Investigation (1)

STAGE	TEACHER/ ADULT FACILITATOR ROLE	ACTIVITIES
Investigation	Establish a baseline of knowledge.	Find a student in need in the community to work with in the coming weeks in math or reading. The student should be within the early education range of age 3 through grade 3.  You should conduct at least 4 tutoring sessions and assess periodically to determine learning and understanding.
Preparation and Planning	Develop and plan action projects. Build broad community awareness.	Conduct a baseline assessment to determine the educational needs of the child, as well as to assess what prior knowledge and/or misconceptions the child holds. Analyze the assessment and create a plan of action for the remaining tutoring lessons.
Action	Encourage students to maximize impact.	Create lessons that meet the educational needs of your student and find ways for your lessons to be creative and engaging.  The 5E model (engage, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate) is helpful to follow when attempting to create an engaging lesson surrounding a given concept.
Reflection	Build reflection into authentic writing.	Reflect on each lesson after teaching it.  How did the lesson go? How could it be improved? What went well? Was the student engaged? Do you have any questions?
Demonstration/ Celebration	Expand awareness through demonstration.	Create a portfolio of your lessons plans, reflections, and any pictures or video from the lessons to share with the class.  Each student should share how their tutoring experience has affected them as teachers, how it has helped them to grow and what it has taught them in the process.

 

I am part of a moms’ group at my church.  Many of these ladies have school-aged children and many of their children could use additional help with their schoolwork outside of the classroom. I decided that I could best serve my community by utilizing my passion for helping children and serve one of these mothers by providing some tutoring lessons to help their children excel. I chose to work with a mom who homeschools her children.  By working with this mother, I was able to give her children some differentiated instruction in math and reading, as well as give the mother a chance to catch up on other tasks while I was working with her children.  Also, by working with these children in the areas with which they struggle, I will be helping them to succeed in future learning.

I am taking two other classes along with this course.  One class is “Assessment in Reading and Writing” and the other class is “Teaching Math and Science in Early Childhood.” I consulted the texts for these courses along with my professors throughout the planning process for my lessons. My professors are Dr. Katherine Hall and Professor Jeania Jones.

My project will be to tutor a 2nd grade student in Math over the course of 8 tutoring sessions and to tutor a pre-K 4 student in reading and phonics over the course of 4 tutoring sessions. I will assess each student at the start of my project to determine their needs, then plan out lessons to address their needs.