I guide students toward understanding by involving them in the learning process. Each student learns in different ways, so I need to tailor my teaching to each individual student. The greatest way to demonstrate understanding is to have them teach it back to me.

I like to spend a few minutes getting to know each other so I can relate tutoring back to real life experiences. I would also spend some time assessing how and why they were struggling and their goals for our time together.

A student needs to be involved in the learning process to become an independent learner. So, I would have them do as much as they can without my help and then step in to explain concepts as needed. Then, practice, practice, practice!

I would set goals at the beginning of each session in collaboration with the student so we can agree on expectations for each session. I would take fun little breaks throughout a session to refresh the brain and the body. I would also talk about why learning is important and why they should want to succeed.

I would try my best to explain it in as many different ways until they did understand it. I would have them practice it in different ways. Once I thought that they did understand it, I would come back to it in future tutoring sessions to make sure it stuck.

I ask them comprehension questions as they read, and if they can't answer them, I ask them to return to the text and look for the answer again. If they still can't answer, I would go back and read the text with them, stopping often to talk about what we just read. If they struggle with reading specific words, I give them strategies to decode the words.

I would have them work through several example problems and then explain to me how they did them.

I start them out with problems that they are more comfortable doing, and then gradually increase difficulty. I praise their work when I can tell that they are working hard, and I encourage them if it takes a long time for them to understand something.