Soumaya
Certified Tutor
What is your teaching philosophy?
My teaching philosophy has always hinged on the premise of integrating my multicultural upbringing into my pedagogical approach. This, I have found, has been extremely useful in bridging the cultural gap that is so integral to the French language. In addition to cultural sensitivity, I have always tried to infuse innovating teaching methods in order to cater the individual teaching needs of students. These include the use of visual aids and various curricula.
What might you do in a typical first session with a student?
It's a first meeting so introduce myself and learn about the student. Assess their level and discuss together a goal for the future.
How can you help a student become an independent learner?
I think to become an independent learner one has to be at the center of his lessons. I will try to use adapted materials to stimulate the need to communicate and participate. I think students need to be engaged to become independent.
How would you help a student stay motivated?
I think diversifying learning material and a positive teaching method help to stay motivated.
If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?
Sometimes it is good to change the subject and come back later to it for a fresh perspective.
How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?
Maybe adapting the reading material can help.
What strategies have you found to be most successful when you start to work with a student?
They know themselves better so usually they identify their learner profile and help me work with them on the subject.
How would you help a student get excited/engaged with a subject that they are struggling in?
I think stimulating students is key to their motivation. Sometimes they have preconceived ideas on how difficult a subject is and it gets in the way of their learning. My goal is to identify the struggles and encourage solution.
What techniques would you use to be sure that a student understands the material?
Often repetition and different means of evaluation methods can help understand the evolution of the students.
How do you build a student's confidence in a subject?
Positive reinforcement and encouraging methods. I think the student s confidence is key to successful learning.
How do you evaluate a student's needs?
Through a series of oral, writing and comprehension tests we can have an idea of the needs in an academic sense. Also students have usually an area they want to improve or a goal they want to achieve. I let them lead me to what they want sometimes.
How do you adapt your tutoring to the student's needs?
Some students are stimulated visually others aren't. I think to be effective we have to understand the student’s learning profile to correctly adapt the tutoring.
What types of materials do you typically use during a tutoring session?
Some short exercise and reading material to work on comprehension. Usually each session I try to alternate with fun modern material but also try to extract grammar and vocabulary points.