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

If my explanation of the subject is not getting through, I would turn to the infinite resources available on the internet. In my own experience, having multiple perspectives on the concept is extremely helpful and can allow for certain academic breakthroughs.

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

I would work through slowly and ask probing questions about the passage to eventually walk the student to the correct conclusion. Eventually, the students should internalize this strategy of breaking down the passage into its parts and will improve their comprehension skills.

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

I am a huge proponent of using practice problems as a minor diagnostic. I can learn a lot about the student's thought process and possible shortcomings just by the way they work through particular problems. From there, we can break down individual problems into their smaller pieces to truly understand the problems that are giving the student difficulty.

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

I think students gain confidence by getting tested at their level of knowledge. Testing students on material they know and slowly working their way up to the more challenging material would be a huge confidence booster.