My name is Carolyn Peterson and I graduated in 2007 from Wittenberg University (OH) with a BA in English and Minor in Music. While at Wittenberg University, I informally tutored English and taught flute lessons to middle school students. I have worked with students on both the elementary school (fourth grade) and middle school levels teaching English Language Arts and Math. I have experience working with students in grades 6-8 on English Language Arts. I recently graduated from Simmons College (MA) with an Master of Arts in Teaching degree in Secondary Education, specifically middle school. I did my student teaching at Pollard Middle School in Needham-8th grade English and am now certified by the Commonwealth of MA to teach English (5-8). In addition to my coursework at Simmons College, I played flute/piccolo for the Colleges of the Fenway Orchestra and I continue to serve as the piccoloist. I love working with children in all capacities and I serve as a volunteer for the Child Life department at Newton-Wellesley Hospital.
When I design lesson plans I lay out the lesson with objectives, activities, and assessments that will reach a range of students below level, on level, and advanced to ensure that each student will have a positive learning experience. When I tutor, I first see where the student is at and what the student's strengths and weaknesses are and then design a plan accordingly.
Teaching eighth grade English Language Arts was a challenge but I enjoyed working with the students and watch them grow. I have taught Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and through this unit, I engaged the students through group work, acting, and lecture. I have worked with a few students on an individual basis on reading comprehension skills and the basic foundation for understanding Shakespeare. I taught the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain and during this unit, the students participated in group work activities, a directed reading activity, and I showed them clips from a documentary on Mark Twain. While teaching this novel, I also taught a mini unit on speeches because all students were required to write a speech for a grade and the best speeches would be read at the eighth grade graduation.
I am very creative and I am able to use my creativity to plan fun and interesting lessons for the students. I am also able to incorporate my knowledge from college English courses and the Arts into my lessons by modifying the material to make it understandable and accessible to the students. When I worked with seventh grade students, I taught the students about the Harlem Renaissance in order to get them ready to study Langston Hughes. An example of my creativity is when I was teaching poetry and the lesson was focused around teaching different types of poetry. I set up “stations” and each station was focused on a different type of poetry. The students went to each station in groups of four and came away with an original poem that could be put in their poetry books.
It is my goal to combine my love of English and the Arts, my creativity, intelligence, and my range of experience, and use those skills to be an enthusiastic, intelligent, compassionate tutor.