Tutoring and Assessment Case Study for Educ 331
Candidate: Courtney Cremeans
Subject: Study Skills- Math, English,
Science, Social Studies
331 Instructor: Dr. B. Wilson
Date: October 26,2015
# of students: 1
Assessing:
Pre-Algebra and English
Grade Level(s): 9
School:
Cabell Midland High School
Coop Teacher: Ms. Jacqueline Stillion
Date of Pretest: September 15, 2015
Average pre-test score: Math: 36%
English: 50%
Date of Posttest: October 26, 2015
Average post-test score: Math: 88%
English: 90%
Decision about Who, What and How to tutor/teach and How to assess:
With the advising of Ms. Stillion, she had suggested that I focus in tutoring one
student in Math and English. We made this decision based on one students current
grade in the class, their report card grade, and their current struggle in the courses.
This student had joined late in the school year, diagnosed with Other Health
Impairments, OHI, anxiety, Learning Disability, LD, anxiety, requires occupational
therapy or physical therapy for speech, OT/PT, struggles with english as a second
language, ESL, and this makes it more difficult to understand his other subjects as
well. Mrs. Stillion is a co-teacher but has her own study skills course at the beginning
of the day with her team of 6 students she works with, seven including the new
student. This provides an opportunity to ensure they have their work done for the day,
time to ask additional questions they have in any subject, time to finish up homework,
quizzes, and tests that Ms. Stillion must administer, and a provides a smaller
atmosphere for the students to focus more on the objectives of the day and receive the
one-on-one instruction that they need and desire.
For pre-algebra, we decided to administer a pre-test on inequalities to find out
how much this student knew as he/she was joining the semester late and from a
different area than the other students. This pretest included 16 questions, but I asked
for this student to only attempt the front of the page with eight questions dealing with
inequalities because i did not want to overwhelm them (attached). After the student
had completed the pre-test, I assessed his/her responses. From grading it and
observing that this student has not worked with inequalities before, I knew that i had
to present and teach the material from scratch as if it were the beginning of the school
year. Ms. Stillion and I decided that we would administer a posttest after the tutoring
sessions and compare her/his class grade to see how much improvement and
comprehension was gained because the class will be moving on rapidly regardless if
he/she improves or not.
For the students English course, they were on a unit of poems. The student
struggled with reading the poem pertaining to America and September 11th, so as a
pre-test and to stay on task with what the rest of the class was doing, I assessed
his/her reading the poem the class was supposed to diagnose for tone and mood. I
highlighted what words, sentences, and/or phrases that the student had difficulty
sounding out, pronouncing, or understanding and comprehending the meaning. I was
able to visually assess how much of the paper was highlighted and gave a grade based
on the percentage of the paper he was able to complete independently. At the end of
the poem lesson, Ms. Stillion suggested we test, via a post-test, the students
comprehension of tone and mood in sentences as his overall knowledge of English
will be worked on throughout the school year.
Tutoring Lesson/Unit and Assessment Description:
I assessed the students knowledge on inequalities via a pretest on solving multistep inequalities. I administered the same pretest and it is attached to this report. I
gave the pretest on September 15, and then gave the posttest after the inequality unit
was completed by the teacher on October 26 and my tutoring session of 15 hours was
complete. I taught the student based on his/her responses on the pretest. We walked
through his responses one-on-one to discuss why he/she wrote what they did and to
explain the why. The inequalities had a corresponding graph to represent the solution.
The student understood how the graphs worked, but could not get the correct answer
to create the graph the solution. Ms. Stillion had detected this student was not where
the rest of the class was and could be if given direct instruction to get there, so this
method of focusing on one student was imperative for this student to them to reach
where the rest of the class was. This student was able to receive assistance in math
class, in the study skills before class, and individualized instruction to catch them up
in the course from me. This worksheet had been completed by the rest of the course
and the class average was an 82%. Most of the students in the class were able to solve
the inequality and fill out the graph corresponding to their answer, but they may have
had their answer slightly skewed to a minor math error. The student I tutored had
many math errors, left many of the questions blank, and there were not any correct
answers only partial credit was granted. These issues were far to in depth to discuss
during the math course so we had to utilize a lot of time out of class in order to not
embarrass them, distract the other students, and to one-on-one work through
homework to establish foundational concepts on inequalities. We organized the
students notebook in advance of class so he/she could refer to the notes in class
without having to depend on anyone else.
For the students English class, we would read excerpts that were assigned by the
English teacher together and the student would discuss and study with me tone,
mood, pronunciation, vowel sounds, chunking, and vocabulary. The teacher focused
the material about how things make you feel and relating them to your life
experiences. During the September 11th/ America reading excerpts, the student I
worked with does not share the same life experiences and emotional connection that
rest of the class had with the readings. I worked with this student to discuss emotional
connection that may be similar to what the class relates to. This disconnect to his/her
peers has been a reason, according to the student, that they have not made any friends
and they do not have any common interests to discuss. For the posttest after 15 hours
of tutoring and assistance, I asked the student to read excerpts and identify the tone
and the mood.
Link to Standards:
The Ninth Grade Math CSOs:
Cluster
Represent and solve equations and inequalities graphically.
Objectives
Students will
M.1HS.L
ER.1
understand that the graph of an equation in two variables is the set
of all its solutions plotted in the coordinate plane, often forming a
curve (which could be a line). (Focus on linear and exponential
equations and be able to adapt and apply that learning to other
types of equations in future courses.)
M.1HS.L
ER.2
explain why the x-coordinates of the points where the graphs of the
equations y = f(x) and y = g(x) intersect are the solutions of the
equation f(x) = g(x); find the solutions approximately, e.g., using
technology to graph the functions, make tables of values or find
successive approximations. Include cases where f(x) and/or g(x) are
linear, polynomial, rational, absolute value, exponential and
logarithmic functions.* (Focus on cases where f(x) and g(x) are
linear or exponential.)
M.1HS.L
ER.3
graph the solutions to a linear inequality in two variables as a halfplane (excluding the boundary in the case of a strict inequality), and
graph the solution set to a system of linear inequalities in two
variables as the intersection of the corresponding half-planes.
The Ninth Grade English CSOs:
Cluster
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
Objectives
Students will
ELA.9.L.C17.
1
determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning
words and phrases based on grade 9 reading and content, choosing
flexibly from a range of strategies.
use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence, paragraph or text; a
words position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a
word or phrase.
identify and correctly use patterns of word changes that indicate different
meanings or parts of speech (e.g., analyze, analysis, analytical; advocate,
advocacy).
consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries,
glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation
of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning, its part of speech or
its etymology.
verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase
(e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).
ELA.9.L.C17.
2
demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and
nuances in word meanings.
interpret figures of speech (e.g., euphemism, oxymoron) in context and
analyze their role in the text.
analyze nuances in the meaning of words with similar denotations.
ELA.9.L.C17.
3
acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words
and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking and listening at the
college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in
gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase
important to comprehension or expression.
Results of Assessments:
The results of the assessments are listed in the table below.
Subjects For
Student
Math
English
Pre-test Scores
36
50
Post test Scores
88
90
Class Average
82
96
The math class average was calculated when the student took the pre-test.
The English class average was calculated when the student took the post test. Both tests
were the same for the class and the student. The class averages do not include the scores
of the student.
The graph depicts the scores of the student pre and posttest compared to the class
average of math and english:
Student's Pre and Post test scores compared to Class Averages
120
100
80
Score
60
40
20
0
Math
English
Subjects
Pre test
Post test
Class Average
The graph illustrates the improvements made by the student after the 15 hours of
tutoring sessions. The math class average was calculated when the student took the pretest. The English class average was calculated when the student took the post test. Both
tests were the same for the class and the students. The class averages do not include the
scores of the student. After reviewing the material, having one-on-one explanation
practice time, and organizing the students folder, the student did better than the class
average on his post test on solving multi-step inequalities. In the students English class,
after practice and more individualized instruction, the students score on the posttest
dramatically improved. He or she did not meet or exceed the classes average, but this is
something that will get better with practice and review. The student is more inclined to
talk to their peers as well.
Disaggregated Data
If I disaggregate the data of the class average into Ms. Stillions students and the
rest of the class without IEPs or a co-teacher. Ms. Stillions 6 students will not include my
students grade.
Ms. Stillions
Rest of Class
Class Average
Group
Math
English
Student Post
Score
67
92
97
99
82
96
88
90
Disaggregated Data by Students with Coteacher and Rest of Class
120
100
80
Gardes
60
40
20
0
Math
English
Subjects
Mrs. Stillion's Group
Rest of Class
Class Average
Student Post Score
Mrs. Stillions class scored lower in both subjects than the rest of the class
without IEP or a co teacher. The student I worked with also scored lower on average than
the rest of the class, but higher than Ms. Stillions group in math, but lower in English.
The class average was higher than Ms. Stillions groups scores, but lower than the rest of
the class grades.
Reflection and Data-based Decision Making:
From the pretest score, it is apparent that the new student needed one-on-one
assistance in order to catch up with the progress of the rest of the class. This student
needed the most work in Math and English so this is why Ms. Stillion and English
Through the additional handouts to expand vocabulary in English and solidify skills in
math, study time to review similar questions on the math test and read together for
English, guided instruction from me, and one-on-one assistance, this student was able to
be challenged more, review what has already been covered in class, and expand his/her
vocabulary and speaking skills to form relationships in his or her classes. After the 15
hours of conducting one-on-one assistance and tutoring, I then administered the two
posttests at separate times. I then compared his or her results to the rest of the two courses
results. I then took these results disaggregated the data into two groups to compare how
he or she did to their group of Mrs. Stillions students, the rest of the class, and the entire
class average.
To continue with the success that this student received from the tutoring sessions,
I would continue to assess the students notebook in math class for cleanliness, order, and
additional helpful notes that they may refer to in class to ensure that they are able to solve
and work out problems with minimal assistance from the teachers as they are unable to
offer a lot in the class of more than 20 students. I would also encourage time in study
skills to focus with Ms. Stillion for the student to ask questions that they did not
understand for homework. For my next step in their English course, I would continue the
reading excerpts in study skills to highlight words that the student does not know and
define/look them up, check for understanding, access the tone and mood, and how the
reading relates to the students feelings or life experiences.
From the posttests evidence of improves grades and ability to complete the math
problems and understand the English excerpts, I believe this student is able to move
forward with the rest of his or her classmates in both of the courses. The tutoring project
allowed an opportunity for the student to feel like they could ask questions without being
intimidated by a large class or hindering other students progress. This student was also
given the opportunity to talk about their feelings and emotions that they could not or had
trouble conveying in English class. The individualized program proved to be effective
through this students scores on the post test of each course. I believe the student did not
have to use English at their previous school and this impacted his experience moving to
Cabell Midland. Also, the students previous math course was not where the math course
at Cabell Midland High School was and this also put him or her at a disadvantage.
If I would have had more time, I would have enjoyed the opportunity to work on
several different subjects or even a greater amount of students in Ms. Stillions class but
because of time limitations of 15 hours and the guidance of Ms. Stillion, I was able to
tutor one student who improved in both of their courses. Also, if I would have had more
time with this student, I believe I could have worked with this student to improve his test
scores to the point he or she could have received a 100%. Although my work focused on
improvements in Math and English, the student improved in his/her other courses and
became more social and apt to talk to their peers. My experience was extremely
satisfying at Cabell Midland High School and it is a great feeling knowing that I played a
role in the success of this students learning experience at his or her new school. I learned
many vital items from Ms. Stillion, the other teachers, and of course the students. I know
more now than when I started and this will help me in the future when I am a science
teacher with students who have and IEP or 504, or even if I am granted and have the
opportunity to work with a co teacher.
