Sebastian's Tutoring Reflection: Sebastian

Tutoring Reflection
Mayra Abreo
California State University, Stanislaus

EDSE 4440 is a course that provides opportunities for potential educators to implement hands on activities with students at Cunningham Elementary School. Having the opportunity to work with students one on one in a classroom environment setting has been a great learning experience for potential educators. I had the opportunity to work with a 10 year old boy named Sebastian. Sebastian is in 5th grade and has been part of the After School Program for 3 years. Sebastian comes from a latino background culture. He has two siblings, a sister who is 16 years old and a brother who is 11years old. Sebastian’s favorite subjects are writing and art.
The areas of emphasis were reading, math and writing. When initiating tutoring sections, Sebastian would read his creative writing journal in which he would write stories about pigs. Through this journals data was collected on which area Sebastian needed more support in. On area that was noted were words that had the suffix of -ed. Sebastian would not include -ed in the words that needed it. For example, in the word “cared,” Sebastian would write “care” instead of “cared.” Another word was “fear,” which should have been “feared.” The data collected was useful in creating a lesson that could be adequate for the needs of Sebastian. One activity that was used was called “Bowling with Sight Words,” which had flashcards of the most frequent sight words for 5th grade. The flashcards were tied around the bowling bottles. The objective was that if Sebastian knocked all the bottles down, he would have to read all the sight words, give a definition, and apply the definition to an example. Sebastian struggled with a few words. For example, with the word “through” which he read as “truff.” The word “toward” was read as “to ward.” To follow through with sight words. Sebastian was given the “Bowling with Sight Words,” activity once again a session before his reading assessments. The second time, Sebastian played this activity, he was able to read all the sight
Even though Sebastian’s strengths lie within the area of math, practicing a skill is always key. Sebastian was able to review important terms such as the definition of multiplication and products. Sebastian was provided with examples and models as to how to solve multiplication problems. The tutor had a multiplication chart and a set of rocks with the products for the multiplication integers. Sebastians mission was to place the products in the correct column or row on the multiplication chart. The student was able to independently complete the task. The “Multiplication Rocks Activity,” assisted Sebastian in practicing his math skills in multiplication. This activity will help Sebastian in the future when moving on to quotients, in which he will be able to connect prior knowledge to new