What might you do in a typical first session with a student?

A personal relationship is important to me. I want to know who you are, what inspires you, and how you learn. I would allow time for both of us to learn these things about the other before jumping into the material.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

Encouragement, motivation, and providing the appropriate challenges to help the student advance in his or her learning.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

It's important to remember goals and to set benchmarks for arriving at them. Encouragement, joy for the subject, and helping the student to set goals is a how I like to bring motivation.

If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?

It's important to break a concept down into its different parts. Understanding how these pieces fit together to create a skill or concept is essential to mastering it. Additionally, I try to look at things from a different perspective. A perspective change can do a lot of good in advancing in a skill!

What strategies have you found to be most successful when you start to work with a student?

Identifying the main struggles that the student is facing, and creating a habit to take specific time during a session to address those issues.

What techniques would you use to be sure that a student understands the material?

I like to provide several opportunities for the student to demonstrate his or her understanding by changing the context of the material, and performing several different examples.

How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?

Focus is the key element. We have to learn to put aside the things in our mind that are distracting us and focus on the task at hand. In reading comprehension, we can break texts down into parts and do our best to comprehend the current section we are focused on. We begin with baby steps, but with time, we will certainly be able to expand our reading comprehension to longer sections, pages, chapters, and eventually entire books!

How would you help a student get excited/engaged with a subject that they are struggling in?

We have to look at the subject from another angle. All subjects have at least some elements that can be enjoyed. We need to find those things to help us progress the parts that are "less fun." With a student struggling to stay engaged, we just need to change our perspective on the subject.

How do you build a student's confidence in a subject?

We build confidence in a subject by continuing to work on the specific elements that are difficult. As we break down those elements and improve in them, we can gain assurance in our ability to perform in a certain subject.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

I will ask the student to first explain his or her difficulty in a certain subject, and afterwards I will ask them to perform a series of exercises relating to that subject. I can then pinpoint to where the student may have a weakness in a certain area.

How do you adapt your tutoring to the student's needs?

Once the student's needs are targeted, I can adapt my tutoring to help them advance. Changing my tone, level of encouragement, or the material that we decide to focus on can all be adapted to help the student meet his or her academic goals.

What types of materials do you typically use during a tutoring session?

I like to spend time working on materials that the student may be using in class, but I think that it is always important to move into real life situations as well. I like to bring in materials that the student may enjoy or can relate to in order to get out of the "academic box."