Purvi
Certified Tutor
Undergraduate Degree: H R College, Mumbai - Bachelors, Business Administration and Management
Graduate Degree: University of Colorado Denver - Masters, Educational Psychology
Cooking, watching Bollywood movies.
ACCUPLACER ESL
AP English Language and Composition
CLEP French
CLEP Human Growth and Development
CLEP Introduction to Educational Psychology
College English
Conversational French
Elementary School Reading
French 1
High School English
Human Development
SAT Subject Test in French
SAT Subject Test in French with Listening
SAT Subject Tests Prep
What is your teaching philosophy?
I believe students learn best through self-regulation. Student directed learning is my desired approach. I believe in student participation and interaction to make it a reciprocal learning process.
What might you do in a typical first session with a student?
I might get introduced to the student’s difficulties, questions or queries. I would then plan on how we can work on it together. I would like to know his strengths and weakness regarding the topics, plus his/ her own personal interests and motivation in the topic. I could then go ahead and plan our next few sessions on how better I can help the student.
How can you help a student become an independent learner?
Inculcating self-regulating activities amongst a student is the best way to motivate a student in being an independent learner. For example, make him set his own goals, or have him create a checklist of “to do” things.
How would you help a student stay motivated?
Creating and sustaining his interest in the desired topic will keep him motivated. Setting challenging questions that makes the learning more engaging and interesting is desired by me. Motivation is an ongoing process, and appreciation of a student’s work is highly rewarding in this process.
What strategies have you found to be most successful when you start to work with a student?
I would try to understand why the student has a specific difficulty. If he does not understand a problem, I would work with him on the concept, and then guide him with the problem and see if he understands.
How would you help a student get excited/engaged with a subject that they are struggling in?
Changing the format a little bit. Using different sets of materials; sometimes they are used to the same material, which can be monotonous in their learning process. Using videos or audio can be quite transformational, too.
What techniques would you use to be sure that a student understands the material?
Using different formats like audio/visual, asking questions and letting the student work on a question after explaining a concept; this ensures some level of student learning.
How do you build a student's confidence in a subject?
By creating engaging material. Increasing his interests and boosting his morale with his performance or prior work makes a student more confident with his subject.
How do you adapt your tutoring to the student's needs?
I try to understand the student’s difficulties first, then identify their points of weakness, and work together to resolve them. Understanding the student also helps in better evaluating their difficulties and helping them in a better manner.
What types of materials do you typically use during a tutoring session?
Audio, videos, and online resources, tests, practice tests and self-created sets of questions per the student’s abilities.
If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?
Explain it to him with different examples, which also implies repeating a concept again and again, so the student sees the relevance of the materials and is able to make a connection to that concept.
How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?
I think repetition is the key. I would encourage the student to read over again and verify how much information they understand and then let them self-analyze the read material. Re-reading helps and then I would also try to explain the material in a manner the student best understands it.
How do you evaluate a student's needs?
A student's needs can be evaluated by asking them questions related to their learning needs and interests. The background they have for learning also helps evaluate their needs.