Today I had the opportunity to observe Annaliese. In this session, she demonstrated impressive patience when breaking down the challenging concepts of circumference, area, volume, and surface area . Her student came to the session very confused and very stressed about her upcoming yearly exam. Annaliese started by simplifying each formula and working through straightforward examples to help the student understand the basic steps of substituting in lengths etc. The tutor connected circumference to the distance around a circular track, to the radius and diameter which seemed to engage the student and help them understand how it would work out. Then they moved on to the area of other normal shapes, and compound shapes, working together to break up the shapes into smaller more manageable shapes.
The tutor also emphasises the importance of identifying each shape’s properties before applying any formulas, which allowed the student to distinguish when to use which formula (e.g whether it was a parallelogram, or a rhombus, etc). I learned the value of layering explanations—from basic concepts to complex applications—and saw how helpful it was to reinforce foundational knowledge simply to build the students confidence, before extending to try harder problem solving questions.This helped when they moved onto the volume of shapes (which all stem directly from the area of the main face). Annalieses methodical and well planned approach to the session made it successful, and allowed to the student to understand how everything fit together. She got the student to verbally walk through each step – which also highlighted the power of active recall in solidifying understanding, (and also so Annaliese could check she was understanding the working /the processes why they were doing what they were). The session was both effective and highlighted how essential patience and pre planning are when helping / guiding students through multi-step problem-solving and preparing for upcoming exams.
Shyla Gloster
