[Note, names have been changed and details have been left out to protect student privacy. For my last log see this link.]
I decided to have my second session with Juan just a couple of days after the first so that I could catch up on my assignment, and so that I could cement our start in the routine that we had established earlier in the week.
We did pretty much the same thing we did the previous session - I helped Juan with some of his math homework. Once again, I had Juan read aloud the assignment to give him reading practice, and I made sure he understood all the words and new how to read out math symbols. This time the homework had to do with fractions. The assignment was to use counters to visualize how fractions work and to find the answers to the problems. I wound up using all the change in my pocket for counters. The assignment seemed like a reasonable way to introduce kids to fractions, but I was a little surprised that second graders these days have to know this stuff.
This session I had a lot more
kids trying to get some of my attention. Of course Daniel
came around after a while - mostly because he wanted to play with
Juan (Daniel was also pestering Juan last time). Instead of
letting him play with Juan I put him to work doing his own homework
assignment. It seemed though that Daniel was more interested
in just copying the homework off of someone else. Daniel said
something interesting though: He said he gets help on his
homework from his Mom in Spanish, which was
kind of interesting. I wonder how well that works?
Anyway, Daniel is a smart kid but he is
not hard working like Juan so it takes a lot more work to keep him on
task. Daniel also has the annoying habit of trying to whisper
in Juan's ear in Spanish while I am tutoring. I'm afraid next
session I may have to ask him to go elsewhere for a while so I can
concentrate on my main subject.
I also had a few other kids try to get some of my attention. In one case it was a little girl who I think just wanted some acknowledgment (I forget what she said - it was more a statement of "I'm here too" than a request for help). I found out that she had been held back the year before - perhaps partly because of her English skills. Then another older student wanted a quick answer to something, and I was able to give him a quick pointer before I told him politely that I was working with another student right now.
Anyway, it seemed kind of interesting how making a second visit seemed to make me more approachable to some of the kids.
I also saw another interesting phenomena between some of the kids. For the first time I saw one or two of the older girls (5th graders) trying to get Daniel to behave a little more and do as he was told. I'm not sure if the girls were relatives or just school busybodies, but in either case I was glad for the support.
I had to leave this session a
little early because I had a 4:00 appointment, but I still felt like I
learned something. Next week I want to get a little more
information on the STAR program, as well as get a little more
information about Juan's background.