3rd 5D Field Note
Corey Smith
Psychology 211
March 1st, 2007
Marco
Activities - Math, Reading
General Site Description
I arrived on site and after running back to the car to get my name tag I met up with the other buddies outside as the kids arrived. I went to help setup the game room real quick and came back. Both Saul, whose name I'd been mispronouncing, and Marco asked me to be their buddy. I told them both I'd work with them. Saul is shy, passive and soft spoken. We went into the homework room.
Narrative
When we went into the homework room Saul wandered somewhere else. I tried to get him to work over by where Marco and I had sat down but he seemed to have lost interest. I set about helping Marco with his homework. We were working on the concepts of points, lines, line segments, rays and angles. I had Marco read the assignment. He read aloud the description next to each picture and moved to the first problem. The problem asked him to identify a ray. He guessed an angle. I tried to think of where his confusion might be. I wondered if he had read the words without processing them. I tried my best to point out the elements of each concept that distinguished them from each other. Then I asked him to identify the figure in each question. Whether he was right or wrong I asked him to explain his answer using the descriptions. He gave up saying "I don't know" frequently. While we made it through all those questions, he seemed to be guessing most of them and had difficulty explaining his choice for all of them, if he could explain his choice at all. We had real difficulty with angles. They wanted him to be able to identify right angles, and angles greater than or less than right angles. I really struggled trying to figure out how to explain how to recognize a right angle. I kept trying to use a square as an example but then I realized he didn't seem to know what made the difference between a square, a parallelogram, a rectangle, or a trapezoid. I tried using the corner of a piece of paper to help him identify the angles, but then he ended up flipping it around so that it was on the side that was greater than 180 degrees. I struggled to explain that unsuccessfully. Even when he put the paper the right way he still seemed to be guessing and didn't notice when the corner matched the right angle. We struggled through most of the figures and then it was time to go to the game room. Marco wanted to continue on his homework so we did. He doesn't seem to know his times tables. I had to prompt him to answer each question and when I did he turned around so he could count on his fingers in private. Half the time he came back with the wrong answer. I forgot that the times table is something that you memorize. There wasn't much to be done at the time though so I just tried to help him work through it. Instead of giving him the answer I tried to have him add them up. Another kid kept chiming in at this point. He already knew his times tables and unfortunately gave away a couple of the answers, robbing Marco of the opportunity of figuring it out himself. We moved on to reading. We read a couple books, the fat cat and the ginger bread man and then it was time to go. Marco wanted to go to the game room by the time we got to the books, but we were supposed to do 10 minutes of reading, and there really wouldn't have been enough time to play any games by the time we got there anyway.
Reflection
I'd been tired after the most taxing week of the semester so far. Working with Marco, although rewarding, was very challenging. Figuring out how to explain things to him is as challenging as my calculus homework. Marco really wants the individual attention and he benefits from it greatly, but he needs even more. He's going to fall further and further behind if he doesn't learn his times tables and how to add and subtract without his fingers. He doesn't seem to have too much trouble identifying words but I'm not sure how well he comprehends what he reads. I left feeling pretty taxed. I know I helped Marco, but he needs even more attention.
Psychology 211
March 1st, 2007
Marco
Activities - Math, Reading
General Site Description
I arrived on site and after running back to the car to get my name tag I met up with the other buddies outside as the kids arrived. I went to help setup the game room real quick and came back. Both Saul, whose name I'd been mispronouncing, and Marco asked me to be their buddy. I told them both I'd work with them. Saul is shy, passive and soft spoken. We went into the homework room.
Narrative
When we went into the homework room Saul wandered somewhere else. I tried to get him to work over by where Marco and I had sat down but he seemed to have lost interest. I set about helping Marco with his homework. We were working on the concepts of points, lines, line segments, rays and angles. I had Marco read the assignment. He read aloud the description next to each picture and moved to the first problem. The problem asked him to identify a ray. He guessed an angle. I tried to think of where his confusion might be. I wondered if he had read the words without processing them. I tried my best to point out the elements of each concept that distinguished them from each other. Then I asked him to identify the figure in each question. Whether he was right or wrong I asked him to explain his answer using the descriptions. He gave up saying "I don't know" frequently. While we made it through all those questions, he seemed to be guessing most of them and had difficulty explaining his choice for all of them, if he could explain his choice at all. We had real difficulty with angles. They wanted him to be able to identify right angles, and angles greater than or less than right angles. I really struggled trying to figure out how to explain how to recognize a right angle. I kept trying to use a square as an example but then I realized he didn't seem to know what made the difference between a square, a parallelogram, a rectangle, or a trapezoid. I tried using the corner of a piece of paper to help him identify the angles, but then he ended up flipping it around so that it was on the side that was greater than 180 degrees. I struggled to explain that unsuccessfully. Even when he put the paper the right way he still seemed to be guessing and didn't notice when the corner matched the right angle. We struggled through most of the figures and then it was time to go to the game room. Marco wanted to continue on his homework so we did. He doesn't seem to know his times tables. I had to prompt him to answer each question and when I did he turned around so he could count on his fingers in private. Half the time he came back with the wrong answer. I forgot that the times table is something that you memorize. There wasn't much to be done at the time though so I just tried to help him work through it. Instead of giving him the answer I tried to have him add them up. Another kid kept chiming in at this point. He already knew his times tables and unfortunately gave away a couple of the answers, robbing Marco of the opportunity of figuring it out himself. We moved on to reading. We read a couple books, the fat cat and the ginger bread man and then it was time to go. Marco wanted to go to the game room by the time we got to the books, but we were supposed to do 10 minutes of reading, and there really wouldn't have been enough time to play any games by the time we got there anyway.
Reflection
I'd been tired after the most taxing week of the semester so far. Working with Marco, although rewarding, was very challenging. Figuring out how to explain things to him is as challenging as my calculus homework. Marco really wants the individual attention and he benefits from it greatly, but he needs even more. He's going to fall further and further behind if he doesn't learn his times tables and how to add and subtract without his fingers. He doesn't seem to have too much trouble identifying words but I'm not sure how well he comprehends what he reads. I left feeling pretty taxed. I know I helped Marco, but he needs even more attention.