Tutoring Reflection

South Union Elementary Fifth Grade

Week One: Deb had given us the first unit curriculum (Go Math) to review so I structured my
first lesson plan based on the key concepts included in that unit. The kids were at the end of the
unit, but she felt it would be a good starting place for our sessions. My plan focused on place
value, property identification, exponents and number forms. After this first day, I realized that
the girls were struggling with writing and saying numbers properly, so we worked on that. Of
the six girls in my group, three were clearly having difficulty in identifying place value. It was a
struggle to keep the other three moving along without getting bored while I helped the others
work through the problems more slowly. Because of this clear differentiation in ability, Caroline
and I decided to split our groups up into a higher and lower group so that we could use the time
more efficiently in future sessions.

Week Two: Absent

Week Three: Because of the new group and my absence the prior week, we did a recap on
place value and then moved on to number forms. We played a memory game that required
identifying numbers in standard, written and exponential (power of 10) form and identifying
them as the same number. This proved challenging for the girls. It appears that they struggle a

little with reading the numbers aloud, which transitions into difficulty recognizing them in word
form as well. We backed up a bit to connect place value and powers of ten by solving some
equations together. One girl, Rachel, was clearly using number sense to solve the problems
correctly, but with confusion and no clear strategy. I asked her to explain her thinking to the
group (she had the right answer) but it was difficult for her to verbalize how she got her answer.
By talking through a few more problems and continuing the game, I felt the girls were concretely
grasping the concepts by the end of our session.

Week Four: The group tested on the first unit and all had at least 85% (yay!). I was intending
to keep reviewing the strategies outlined in my plan, but they werent very excited about more
repetition of the same old concepts. We moved on to practicing multiplication facts. We
played I Spy a Product with a deck of playing cards as a group. This worked fairly well, but
clearly set apart Hailey as struggling with basic multiplication facts. Interestingly enough, when
we moved away from facts and back to some place value word problems, she was the leader of
the pack. Her conceptual number sense is there, but I have a feeling that her struggle in fifth
grade math comes from not knowing these facts quickly. All of the girls can use practice with
multiplication, so I plan to have them play a game in pairs while I work with Hailey one on one
at the end of each session.

Week Five: I integrated a piece of literature with our group work today. I used Math Curse
by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. We read through the book and solved problems along the way.
It was good because several of the problems were similar to concepts we have been working on,
so the girls were able to make connections. For example there was an estimating problem asking

how many M&Ms (1 cm) it would take to measure the length of the Mississippi River (4,000 km
long). This tied into place value nicely and the girls were quick to recognize the strategy after I
wrote the problem on the board. We also spent time on multiplication problems (a foundation
we will continue to concentrate on) that the book cleverly referenced with student seating
arrangements and body parts. The girls do well with large group work, but for the next few
sessions I intend to break them into pairs and also have them do some individual problem
solving. I feel that I will be able to give them some more valuable and concrete feedback in
regards to strategies as well as develop their confidence with multiplication.

Week Six: Deb suggested that rather than dive into the next unit, that I stick to reinforcing the
basic strategies for multiplication. I decided to use a combination of word problems (with
varying number choices) and a multiplication game with playing cards to identify where the
students were in their confidence with multiplication. They worked individually on the
problems, so I could move around and see their progress or help out if needed. I think the skill
set is definitely there for these kids to solve the problems (and several whipped right through all
of my number choices). That said, it was trick or treat night and they were clearly unfocused,
which led to lack of concentration in even reading the problems. We finally had to read each
problem together so I could corral them and push them to finish their work. The game was I Spy
a Product, then the following player had to identify cards that equaled the stated product. It
clearly differentiated Esha and Hailey as struggling with basic facts. From now on, I plan to
partner with these two when we play games, and make sure they are comprehending the
problems and keeping up as we work.

Week Seven: My feeling after the last session was that the girls were confident with
multiplication so we moved to long division. Clearly they had been working on this in class, and
they performed well again. Hailey even showed me a new strategy for solving long division!
This allowed her to use better-known facts of the divisor and not get hung up on getting closest
to the number in the dividend. Pretty cool, although I tried to explain to my friends (hey, look at
what a fifth grader taught me today) and couldnt replicate it! Just a reminder that kids contrive
strategies that work to their advantage and it takes work to figure out individual thinking.

Week Eight: We continued work with division today, but I also developed an opening number
routine for them to get warmed up. I posed the number sentence 8+___=20-___ and asked that
they come up with ten different equations. This confused them. But as we worked through some
together and most caught on. I realize this routine was unrelated to the multiplication and
division that wed been working on, but wanted to review addition and subtraction and get them
thinking in terms of algebraic equations (which Im sure is on the horizon for them). I mostly
wanted them to think conceptually about numbers instead of just solving more problems. Esha,
who usually does quite well conceptually, was having a more difficult time with this exercise
which surprised me. She said she felt like she was falling behind. I worked with her one on one
to explain and she had it down in the end, even creating new number sentences to show her
comprehension. We finished our session with the Remainders Wanted game and treats!