From the minute I started observing Sophia, it was clear that she was experienced, being comfortable and concise with Pete, a year 8 Mathematics student. To start the session off, Sophia went through Pete’s homework for the week, looking at parallelograms and angles, ensuring that he understood the content by explaining an example at the start. She then let Pete go through the rest of the questions, observing and helping him as necessary as he went through the work, explaining concepts such as co interior and alternate angles expertly, and clearly. This approach was clearly effective, as by the end of the question set, Pete seemed confident and comfortable at attempting the questions himself.

Sophia then went ahead with algebra, but quickly realised that the textbook that Pete was using wasn’t the same Cambridge textbook as on the drive. To pivot, she managed to find a chapter on algebra in the year 8 Cambridge textbook, and then went through a variety of questions together. For the questions Pete got stuck on, she stopped him, and explained the concept before moving onwards.

Throughout the lesson, Sophia gave Pete her complete attention, locked in on his working out, and responding to his queries as necessary. Sophia was also very good at explaining different ways to approach questions. One particular example was figuring out an angle within parallel lines, by either working through with co-interior angles, or using alternate angles to work through to get the answer. She then went through a few questions with him, guiding him towards the answer, ensuring he felt comfortable with the content, before letting him do the last few himself.

Overall, the session was very insightful to me personally, offering me a different perspective with teaching early high school students Mathematics, and how to keep them engaged and bring up their confidence. Well done Sophia!

Samin Hossain

Samin Sadaf Hossain