I believe that engagement and focused attention is an important skill to hone with any student. Building this skill through tutoring will help students perform better in any school subject, as well as create a happier, more confident learner.

I would ask the student where they are having trouble in the subject and what they have tried to do in the past to fix it. This question is important because it outlines where the student is most frustrated or disinterested. This also engages the student to be more proactive in learning a subject that may have otherwise been discouraging.

Organizational and study skills can be empowering to a student. The best way to inspire a student to learn on their own is to encourage organization and patterns that make sense to them. Each student is different and can find excitement in being proactive in how they learn.

Often coursework and standardized testing goals can have lofty long-term objectives that are daunting to students. Setting short-term goals and breaking down challenging lessons can create steady victories for a student. Maintaining a positive and encouraging attitude, I believe, will help students stay motivated, as opposed to imposing pressure and penalties to inaction.

Sometimes students need more time focusing on one aspect of a skill that they are struggling with. It might require a different approach or method of learning to develop the knowledge needed to move forward. Sometimes students just need a break the same exercises over and over, and just respond well to learning the skills with technology or a different atmosphere.

Difficulty with reading comprehension can be based on a large variety of factors. Some students need to improve their vocabulary. Other students have difficulty with long, complex sentence structure. Other students just need to read out loud and at a slower pace than others. Finding the issue through assessment in the beginning with a student, can help establish the next steps to improve.

I find that outlining the lesson for the day and giving the student the goals and objectives that need to be achieved in one session helps them focus and relate the exercises to one another. I also like allowing my students to walk around for 30 seconds or so and burn a little energy if they're struggling.

I believe that learning any subject can be fun if a student feels like they perform well. Learning becomes boring and frustrating when students don't succeed. While incorporating games, technology or hands-on learning activities can be helpful to encourage a disinterested student; it's also important to create small victories in subjects that are difficult, so students can gain interest through accomplishment.

Often students can learn the most by leading the lesson, meaning either directing the teacher from one step to the other in solving a problem, or even teaching a method they have just mastered to another student. Memorizing and repeating is not a guarantee for retention.

By remaining positive and creating short-term goals, even students with difficulty can find excitement in a hard subject. Students are often as excited about learning as the teacher, so even in something that may have seemed uninteresting before, if a tutor is overly excited and optimistic, then at least a little will pass off to the student.

Simply by asking them. Students are very aware of where they are finding difficulty, and while they may frequently answer with "I don't know" and frustration, asking them where they need help and why they think they don't understand is a good barometer of next steps in a lesson plan.

Being patient with a student's learning habits can help move through a lesson faster more than cutting out material for time. Not everyone learns at the same rate, however if material is skipped because the student hasn't completed grasped one exercise, then they will fall behind later on.

Pen and paper! Studies show that taking notes on paper and adapting lessons into your own words prove to create better learning than typing or just listening. I always encourage students to solve a problem along with me, or follow what I'm saying and take notes.