Kist Firestone

Working with my student at Firestone got me thinking of different ways that I could help her learn. Every night before I went to the school I would consider what I feel she needs the most work on and sit with my OGT prep materials to devise a two-hour, one-on-one lesson plan. Working through the packet provided was not enough: I had to focus on the areas that she struggled in. The main problem areas were algebra, writing and keeping focused on a question.
Being that I am not a math professional, I had a tough time being creative with the math portion of tutoring. Working multi-modalities into this plan was necessary, but difficult for me to be too creative. The way I taught it was reading through and pulling questions from a Math OGT prep book I borrowed and modeled the first few equations for her, then scaffolding my help on the problems until she could work through them herself. Additionally, I wrote out things to remember: the things I felt she may forget, but were critical for her to know to solve the problems. I wrote these things on a piece of paper and had her tell me what they were before we solved many of the problems. The paper read:
Goal: Isolate all variables!
Parentheses must be rid of the equation first!
3x means divide 3 from both sides, etc

One issue I find with American test preparation is that my student often said that her teachers were pressuring her so much to comprehend the material that she just gave up at one point. I am confident that my student is smart enough to pass the OGT, but by putting so much pressure on passing this test the first time, she has lost sight of the reason for learning, other than to pass this test. She only wants to focus on what will be on the test, not the breadth and importance of Math: that is another problem for teachers. With pressure like this from every class, it is tough not to feel overwhelmed, and like passing the test is impossible. These problems apply to each of the three subject areas I will discuss, not only Math.
The other main problem my student had (and the one we worked on the most) was her writing. She was not a bad writer, although her grammar definitely could have been improved, but

In my own classroom, I think I would do a week-long OGT preparation lesson plan. I will apply these ideas by not just assigning OGT packets to work on with my students, but modeling questions on the board so they can see how I work through problems. Both using a visual element, like working on a problem on the overhead, and verbalizing my thoughts are important in teaching with a multi modal approach. By the end of week of OGT prep, students will have worked independently on a workbook, seen me work through questions and heard my thoughts as I answered them. The problem here is that since the structure is so cut and dry, there is not much creativity that can go into studying for this test, unless the test, itself, changes. The reading and writing portions of the OGT are limiting in that they are strictly formal writing and set on informational responses. I, myself, have no solutions or ideas for change that would work across the board, because creativity or informal answers are difficult to measure and grade based on a statewide standard.
When doing the writing section of the OGT, first we read through a question together and I asked her how she would begin. She said she usually jumps into the question without prewriting, so I let her answer the prompt in full, then reviewed the answer. While the writing, itself, was satisfactory, the structure and organization of the answer was very poor. This was at the end of a Monday tutoring period, so I had time to go home and devise a plan for the next day’s lesson. I decided to model a prompt and talk through my thought process. I wrote out a prompt for myself: “Do you like school? Why?”
It is a very basic question because I wanted her to focus more on the structure than how I was answering the question. I talked through pre-writing (my thesis and topic sentences one, two and three, then began the writing. I explained to her that pre-writing is helpful because it allows me to organize my thoughts and see the bones of the paper to come. I began writing a four-sentence intro paragraph, showing how to start broad, then narrow. I modeled the rest of the paper then asked her if she had any questions. She seemed to understand. Next, I wrote out a guideline for her to follow when she writes her paper:
Intro:

Body 1: (Topic Sentence 1)
Body 2: (Topic Sentence 2)
Body 3: (Topic Sentence 3)

Conclusion:

After I gave her this worksheet, I gave her the next prompt from the OGT writing book and we worked through it together. Finally, the next week I gave her a third and final prompt and she wrote a flawless essay in exactly the format she was supposed to. By modeling the strategy and working one on one with a visual graph of what was expected, she finally understood the material.
In the end, I wrote out on a paper to remember to be formal and to keep focused on what the question was asking, because those were two important ideas to keep in mind that she kept forgetting. Repetition, modeling and scaffolding were overall the three most important techniques I used in tutoring this student, and all three led to my student’s success.