Monday, December 2, 2013

Onondaga Week 6

Again this monday I was not allowed in the gymnasium as the school was setting up for their annual Thanksgiving Feast. I worked with the 5th grade students again on their homework. This week I was specifically assigned to one boy who was having a lot of trouble with his multiplication and division homework. I worked with him for the entire time on one worksheet as he was not ready to sit down and do the problems. He asked specifically to work with me because I helped him the week before to understand the problems rather than that he should just know how to do it. I helped him realize that he was able to complete the problems. This student is very smart, but does not have confidence in his intelligence. He second guesses himself, and then puts the wrong answer. After a while, he began just writing down random numbers next to each question even though he knew the real answers. I had him erase the entire worksheet as just about every answer was wrong at this point expect for the two or three we did together before. It took him less time to complete the worksheet correctly than to make up answers. I spoke with him afterwards, and he expressed that he knew he was not going to do the homework at home, and really thought he would not finish it anyway. He just wanted answers on the sheet so he could hand it in, even if the answers were not right. I explained to him that it only took 15 minutes to get the correct answers once he started to try rather than the 30 minutes it took to make up the answers. If he had tried from the beginning he would have been able to go to the computer lab with the rest of his friends, and play games, but instead he had to sit in the cafeteria with 3 other students in the entire after-school program that needed to work on homework first. I was happy to see that he realized he needs to concentrate from the start if he wants to be able to do the things the other students are doing, and I hope to see the difference this week. I know there will have been a change if he is in the gymnasium with me for game time rather then missing it for homework.

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