Project Description Draft
What is the compelling problem of practice or opportunity for gain that you want to address in your project?
As a Mathematics teacher, I am dually cursed and blessed with students that fail to understand the material, but are willing to go the extra mile to build an understanding. A large percentage of my ninth grade Algebra students come into the class without a strong foundation of Algebra and basic mathematics. This makes modeling new theories extremely difficult. Many of the students are constantly halted by their lack of a mathematics foundation, and others simply are slow to comprehend new concepts.
In order to offer these students further opportunities, my school district promotes an after school tutorial program. Around half the teachers participate after school, three days a week, for ninety minutes. This presents students with an opportunity to ask questions about their misunderstandings, and allows them to receive practice, in addition to the work assigned in class.
The tutorial program is a wonderful idea at heart; however it has become extremely inefficient. On certain days I am “tutoring” over twenty students. This allots me around four minutes per student, given that it takes time for administrative tasks. This is not enough time. Many of the students run into dead ends and are left waiting long periods of time for my assistance. Typically, the students complete their individual missing assignments, work on the homework, or are given additional problems for practice. I have attempted to run the tutoring sessions like a lecture or general discussion, yet this has failed due to the fact that the students often need help on completely different topics. Therefore, my problem of practice is that a potentially beneficial tutorial program has become extremely inefficient due to the fact that I am struggling to meet the diverse needs of the students.
There is so much to gain by making the tutorial program more efficient. If each student could hone in on his or her specific misunderstandings for ninety minutes several times a week, he or she would be able to overcome misunderstandings about current topics and would be able to strengthen his or her mathematics foundation. With students efficiently improving their mathematics skills after school, the pace of the class could be sped up, which would benefit the most proficient members of the class. Hopefully, I can find methods to improve the structure of these tutoring sessions, if I “focus first on classroom strategies, then on ways in which technology can enhance the lesson” (Brabec, 11).
As a Mathematics teacher, I am dually cursed and blessed with students that fail to understand the material, but are willing to go the extra mile to build an understanding. A large percentage of my ninth grade Algebra students come into the class without a strong foundation of Algebra and basic mathematics. This makes modeling new theories extremely difficult. Many of the students are constantly halted by their lack of a mathematics foundation, and others simply are slow to comprehend new concepts.
In order to offer these students further opportunities, my school district promotes an after school tutorial program. Around half the teachers participate after school, three days a week, for ninety minutes. This presents students with an opportunity to ask questions about their misunderstandings, and allows them to receive practice, in addition to the work assigned in class.
The tutorial program is a wonderful idea at heart; however it has become extremely inefficient. On certain days I am “tutoring” over twenty students. This allots me around four minutes per student, given that it takes time for administrative tasks. This is not enough time. Many of the students run into dead ends and are left waiting long periods of time for my assistance. Typically, the students complete their individual missing assignments, work on the homework, or are given additional problems for practice. I have attempted to run the tutoring sessions like a lecture or general discussion, yet this has failed due to the fact that the students often need help on completely different topics. Therefore, my problem of practice is that a potentially beneficial tutorial program has become extremely inefficient due to the fact that I am struggling to meet the diverse needs of the students.
There is so much to gain by making the tutorial program more efficient. If each student could hone in on his or her specific misunderstandings for ninety minutes several times a week, he or she would be able to overcome misunderstandings about current topics and would be able to strengthen his or her mathematics foundation. With students efficiently improving their mathematics skills after school, the pace of the class could be sped up, which would benefit the most proficient members of the class. Hopefully, I can find methods to improve the structure of these tutoring sessions, if I “focus first on classroom strategies, then on ways in which technology can enhance the lesson” (Brabec, 11).
Labels: description, gain, practice, problem
posted by Brian Ericson at
5:04 PM
3 Comments
