A Case Study in Adaptive Teaching
Meet Rachel: as one of PFL’s valued students, this lively young lady is making tremendous progress in her Maths tutoring. Now in year 5 at Harrow International School, Rachel is a fun-loving and kind young lady with her sights set on studying in the UK. Rachel’s family came to PFL for some much needed support in a variety of areas with the KS2 Maths curriculum, and to take part in our mentoring programme since Rachel lacked the belief in her own academic abilities.
Following a thorough assessment with one of our senior consultants, we identified where Rachel could improve and created a bespoke lesson plan. This included tackling those pesky times tables, building her foundation in skills like adding and subtracting two and three digit numbers, and improving her mental maths. All the while, our selected tutors would build supportive relationships with Rachel to ensure that she had a safe environment to ask questions and voice any concerns. We’re very proud of our work with Rachel, and hope you get an idea of how we adapt our tuition to meet the need of the individual student
PATIENCE
Though Rachel had a lot of potential as far as mathematics was concerned, sometimes it can take a few different explanations before methods really sink in. Our tutors’ patience helped Rachel become a more mature listener and grasp some of the trickier techniques. On the right, you’ll see Rachel getting to grips with her angles homework. Our tutors used a mixture of what was tried and tested in conjunction with some more innovative activities to explain topics such like this in various different ways . We carefully planned activities to complement what Rachel was studying at school so she had the requisite practice to fully grasp the topic. We made sure that she had the space to ask questions about anything unclear, which our well-educated and knowledgeable tutors managed to navigate comfortably, capably and above all else, patiently.
ENCOURAGING EFFORT
When we first met Rachel, she was very reluctant to work. We decided that the best way to motivate her was to come up with a reward system. After discussing what might spur Rachel on with her family, we settled on continual good work being rewarded by a hamster! Each week, Rachel was rewarded with a token or two if she impressed us with the amount of effort she put in. After class was done, she would mark her progress on specially designed chart. At first, watching her growing total of tokens each week bring her closer to her reward gave Rachel a reason to try, and the good habits she picked up from the initial effort stayed with her long after she got the adorable hamster in the picture on the right.
BUILDING CONFIDENCE
We wanted to show Rachel a clear progression of how her skills were improving, so we helped her maintain a notebook. It contained all her worksheets and included key performance trackers so we could see how her mathematical skills were coming along week by week. Helping her recognise her improvement and achievements helped boost her self-confidence which made learning substantially easy for her. If she ever found something difficult, we could always go back to a previous lesson she had struggled with to reassure her that she’d get it soon enough. Through positive feedback, reassurance and diligent working we were able to help Rachel cultivate a positive attitude towards her work characterised by a willingness to learn and a desire to improve. A sample worksheet we’d worked on with her is in the picture on the right.
PLAYING TO STRENGTHS
One thing Rachel certainly wasn’t short of was energy. Ever on her feet, our innovative tutors realised that sitting down for an hour wouldn’t work to her strengths. So, we built a regular lesson structure that starts standing up: throwing a ball while answering quick fire times-tables questions. This helped Rachel let off some steam and warm-up her brain so that she had an easier time concentrating when we were working through worksheets and exercises. If Rachel was in a particularly lively mood, our tutors would respond by making an activity more active. To see this in action, take a look at our question and answer treasure hunt as completed around the living room on the right.