Observation

In my observation, Evan completed quadratics and sketching equations with his student. I observed how he went through each step carefully and demonstrated to his student how to do the question before asking Zach to attempt it himself. When Zach did not understand, rather than immediately telling him the answer, Evan prompted Zach to think back on the example they had completed together to encourage him to figure out the method to solving the question. I found this to be quite a good way to handle the situation as we as tutors should encourage our students to figure out the question using the knowledge we teach them, rather than blatantly telling them the answer. Evan ran through a series of questions all with the same prompts to show repetition in the steps used. In the session, a mix of doing the questions individually/assisted was utilised. This allowed Zach to show Evan what parts of the method he understood and remembered and showed Evan Zach's gaps in his knowledge and points they needed to strengthen before continuing. Rather than telling Zach he got the answer wrong at times, Evan would ask Zach why the answer was wrong in an attempt to prompt Zach to look back at the method and figure out himself why the answer did not correspond with the steps followed. There were multiple times where Evan stepped in where Zach was struggling and encouraged him towards the right answer. Evan taught directly from the textbook which helped a lot considering Zach could go home and look at textbook examples/answers to further his own understanding and independent study. They covered content including quadratic formula, axis of symmetry, finding the x and y intercepts, the discriminants and graphing the equation on a cartesian plane. The student seemed to be more receptive to Evan's collaborative learning style rather than being told to complete the question as he seemed a bit unsure of himself. By working together, Zach seemed to follow the steps more confidently and got the correct answer.