The most successful teacher is proactive. A teacher who really assesses and knows their students and plans backwards and forwards to meet all students' needs. A teacher who also can stay consistent in their rules, organization, methods and learning goals can achieve anything.

I think our first step is to do an opening activity to get to know each other. It’s important to learn from someone you feel comfortable with. Also, to conduct a pre-test to see students' abilities and skills so you can go ahead and plan the next step.

Every teacher or tutor needs to plan his or her "we do", "I do", "you do". The roles of each step of the learning process should be clear. We go over an example together, we talk about it, and we think about it. Now that you have had an example, as the teacher I'm allowing you to try the next step on your own.

I believe it’s important for students to know why we are learning what we're learning and to plan that learning in manageable chunks. Many students get overwhelmed when faced with going up a grade in reading...but if we set small goals or targets and then celebrate when they achieve them it’s much more likely to foster engagement!

Everyone would get frustrated reading something that's too hard or advanced for him or her. The way to pierce through frustration is to plan for a confidence boosting and engaging reading experience. Then slowly, as the student gains confidence and stamina, scaffold more difficult texts into their learning. Also, making sure that each student has a toolbox of strategies that they know how to access when they need them.

One of the most successful strategies I've used is a “Read, Question, Discuss” strategy that uses reading, listening and talking as a way to further learning. It asks students to read a text and ask a higher order question about what they are reading. For example, use a question that is easily answered but one that makes them think or wonder. Next, they discuss with a tutor or another student and each person shares their ideas. It helps students dig deeper into texts and also helps them build their comprehension and verbal processing skills.

Being able to assess a student at the end of each session or lesson is very important. Using learning targets such as, "I can analyze the character's actions by explaining the reason behind at least 3". By the end of the lesson the student should be able to prove that they can identify a character’s action, analyze that action and tell why they believe the character took that action. As an instructor, it’s important to give the students criteria ahead of time to assure they know how to prove that they learned and mastered the target.

Each student is different; it’s important to plan ahead of time with students' learning styles and needs in mind. Each curriculum aspect should be adapted to fit the students' specific needs.