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

In the first session, it is important to get to know your student. Getting to know your student, their personality, and their interests, will assist in finding ways to better reach them. Finding interests that can coincide with lesson plans can be an effective way to keep students interested.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

Finding ways for students to become self-aware and how subjects can relate to their own lives is a great way for them to become independent learners. If a student is struggling with reading, find them a book they can relate to and start with that. Eventually, they will be able to create it on their own.

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

Reading comprehension can be very overwhelming. By breaking it down to small chunks and sections is great for easy comprehension. Even if it is sentence-by-sentence, small steps are key.

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

Finding their interests and relating to those emphasizes that you are here for them, not solely for the job. Having a student enjoy working with you is a success in itself.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

I think there are a few aspects to keeping a student motivated. Firstly, making a clear expectation is key to keeping the student on track. Then, I believe that giving students a sense of control is vital. A tutor is there for guidance, not to do the work for them. Letting the student have a bit of control on how they do their work will motivate them to do more. And of course, not making them feel judged or like they could ever ask a dumb question.

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

If at first you don't succeed...try, try, again. Everyone knows the saying, but not everyone realized that it doesn't only apply to students. If the teacher fails to reach a student, they must try a different approach. There are so many methods to learning, that maybe the methods you're trying aren’t what are best for your student. Implementing different approaches and activities stimulates other aspects of the student's brain and can trigger learning in a different way.

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

To make learning fun is the greatest method. If a student is enjoying the process, they will not be discouraged or miserable during the process. Change up the scenery this time, relate to their interests, all of these are helpful tools in engaging a student. These tools create a spark in the student to become excited to learn more. Which in turn, will get them motivated.

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

Feedback is huge. At the end of lessons, engaging a student in questions about what they just learned is key to understanding where they're at with the process. If you can get a student to re-teach you, what you just taught them, you will have a better understanding of what they thought was important and what areas are missing and need improvement. Having a student teach the material back to you is a great way to gauge an understanding, but is also a great studying technique.