Kerry

What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe in making a real personal connection with my students. Letting them know that I care about them and their learning is key to building the trust necessary for effective teaching.

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

The first step is understanding where the student is in his or her learning, including not only past experience and difficulties, but also gauging the student's attitude toward the subject. This allows me to tailor the session, and further sessions, appropriately.

How can you help a student become an independent learner?

Helping the student see overarching themes and patterns, as well as methods for solving problems, will assist him/her in attacking material on his/her own.

How would you help a student stay motivated?

To stay motivated, it is important to see progress. I like to encourage students by making sure they are aware of the ways in which they are incorporating past learning into current problems or material.

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

If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, the issue most often lies in a faulty understanding of past material. I work with the student to identify the past learning gap, fill the gap in, and bring the new understanding forward to current material.

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

It is important to let the student provide the correct answers. My role is to guide the student by building his/her confidence and knowledge base, and letting him/her demonstrate understanding through appropriately applying what he/she has learned.

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

The most important skill is learning what it means to read for structure. You can pull so many important pieces out of the passage by doing so. This is a fundamental concept I teach all of my students.

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

I get a sense of strengths and weaknesses, and then go through a process of going through questions with them. I start by talking them through problems and telling them about my thought processes. Gradually, the student takes over and tells me how he or she is approaching the question and analyzing the answer choices.

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

Success and engagement feed on one another. As the student experiences successes, he or she is likely to become more enthusiastic about gaining mastery of a subject. So I start out with small successes, and we work our way up to larger ones.

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

I usually start with a type of question or problem the student is good at, talking through it, and using that question type to get across general points about how to approach questions. We gradually shift to questions that are more difficult, building confidence along the way with small successes, then larger ones.

How do you evaluate a student's needs?

I ask a lot of questions about the student’s background, goals, and experiences with the subject. I also like to see how the student does on diagnostic tests, to identify stronger and weaker areas.

How do you adapt your tutoring to the student's needs?

Once we have established the areas the student needs the most help in, I use a technique I have found to be generally successful. After working that way for a little while, I always check in with the student, asking whether he or she feels that he or she is getting a lot out of it, or if he or she needs a change of pace.

What types of materials do you typically use during a tutoring session?

I tend to use the practice bank, as well as outside resources. For the LSAT or other standardized tests, I think it is vitally important to take full-length tests written by the actual authors of the test. I also have some books to recommend, depending on the student's needs.