During the school year, I work with ESL students in grades pre-K-2, and grades 6-8. I also do outside tutoring. This summer, I am tutoring one of my former students. I am always looking for ways to keep his interest. He enjoys stories about his culture, and his holidays. He does not like math. He is most interested in his own country — India — so I looked for stories about it. This lead into comparing his own country with other countries. I wanted to show him that some other countries might have the same tale to go with the idea of a "tooth fairy". We found a great book that describes tooth tradition all around the world.

Conclusion
After reading the book, we created a grid to compare the different countries. He is learning that there are other people from other countries who believe as he does and that there are cultures who have different beliefs. The best part was making a graph to demonstrate the knowledge that he learned. We also worked with fractions. My student enjoyed the project immensely and has a new appreciation for math.