neared the end of it. The environment was the most distracting it had ever been because the teacher had baby possums she was nursing in the classroom and the students were only interested in the animals. To help students learn, new multiplication problems were introduced before each page, wrong answers were verbally corrected, and problems were asked orally. A possible factor of multiculturalism that affected today’s session was gender or age. This is possible because N was so distracted by the possums that he was essentially unable to participate in the tutoring session, yet P paid the animals almost no attention.

March 23, 2010

Date: March 23, 2010
Hours Tutored: 1
Grade Level: 5
Age: 9/10
Gender: F

The goal of this session was to continue tutoring students using the Oral Math Facts Program. P seemed somewhat ambivalent about tutoring and responded perfunctorily. She struggled more than usual during this session. The environment for this session was not very distracting because students were testing and the classroom was very quiet with minimal movement. To help P learn, I verbally corrected her wrong answers, asked problems orally, and introduced new problems at the start of each page. I also quizzed her on problems she missed multiple times. None of the aspects of multiculturalism seemed particularly relevant to today’s session.

March 19, 2010

Date: March 19, 2010
Hours Tutored: 1
Grade Level: 5
Age: 9/10
Gender: M/F

The goal of this session was to continue the Oral Math Facts program orally. P had a very positive/hopeful attitude during this session, and participated very willingly despite the fact that her actual performance was comparatively low. For the most part, N performed and acted as usual, although there were times when he did very well. The classroom environment was not exceptionally distracting during this session. To help the students learn they were verbally corrected for wrong answers, and new multiplication tables were reviewed before each page began. None of the aspects of multiculturalism seemed particularly relevant to this session.

March 18, 2010

Date: March 18, 2010
Hours Tutored: 1
Grade Level: 5
Age: 9/10
Gender: M/F

The goal of this session was to continue the Oral Math Facts program. P was incredibly withdrawn and reluctant to participate, so her tutoring session was cut short in an attempt to use the time more effectively to help tutor N. N was unusually fast in his responses and seemed to have a good working knowledge of the problems. Overall his attitude and performance were very good. The environment was extraordinarily distracting because the class had a substitute (the source of P’s bad attitude). However, near the end of the session, P apologized for her bad attitude and asked if she could try again, at which time she performed much better. The students were verbally corrected for incorrect answers. None of the aspects of multiculturalism seemed particularly relevant to the session.

March 17, 2010

Date: March 17, 2010
Hours Tutored: 1
Grade Level: 5
Age: 9/10
Gender: M/F

The goal of this session was to continue the Oral Math Facts program orally. N went through each page/section rapidly and accurately and did better than he did previously. P struggled more than usual and subsequently completed fewer pages/sections than she usually did. P also did some division problems near the end of her session. To help the students learn, orally asking the math problems, having students complete answer-only checkouts, and verbal correction of incorrect problems were employed. The environment was initially nearly silent, but later became progressively louder, which was reflected in N’s decrease in efficiency and possibly P’s performance. None of the aspects of multiculturalism seemed particularly relevant to this tutoring session.

March 16, 2010

Date: March 16, 2010
Hours Tutored: 1
Grade Level: 5
Age: 9/10
Gender: M/F

The goal of this session was to continue tutoring the students using the Oral Math Facts program. P showed much more enthusiasm during this session although she insisted on the worksheets and tests to be administered orally. She worked quickly and got through a considerable number of sessions. N started off well, but as the session continued and new material was introduced, his progress slowed considerably and he was unable to complete more than one page. The classroom was as distracting as usual to the students. To help the students learn, they were asked problems orally and verbally corrected when they answered a problem incorrectly. None of the aspects of multiculturalism seemed particularly relevant to today’s session.

March 15, 2010

Date: March 15, 2010
Hours Tutored: 1
Grade Level: 5
Age: 9/10
Gender: M/F

The goal of this session was to continue the Oral Math Facts program. For this session, P was much slower and more forgetful than usual. In an attempt to reinforce the problems she most often missed, I orally quizzed her on a considerable amount of problems, which helped her response time and accuracy considerably. I also quizzed N orally to see how if it helped his accuracy or time (I do not think it had any affect on any part of his ability). P was much more enthusiastic when being asked questions than when having to read them. Neither student liked having to read the problems and both of them informed me more than once on previous sessions that reading the problems made it harder to answer correctly and quickly. To help P learn in particular, I asked questions orally and corrected both students orally when they answered incorrectly. The environment was not any more distracting than usual. None of the aspects of multiculturalism seemed to affect this tutoring session.

March 11, 2010

Date: March 11, 2010
Hours Tutored: 1
Grade Level: 5
Age: 9/10
Gender: M/F

The goal of this session was to continue the Oral Math Facts program. P did most of her review and work well and quickly, but at the introduction of new problems, she struggled more than usual, causing her to become more reluctant to continue the tutoring session. N did better than usual and was able to complete many more sections than usual. He worked very quickly and efficiently and did so for the majority of the session. He didn’t slow down at the introduction of new material as severely as he had previously. To help the students learn, they were verbally corrected when they answered problems incorrectly. The environment did not have any particular effect on the tutoring session. None of the aspects of multiculturalism were particularly relevant to the session.

March 9, 2010

Date: March 9, 2010
Hours Tutored: 1.25
Grade Level: 5
Age: 9/10
Gender: M/F

The goal of this session was to assess the students’ confidence with different difficulties. This session was also used to introduce the division Oral Math Facts Program. P was initially very active in her participation and she chose a variety of multiplication sections/pages, but all of them were below her level. P also chose a variety of division problems and explained their relation to multiplication problems to me. Near the end of her session, however, she became increasingly distracted and less interested in the program. N declined the offer to try the division Oral Math Facts Program. When given the choice of which problems to work on, N also chose to work only on pages below his level. To help the students learn, verbal correction and a measure of free choice were used; both students chose to say only the answer when offered. The session was inside the classroom, which was particularly distracting during this session, due to noise and misbehavior of other students. None of the aspects of multiculturalism were particularly relevant to this session.

March 4, 2010

Date: March 4, 2010
Hours Tutored: 1
Grade Level: 5
Age: 9/10
Gender: M/F

The goal of this session was to continue learning/reinforcing multiplication tables using the Oral Math Facts Program. P got through each page and section very quickly and was able to make a lot of progress and get a lot of work done. N took a considerable amount of time with each section/page and when asked, he said that he was struggling most with his twos and fours. Because of this we reviewed earlier pages focusing on twos multiplication for the remainder of his session which seemed to help somewhat. To help the students learn, repetition, review, and verbal correction were employed. None of the aspects of multiculturalism seemed particularly relevant to this tutoring session.

March 2, 2010

Date: March 2, 2010
Hours Tutored: 1
Grade Level: 5
Age: 9/10
Gender: M/F

The goal of the session was to continue reinforcing/learning multiplication tables using the Oral Math Facts Program. P was very enthused and very willing to work on the problems. P was also very interested in how long each section took her and trying to best her own time. N was also very willing to work, although he did not seem very interested in the program. Repetition and verbal correction were used to help the students learn. This was the first tutoring session outdoors and the environment was more and less distracting than the classroom. There was less distraction because there was less noise and movement from the teacher and class. There was more distraction because of classes, students, and teachers passing by which also caused noise. None of the aspects of multiculturalism were particularly relevant to this tutoring session.

February 27, 2010

Date: February 27, 2010
Hours Tutored: .75
Grade Level: 5
Age: 9/10
Gender: M/F

The goal of the session was to continue teaching/reinforcing quick recall of multiplication tables using the Oral Math Facts Program. P showed fast recall, but tended to skip problems and read the problems as random numbers instead of what they actually said. She was more interested in the program after I told her I was timing her. N didn't have very fast recall, but he almost never got a problem wrong. He took longer than P to finish each section and had to redo sections more than P. To help the students learn, verbal correction of incorrect problems and repetition were both used. Both students said that having to say the problem slowed them down, and N in particular took longer (sometimes 3x as long) to complete a section if he had to say the problem. After asking both students, they both said that the classroom environment was distracting and that they would prefer to work outside with less movement and noise to distract them. None of the aspects of multiculturalism were particularly relevant to this tutoring session.

February 23, 2010

Date: February 23, 2010
Hours Tutored: 1
Grade Level: 5
Age: 9/10
Gender: F

The goal was to reinforce/continue learning and memorizing multiplication tables using the Oral Math Facts Program. The student was reluctant to participate, but completed each section/page as asked. To help the student learn, each section/page was repeated until she could complete them in the set time (one minute or one minute thirty seconds) and incorrect answers were verbally corrected. The environment was less distracting than usual because the rest of the students were testing, so the classroom was quieter than usual. None of the aspects of multiculturalism were particularly relevant to this session.

February 18, 2010

Date: February 18, 2010
Hours Tutored: 1
Grade Level: 5
Age: 9/10
Gender: M/F

The goal of the session was to continue the Oral Math Facts Program after having previously observed each student’s progress. N found most of answers by initially counting (usually by 5s or2s) and then using memory and reasoning after viewing familiar problems. He seemed less annoyed by the program today and simply worked diligently on each set of problems. P relied on her memorization (and guessing, I think) to answer most of the problems. She was extremely distracted and, at times, rather uncooperative. She constantly asked if we were yet finished, and when we had to continue working on problems, she became increasingly sullen, withdrawn, and inaudible. To help the students learn the material, the main strategy was repetition, but verbal correction was also used. The environment, as usual, had almost no effect on N’s work, but it was extremely distracting to P, who clearly wanted to socialize and sit with the other students rather than engage in the program. Why and how? I do not think any aspects of multiculturalism were particularly relevant today.

February 16, 2010

Date: February 16, 2010
Hours Tutored: 1
Grade Level: 5
Age: 9/10
Gender: M/F

The objective of the session was to introduce the students to the Oral Math Facts program and assess their current familiarity with multiplication tables. Both students were well acquainted with multiplying numbers below 5, and completed those tables quickly, P generally responded more quickly than N and showed more interest overall in the activity. To help the students learn, repetition and verbal correction were used. The environment was somewhat distracting for P; she would often look around the classroom, interested in other students’ activities when working on problems, or she would constantly try to engage me in conversation when waiting to work on a new set of problems. There did not seem to be any relative aspects of multiculturalism.