Aviva
Certified Tutor
Undergraduate Degree: University of Colorado Boulder - Bachelors, Psychology
Graduate Degree: University of Phoenix-Hawaii Campus - Masters, Education
Comparative Literature
What is your teaching philosophy?
My teaching philosophy is one of discovery. I really try to let the students discover their own mistakes. If I can guide a student to see their errors and learn how to fix them, then I've done my job!
How can you help a student become an independent learner?
As stated, I let the student do the discovering. To do that I ask the student a lot of questions and I give them time to think. Oftentimes, when I do that, they come up with answers they didn't know they had!
How would you help a student stay motivated?
When I need to achieve a goal, I love to have a cheerleader. Frequent check-ins, motivational emails, and positive feedback for hard work accomplished are how I know to motivate students!
If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?
Repetition and practice are some ways, but more often then not we need to backtrack to a prior skill. If a student is stuck we need to re-build the foundation.
How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?
Read! Out loud! Practice the reading strategies of clarifying, visualizing, connecting, questioning, and inferring and evaluating. I practice these by thinking aloud, showing them how good readers think. After I model, I'll have them practice with scaffolding, and then we'll graduate to independent reading with supports.
What strategies have you found to be most successful when you start to work with a student?
Asking questions and giving answers.
What techniques would you use to be sure that a student understands the material?
Review, formative, and summative assessments.
How do you build a student's confidence in a subject?
Positive reinforcement!
How do you evaluate a student's needs?
Pre-tests are an excellent tool, as well as giving some writing samples or evaluating past writing samples.
How do you adapt your tutoring to the student's needs?
I think that is just the nature of the job. Each student comes with individual strengths and weaknesses and it is up to the tutor to be able to figure out what is needed to help the student be successful.
What types of materials do you typically use during a tutoring session?
Depends on what the student wants and needs to work on.
What might you do in a typical first session with a student?
Decide a course of action based on the needs of the client.