1. EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK
Kumon Learning Center
By Toluwani Soares
May 2016

2. Table of Contents
WORKPLACESAFETY 3
DINOSAURS
 MATH
 READING
3
TURTLES & BEARS
 MATH
 READING
4
GRADINGCLASSWORK AND CORRECTIONS 5

3. WORKPLACESAFETY
If students need assistance when using the restroom, they should be accompanied by a parent,
not a KUMON employee. An employee should never be in a closed space one-on-one with a
student. This includes the restroom and back staff room.
Younger students will at times rock back and forth on their stools. Kindly instruct them to rest
on all four legs of the stool, so as to avoid injury.
OPEN LINES OF COMMUNICATION
Assistants should take care to make their supervisor aware of…
 Students who are acting up or unproductive (not feeling well, throwing a fit, having an
off day) immediately. If she is otherwise occupied, wait a short time and inform her
clearly of the issue
 Very low scores (6s/7s across the board) and the related topic the student is struggling
with (such as long division, identifying the subject and predicate, understanding the past
progressive tense, etc.)
o This can be done efficiently by writing a brief note down for her, paperclipping it
to that specific homework/classwork set and bringing it up as the classroomis
closing or during a lull
DINOSAURS
General Attitude/Overcrowding:Engage with themwarmly from the moment theywalk in, hopefully
greetingthemby name. Ifyou and the other front-row assistants alreadyhave two students working
at your station, ask an assistant from the back to sit and work with the student.If the back istoo busy
to lenda hand, temporarilyseat the studentwith you. The best-case scenarioin thistight spot is for
your two other studentsto be working to be working on math and reading,while you start your third
studenton math first,not reading.You onlywant to be guidingvery youngstudents through their
readingassignmentsone at a time,as attentive observationand detailedfeedbackare necessary in
developingtheirskills.
READING:
Always read the instructions to them infull.

4. Focuson your student’sabilitytorepeat,recite,andrecognizephoneticpattersof rhyming,consonant
and vowel sounds,etc.Note whatisof importance ineachsectionandcontinue toreinforce that
conceptthroughouttheirsession.Whentheyare toldtopoint,ensure thattheydopointtoeach
picture,word,or wordpart.
 b vs d distinction:
o for the lowercase letters…whenyoureadthe letterb,yousee a line before the circle.
As such,spreadyourlipsintoa line tosay thisletter.Buhbuhbee.Whenyoureadthe
letterd,youfirstsee a circle.Assuch, squeeze yourlipsintoacircle andplace the tipof
your tongue behindyourfronttopteeth.Duhduhdee.Model thisfor themoften,
everysession.
MATH:
 Fingercounting
o If studentsare of the age/grade where finger-countingisnolongerappropriate,let
themknowthat “we no longerfinger-count.”Instead,we needtolearnouraddition
facts.The numberline laminationsare a greattools,butwhenexcessivelyusedcan
become crutches.One strategyisto have the studentcomplete the firstfull page of
theirclasswork,evenif the numberline orfinger-countingismildlyused.Forthe
remainingpages,have themsearchforthe combinations(i.e.8+6= 14) on the
completed/completelyfilled-outfirstpage toanswerthe questions.Havingtohuntfor
those solvedcombinationsshouldallowanadditionfactortwo to stickwiththem.
Leavingclassthat dayknowingevenasingle additionfactisgenuine progress.Inform
your supervisorof the additionfactlearnedandthe parentsoit can be reinforcedat
home.
 How many dots are there?questions:
o In additiontoexpandingastudent’sabilitytocountto highdouble-digitsconsecutively,
thistype of problemaimsto sharpentheirgrouping/patternrecognitionskills.
o For example,if 15reddots are shownasthree groupsof five, circle the groupsof five
while expressingthatthere are at firstfive dots,thenten,andfinallyfifteen.
NOTE: As far as helpingthemtomaintainfocusgoes,stickerscanbe excellentmotivators.
TURTLES
This group of studentshave graduated from Dinosaur status and needsome one-on-one assistance.
Have them sit at the tablesclosestto the wall, especiallythe largertable near the back as 3-4 students
requiringprolongedindividual attentioncan work there.Also,you can easilysit withthem, making
sure that they are focusedand diligentwhile gradingcorrections/priority homework.Oftentimes,the
same guidelinescanbe used for both Turtlesand Bears.

5. BEARS
This group of studentsare very independentanddo well on theirown with limitedguidance.Keepan
eye on them, but refrainfrom hovering.If they lookdistracted for minuteson end,gently remind
them to refocus.Whenthey are focusedand rememberto write their starting and endingtimes and
performwell,praise themgenerously.They’re here to improve their performance undertimed
conditions,so recordingthe time taken should be stressed.
READING
 Encourage Turtlesto readaloudto you often.Aftertheyattemptapassage orparagraph, model
for themhowto readwithemotion,restingpointedlyatpunctuationmarks.Then,theyshould
readit aloudto youonce more withimprovedexpressionandhopefullyatasmoothercadence.
Encourage them;make sure to pointout theirimmediateimprovement!
 For Turtlesinparticular,there will likelybe blends(‘ph’ ‘ough’ ‘str’ ‘eigh’) that confuse them.
Evenb vs d distinctioncanshowuphere.RefertoDinosaursection.
 Have Bears readaloudone-on-onewithanassistantif theyare workingparticularlyslowlyor
seemconfused.Evenif all iswell,aperiodical readingcheckishealthy.Checkfortheirabilityto
readsmoothlyandwithan evencadence,aswell asinflectionandreadingwithemotion.Also
spot-checktheirknowledgeof vocabulary.
MATH
Oftentimes,studentscanmake the logical leaptohow to solve aproblem, buttheymayhave forgotten
lastweek’s/lastmonth’stopic.Sopull theirlastfew assignmentsthatpertaintothisproblem, and
observe themastheysee howtheiroldassignmentandnew workalignandoverlap.Mosttimes,they
pickup somethingfromthatcomparison.Then,afterthey’vedemonstratedgenuine effortandmade
some gains,pointtheminthe rightdirection.Attimes,the Kumonmethodof solvingaproblemdiffers
fromwhat an assistantwastaughtin school,sowe want to make sure that we’re familiarwithKumon’s
approach.Consultwith yoursupervisorandthe detailedsolutionmanualsforguidance.
NOTE: If studentsare talkingtoomuchamongstthemselves,warnthem/sitbythemwhile grading
priorityhomework.If theycontinue,simplyseparate themduringclassthatday.Thiscan all be done
verycalmlyandfirmly.

6. GRADING CLASSWORK AND CORRECTIONS
 Gradingclassworkand correctionsina timelymanneristhe highestpriority.If the assistants
gradingclassworkare swamped,theyshouldpassonanypendingclassworktoothers.
Assistantswhoare packingfoldersfornext class/tripling/doublingwoulddowell tokeepaneye
on the classworkbasketsothat students’andparents’time isnotbeingwasted.Atpeaktimes,
it getsdifficulttokeeptrackof whatpressingcorrections/classworkisbeinggradedorisgoing
unnoticed.Toavoidprolongedconfusion,checkinwithanystudentssittingfor5+ minuteswith
nothingtodo. Are theywaitingoncorrections/worktobe graded/parenttopickthemup?
Clarifysoonerratherthanlaterand avoida mishap.
 Whenstudentssubmittheirclasswork,immediatelychecktosee if they’ve writtentheirend
time.Evenif theirstarttime isabsent,have themrecordtheirendingtime.Itservesasa helpful
reminderandwill hopefullyurge themtomake recordingtheirtime ahabit.
 General Gradingguidelines:Label asCW (classwork) orHW (homework),include yourinitials
and the total time takenfor thatpacket,listscores.
 Mark ½ off for the followingcircumstances:
o a signerror(negative vspositive)
o Spellingerror
o Misplacedorabsentpunctuation
o Minor grammatical errors/sentence logicissues