Today I observed Lucia’s maths session. One of the things that I noticed specifically about her session was the way in which she engaged with her student. She started off the session by asking how the student’s weekend/past week had been which I find is always a great way to start the session. This creates a small bit of contact at the start of the session to ensure the student is comfortable each week and to get to know each other separate from tutoring. She then shifted the conversation naturally into what the past week of school had involved. Since the student had recently finished his exams, she was working out what they should work on next together to ensure he gets the most out of his sessions. They began working through some textbook questions and Lucia was highly engaged with the student throughout the session. She explained each step of thinking as they worked through the more difficult questions when the student was struggling to ensure that the student fully understood the purpose behind each step of working out. However, instead of outright telling the student what the required steps were when he was struggling, she asked leading questions which prompted the student in the right direction whilst still allowing him to problem solve and come to the solution on their own. I believe this is highly important because it allows the student to draw deeper connections between things they have learnt in the past and relate it to a new scenario. This is essential in maths since new questions require a new route of thinking. She also sufficiently broke up the session with small anecdotes from either herself or asking the student questions that related to a problem they were working on. This is beneficial in multiple ways. Firstly, they can build a stronger connection which can help the student to feel more comfortable in the session and feeling able to make mistakes or ask for help. Secondly, short breaks (i.e. around 1 min) allow short brain breaks which can allow the student to focus more when they are doing their work. Overall, this was a great session to observe and was impressed by the way in which she kept the student engaged for the full hour.
Riva Burkett
