Tutoring Reflection 6, 3-24
Greetings,
This past Friday, I arrived for my sixth tutoring session. Mrs. Smith asked me to work with the class as a whole, answering any questions that may arise as the students worked on solve for the variable questions. One student, Gregory* seemed like a simple case with an easy answer, but due to mismanagement on my part, it became an educational experience for me.
Gregory called me over, and asked me a question. I asked him what he thought the answer was, and he responded correctly. It was off to a good start. Instead of merely answering with an affirmative, I asked why he thought that. In doing so, I hoped to probe his understanding of the mathematic problems. He took this, however, to mean that he was wrong, and became defensive over his answer. After I acknowledged my mistake, I corrected it, although by the end, he merely stated, “Man, that’s all you had to say.”
In my time here at this school, I have had several interesting experiences, although this shows a very significant lack in my ability to relate to a student. Although my intention is decent, my execution does seem to be lacking. The obvious preventive answer to the situation that I just described would be to directly answer the question before moving onto a more probing question. This is not just a question of this however. I need to, for lack of a better term, ‘Dumb down’ my speech. I constantly use longer words when shorter, ‘easier’ words will work just as well. I believe this will allow my thoughts to be transferred to the student more easily. Another way to connect to the students is to use the same terminology throughout the class. I have thought about this many times as I was either taught another way, or think about it another way than Mrs. Smith has taught the students. This created a huge gap that I had to bridge in order to connect to the student in order to answer the question posed.
Finally, I would like to return to Gregory as a prime example of what could happen if a teacher fails in connecting with a student. After solving the problem, he seemed disparaged and I could tell that his confidence in my ability to assist him. If I were the only teacher of the class and this happened, I seriously doubt that I would be able to continue to motivate the student to learn the subject that I was teaching. The student would either refuse to learn the information taught, or turn to other sources, thus damaging any reputation I might have inspired.
Overall, I think that Friday was an incredibly educational encounter that shed a great deal of light on how my teaching style is forming and what critical weaknesses that it may entail.
*Pseudonym used
