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.