Tutoring Reflection

Kirsten Dent
Date of tutoring session: 2/5/2019 Student Age & Grade: 8th Grade, 13 years old
Answer all in complete, grammatically correct sentences.
1. What topic(s) did you cover in your tutoring session?
The topic I worked on with the student was the Pythagorean theorem. Her teacher had taught
her about it that day in class so she was still very confused about how the Pythagorean theorem
worked. It was fun to work with her because it was something new that she was learning.
2. Did you use any problem-solving strategies or tools from this class? If so, describe how this
went. If not, what techniques did you use to help your student?
The best way to teach someone about the Pythagorean theorem is by using examples. The
strategy that I can use to help me show different examples is to show a simpler problem. When
I gave her a simpler problem with smaller numbers, it was easier for her to understand how the
whole process worked. I sat down and showed her many different examples, some easy and
some a little more challenging. While going through these examples, she was able to
understand how to use the Pythagorean theorem a lot better.
3. Describe any challenges you faced in the session. (What was your student’s attitude about
math? Did you notice any knowledge gaps? Was the lesson/homework too easy or too hard
for the student’s skill level? etc.)
When I first started to help the student, she pulled out her homework and told me that she was
not getting the right answers. I looked at it and the answers were wrong, when I looked a little
closer, I found out she was subtracting a2 and b2 instead of adding them. She thought the
Pythagorean theorem was a2-b2=c2. I had to sit down and explain to her that they need to be
added together instead. I explained to her that the c has to be the biggest side of the triangle, if
they were subtracted then c would be one of the smallest sides and that wouldn’t make sense. I
showed her how it should be written (a2+b2=c2) and then after a little bit of convincing she
believed me and then was able to keep working on the homework.
4. Describe any triumphs you had in the session.
In the beginning, I could tell that the student was discouraged because she kept getting the
answer wrong and she thought she was solving it the right way. I was able to help her and
support her through the first couple problems and by the end she was doing independent work
with only just a few questions for me every once in a while.
5. What are your take-a-ways from the session? (Did you learn anything about teaching from
it? What would you do differently or the same to help your students?)
 Tutoring Reflection

I learned how to constructively help a student see that they are doing something incorrectly
even when they think they are 100% sure they are right. I know in my future classes there will
be students who think this way and the best thing I learned is to just stay calm and show them
how to do it correctly through examples. I think it provided me a great learning experience
because sometimes it is frustrating when people think they are right all the time. So, this
helped me be able to control my frustration and work with the student so they would
understand what was actually correct.
6. Other thoughts? (How comfortable were you with the topics? Did you face challenges with
the student’s teacher’s instruction style/rules? Can you relate to your student’s
struggles/triumphs?)
I liked teaching this student about the Pythagorean theorem. It actually helped me be able to
learn how to teach this topic better. I will be teaching the Pythagorean theorem to my math
class next week and I think it is great to be able to go over this topic with someone who is
younger and just starting to learn about the topic. I think this tutoring session was very
effective because we both got something out of it. I was able to improve on my teaching skills
and the student improved on her learning skills.