You can't teach a student you don't understand, so my first session is dedicated to just that: understanding the student. What motivates this student? What are this student's strengths and weaknesses? What learning goals does this student have? What is this student's primary learning style? Once you understand the basics, it becomes much easier to communicate and teach in a way the student can understand and relate to.

You help a student become an independent learner by giving her the right skills. Just as an artist uses canvases and paintbrushes, an English student needs frameworks and strategies. Once they are given these tools, they are able to navigate their own way to discovery and success.

Students stay motivated when they focus on what they do know instead of what they don't know (hey, who doesn't like to feel like they're smart?), and when they connect an assignment in a relevant way to their own life. I'm there to help them feel successful by limiting their frustration to a missing puzzle piece rather than a broken puzzle, and to help them make literary connections to the world around them. Learning is much more fun when it's relevant.

As mentioned before, learning is like a puzzle, and oftentimes a student comes into a tutoring situation feeling like they're completely broken. I feel that if the student and I can figure out what she DOES know, we can help pinpoint which puzzle piece is missing. Also, I keep in mind that there are many learning styles. A process that may work well and make sense to once student may not work for another. I'm there to help discover the best way for my student to learn, and then move forward in a positive way until things click.

Reading strategies are the best tool. Nearly all of the time, if we can re-learn those reading strategies and level the student correctly, comprehension problems disappear.