Observation

Today, I observed Danae in her session with a Y6 Maths student. The lesson began with casual rapport, before drifting into the focus topic which was data collection and organisation.

Rather than simply offering questions and then marking the answers correct or incorrect, Danae worked alongside her student to explain the thinking behind each process, and to encourage her when she might have been confused. Danae drew her students attention particularly to different types of data, as well as where she might see them in her everyday home and school life. This made the corrections feel less harsh and more collaborative, a practice that I can definitely transfer into my own tutoring so my students can develop greater understanding and confidence.

Danae also makes a point to keep track of her students' progress throughout the term. She noted when a question that the student answered was one she would have struggled with a couple weeks back, giving the student real evidence of her own improvement. Looking back to the starting point can develop confidence in young learners when they realise how far they have come in their knowledge and mastery of new topics, especially data collection when introduced to primary school students.

By the end of the session, Danae's student was more confident in working through data questions, explaining different categories and differentiating types of graphs. From here on in my tutoring sessions, I would like to aim to use gentle prompts to help my students draw on their ideas, and make a point of showing them how much they have improved since I first saw them. Well done Danae!