More tutoring

Amauro showed up just in time this week. We were to review mathematics in preparation for the TAKS test. It seems that TAKS prep is all we do, I mean he needs to pass and he is nowhere near the range where it would seem possible for him to pass. We went over some geometry. I noticed that it was the same exact stuff that we went over the first time I met him, and the second time. I was surprised because he still continued to have the same problems, he could not make his requests known on paper. He also had problem focusing. We were working one on one at the back of the classroom while the rest of the class was doing group work. He would constantly look over to his peers. Sometimes when the other students because a little loud he would disregard me completely, he would just zone out until I got his attention again. His teacher has discussed this student with me before, he has no outside service provided. He gets small accommodations in the classroom but he does not receive any special tutoring, or intervention aside form Saturday school. The area in which Amauro lives is low income. I am very familiar with the neighborhood because I live a block away. In some of these houses there are 10 people living in a two-bedroom house. I am not particularly sure about his specific living conditions but no one I the neighborhood is more than middle class.

Tutoring Amauro

I did my project at Arturo Salazar Elementary School in Dallas, Tx. The school is 95% Hispanic in a low socioeconomic area. My particular assignment was Amauro, a fourth grade bilingual student with learning disabilities. When I met Amauro he seemed like any other fourth grade student. Upon conversing with him I realized that a lot was going on in this child’s life. As I talked to my mom, his teacher, I realized that aside from his living situation he was also very behind in his learning. At 8 years old, Amauro couldn’t write the letters. I mean he can write them, but for the most part its illegible. I can’t even lie, its bad. I couldn’t even read it and my writing sucks. I didn’t expect this, I mean my mom teaches fourth graders, they’re supposed to know how to read, how to write. The first day with Amauro we spent 3 hours writing letters, like you do in like kindergarten with the sheets of paper with the really big lines and the dotted line in the middle. The final hour we spent reviewing words for his geometry lesson. It was interesting to see because he knew how to respond verbally to my demands but when he had to write it down he would freeze. We reviewed how to write down words like obtuse, angle, perpendicular, because he needed to know these words to pass his math test the next week. He knew the words, and he knew what they meant, he just couldn’t write them down on paper. I honestly thought the boy was crazy. For snack, he brought a bag of chips, a coke, and a jar of cherries. If that’s not weird I don’t know what is.