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Tutoring and Assessment Case Study – Education 331 – Dr. Wilson
Candidate: Allison Cooper
Subject: Math
Grade Level: Kindergarten
School: Cross Lanes Elementary School
Cooperating Teacher: Rene Robison
Decision about Who, What, and How to tutor/teach and How to assess:
When I began my field experience, my cooperating teacher and I immediately discussed
the tutoring project that I needed to complete. I explained that I needed to tutor an individual or a
group of students for eight hours. She told me that I could choose any of her groups of students
to work with, but she recommended that I tutor a single individual Kindergarten student. She
recommended this because she said it would be easier for me to tutor one individual and monitor
his progress rather than a group of individuals. She explained that it would also make it easier for
her to give me suggestions and assistance when needed since he is the only student she has
during that time window. I felt that this was a perfect setup for a successful learning opportunity,
so I told her that I would like to tutor the Kindergarten student. At the time, she only saw him
once a day for math skills (eventually she began seeing him twice a day). She was currently
working on re-teaching the student the numbers one through ten. This is his second year in
Kindergarten, so she felt that it was critical content for him to learn. She said that she had just
begun re-teaching the numbers the week prior to my beginning the field experience, but she had
not been consistent with it. She told me that I could start with the number one and work my way
up to ten. The student had been exposed to the numbers before and his regular education teacher
was also teaching the students the numbers at the time, so the content was very relevant.
Together, the cooperating teacher and I decided that it would be best to give a pre- and posttest
only (instead of CBM style weekly assessments) because the student shows inconsistent work,
especially when he feels like he is being assessed. She told me that she did not feel like weekly
tests would help with data-based decision making because of this reason. We decided that I
would mainly use a supplementary workbook to tutor the student because he is used to the
routine of the workbook.
Tutoring Lesson/Unit and Assessment Description:
During the tutoring, I taught the student how to write, recognize, and count numbers one
through ten. The student was expected to write given numbers correctly, see a number and
correctly identify it, and count numbers in sequence out loud. My cooperating teacher showed
me the workbook that the student had been working in to learn the numbers. It was filled with
worksheets that require the student to perform multiple tasks with the numbers. It was a great
resource because each worksheet opened opportunities to review previously-learned numbers as
we went along. The workbook also came with an interactive website in which the student could
play relevant introductory number games on the Smart Board. The cooperating teacher
recommended that I use the workbook as much as possible because it was what the student was
used to. She explained that it takes a long time for him to adjust to new procedures, so I took her
recommendation and mainly used the workbook during the tutoring sessions.
The worksheets were similar in nature to the pre- and posttest (they were from the same
workbook). The worksheet packets normally began with a picture, and the student was asked to
identify and color sets of a given number. For example, if we were working on the number 6, the
student would color in sets of 6 birds or 6 windows in the picture. The next worksheet asked the
student to count how many shaded circles there were and write the corresponding number on the
line. Then, the student had to count and write the number of unshaded circles. Finally, the
student would count the total number of circles and write the number. Some of the worksheets
allowed me to make up the number and the student would draw his own circles. Other activities
on the worksheets included matching objects with corresponding items. For example, if we were
working on the number 3, the student may be asked to draw a line from three different people
(drawn on the page) to three umbrellas below. Because the worksheets were so interactive in
nature and I got to enthusiastically work with him the entire time, the student rarely became
bored or impatient when completing the activities on the worksheets. The pre- and posttest is
very similar in nature to the worksheets described above. It was used to assess the student on
writing, recognizing, and counting numbers. It required the student to count the number of
shaded circles and white spaces out loud and write the corresponding numbers in the blanks. It
also required the student to color in a given number of circles in a grid (I made up the number),
count the number out loud, and write the number in the space. Then he would count the number
of white spaces left in the grid and write the number on the line. The assessment is attached to
this document.
When the student became bored or impatient with the worksheets, I tried to incorporate
other activities to the best of my ability. One day, I allowed the student to make numbers out of
playdough. I also often played a game in which I held magnetic numbers in my hand and allowed
the student to draw random ones. He would then have to identify the number and put the
numbers in order as we went along. I allowed reversal of the game at times – the student would
hold the numbers, I would say a number, and he would tell me if I was correct or incorrect.
Lastly, since he always used crayons to complete his work, I would frequently prompt him to
count a certain number of crayons as we went along.
Link to Standards:
The Kindergarten Next Generation Math WV CSOs that relate to this content are:
M.K.CC.1 Students will count to 100 by ones and by tens.
M.K.CC.3 Students will write numbers from 0 to 20. Represent a number of objects
with a written numeral 0-20 (with 0 representing a count of no objects).
M.K.CC.4 Students will understand the relationship between numbers and quantities;
connect counting to cardinality
o when counting objects, say the number names in the standard order, pairing each
object with one and only one number name and each number name with one and
only one object,
o understand that the last number name said tells the number of objects counted and
the number of objects is the same regardless of their arrangement or the order in
which they were counted,
o understand that each successive number name refers to a quantity that is one
larger.
M.K.CC.5 Students will count to answer “how many?” questions about as many as 20
things arranged in a line, a rectangular array, a circle, or as many as 10 things in a
scattered configuration; given a number from 1–20, count out that many objects.
Clearly, my activities and assessments assessed content that addresses important learning needs.
Students need to be able to recognize, count, and write numbers in order to be successful in
nearly all areas of life. If a student cannot do these things, then he or she will not be successful in
many areas in school and life.
Results of Assessments:
The student scored a 4 out of 20 (point value) on the pretest, and a 15 out of 20 on the
posttest. In terms of percentage, the student scored a 20% on the pretest, and a 75% on the
posttest. The scores of the assessments are reported in the table below:
Student Pre-test Score Posttest Score
A 20% (4 out of 20 points) 75% (15 out of 20 points)
The scores of the assessments are graphed below:
The scores show an obvious generous improvement in the student’s skills. Since I did not use
CBM in my tutoring, I do not have an aimline on my graph and the cooperating teacher and I did
not set any goals due to his tendency of inconsistent performance. The student’s clear
improvement from the pre-test to the posttest shows me that the tutoring was successful and that
the student has gained knowledge in recognizing, counting, and writing numbers.
Reflection and Data-Based Decision-Making:
The results of the tutoring based on the assessments given to the student make it clear that
the tutoring was helpful and effective. I was slightly disappointed that the student continued to
struggle through the posttest and missed some numbers that he has understood before. I fear that
the assessments are not completely accurate because the student tends to be inconsistent in all
subject areas. On the other hand, the student still made a dramatic improvement of 55%, even
though I was not there to work with him on a daily basis.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Pretest Score Posttest Score Total Percentage Gain
Pe
rce
nta
ge S
core
Assessment Scores
Based on the assessment results and my memory of the teaching/tutoring experience,
there were several aspects that were effective and ineffective. Clearly (based on the posttest
results), the student’s main struggle is with writing numbers the correct way. Oftentimes, he
simply writes them backwards (in this case, I gave him partial credit). This leads me to believe
that I either did not place enough emphasis on how to write numbers correctly or the method of
teaching the student how to write the numbers (tracing them and then writing it on their own)
was not effective enough to teach the concept to the student. On the other hand, there were
several aspects of the teaching/tutoring experience that were effective. The student improved in
his counting skills. He used to randomly count and point his finger on the paper so fast that he
would lose track of what he was counting. My emphasis on counting slowly and pointing to each
individual object seemed to help him learn how to properly count in sequence. He also improved
in recognizing numbers. I believe that the magnet games helped with this the most. By holding
magnetic numbers in my hand and allowing the student to randomly draw numbers and identify
them, the student was very engaged and was involved in his learning. I believe that the
worksheet packets were effective in the instruction because it kept the student on a comfortable
routine (which works better for him). It set a solid foundation of knowledge and practice for each
number, and also gave me some time to do other simple activities with the student (playdough
numbers, magnetic number games, crayon counting, etc.).
To teach this better next time, I would incorporate the individual whiteboards so that the
student could practice writing numbers over and over. I would place more emphasis on writing
the numbers periodically throughout the worksheet packets. I would also find other games to
play with the student that might help him with recognizing numbers, such as number bingo. If I
had the opportunity, I would work on this content with him on a daily basis instead of twice per
week.
I believe that the student needs further instruction. Although he performed well on the
posttest compared to the pre-test, this content is extremely important for the student to become
proficient with (both accurate and fast). He cannot move on mathematically if he does not master
the concept of the basic numbers. With this being the student’s second year in Kindergarten and
having multiple opportunities for practice and exposure to the numbers, it is worrisome that he is
still struggling with the basic numbers one through ten. All of the content concepts that I taught
within the teaching/tutoring experience still need to be taught until the student shows complete
mastery.
I would consider my teaching/tutoring to be highly effective. On the pre-test, the student
wrote letters in the blanks where numbers should have been written. For example, he was
supposed to count three blank spaces out loud. Not only did he not count to three incorrectly, but
he wrote “t12” as the number that he counted to and proceeded to call it ‘5’. On the posttest, the
student simply wrote numbers backwards, but they were the correct numbers. He counted in
sequential order and recognized random numbers. Compared to his performance on the pretest,
the 55% improvement over time proves that the teaching/tutoring was highly effective. I believe
the repetition of the worksheets and activities made it effective. After the student learned the
games that we were playing in order to learn the numbers and got used to the process of the
worksheets, he could focus more on the actual number at hand. Because of this repetition, he was
able to better engage himself in the lessons.
Based on the assessment results, my next step in teaching in this content area would be to
create new ways of reviewing the numbers that were already taught (one through ten). If I did
this, the student would be able to apply his knowledge to new situations and I could get a better
understanding of what he has not mastered yet or what he is consistently having trouble with.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed working with the students at Cross Lanes Elementary
School and tutoring an individual student. This experience has taught me a lot about students
with cognitive delays and learning disabilities, which I’m sure I will encounter at some point in
my own future classroom. I am excited to take what I have learned from this experience and
apply it to my professional life.