Johana: Santa Fe tutor
Certified Tutor
As an experienced tutor in foreign languages and other subjects such as English, Reading, and ESL, I am more than happy to continue tutoring through Varsity Tutors. My experience of having studied a foreign language for over ten years has made me understand what it takes to learn and truly comprehend a foreign language. Additionally, having come to the United States as a teenager and having had to learn the English language at that age, I came to understand the struggles faced when trying to learn another language and I would be more than happy to help overcome those obstacles along the way.
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Undergraduate Degree: Loyola University-Chicago - Current Undergrad, French and International Studies
Visiting art exhibitions, reading old and new literature, and attending upcoming international film festivals.
What is your teaching philosophy?
It is important to attack the subject in different aspects such as reading, writing, listening and visualizing. The more hands-on with the subject, the better the understanding.
What might you do in a typical first session with a student?
Start by getting to know basic things about one another, such as names and hobbies, and then try to understand the ways that the student would learn best, whether that would be visualizing, reading, writing, etc., and go from there.
How can you help a student become an independent learner?
By trying to make them as passionate about the subject as possible. Once the student becomes interested in a specific subject, they will want to learn more on their own.
How would you help a student stay motivated?
By showing them different aspects of the subject and try to not keep it the same each day. Get them excited by having them learn different things about the subject. For example, when learning a foreign language, the student becomes more interested if you show different clips of movies, quotes, the culture of the specific country, etc.
If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?
Keep trying to engage different aspects into the learning process. Sometimes you have to change the way you teach so that the student better understands the subject.
How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?
By taking a look at different texts, such as fiction and non-fiction, scientific, autobiography, etc. That way the student will understand which kind of readings they are struggling with and need to work on, and which readings they have a good understanding of.
What strategies have you found to be most successful when you start to work with a student?
After having learned a new concept of the subject, have the student engage into a learning activity and review the activity at the beginning of the next session.
How would you help a student get excited/engaged with a subject that they are struggling in?
By having them explore beyond what is written. For example, if the subject is English, by having them read different excerpts of books they seem to be interested in and have them point out different things in the excerpts. If the subject is a foreign language, show them different clips of how the language varies in different region of the country, how the culture is different, and what some interesting things are about the culture in each different region.
What techniques would you use to be sure that a student understands the material?
I would start by first reading the lesson out loud, and have them point out what they understand and what they don't. Then, read it one more time, and this time do it together, and try to have them understand what they didn't before. If they are still having trouble learning, try to have them understand by engaging an activity over the lesson learned. If that activity did not work, try to use another, etc.
How do you build a student's confidence in a subject?
By having them repeat in each session what they already know so that they don't forget, and by having them learn the new material by having them engaged in different aspects of the new material. It is important for them to know how much they already know so that the new material does not seem too difficult.
How do you evaluate a student's needs?
By reviewing the material learned in each session, I can see what the student is struggling and needs help with. Whatever they might be struggling in, that is the area that I try to work with them the most and frequently.
How do you adapt your tutoring to the student's needs?
Try to understand the student and what they are having problems with, and always keep an open mind to changing the teaching ways. Some students learn differently, so they need to see different methods of learning new material.
What types of materials do you typically use during a tutoring session?
I typically use a book, if applicable, a notebook, a pencil, note cards and games I have made to have the student better understand the subject, and also the computer if I am trying to have the students fill out some kind of activity that I have made through my computer or if they are taking a short quiz about what they have learned so far, or also if I am showing a clip over the culture of a subject or its philosophy, etc.