Tutoring Strategies and Best Practices

At the Egan Office, we understand that stepping into a new classroom and working with young children or teenagers can be intimidating. This post about being an effective tutor will hopefully ease your worries, as well as provide support for how to handle potential challenges so you can stay successful throughout the year.

General guidelines for tutors and SCOs:

1. Be consistent

Consistency is an important trait for all tutors but is especially important when working with younger students. This means following the schedule that you created with your mentor teacher and being on time for each tutoring session. Both your students and your mentor teacher will start expecting your visits, and they will also be disappointed if you do not show up. They are counting on you and your help!

Being consistent is easy when you prepare correctly. For example, place each tutoring session in your calendar (on paper or on your phone), so that you will not plan something else during those times. If you are traveling by train or car, leave 15 minutes earlier than expected to allow for delays or traffic. To quote Rick Rigsby, "You'd rather be an hour early than a minute late."

2. Define a schedule

Having an agenda for each tutoring session will allow both you and your students to get the most out of the limited time you have together. It will also ensure that you and the students know what to expect each time you arrive for a session. 

When you meet with your mentor teacher, ask them to define or outline what your session will look like. For example, if you are tutoring from 8 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. you should know what the students will be working on (math, reading, science, etc.), who you will be working with (specific students, small group, whole group, etc.), and what you should be doing (walking around and answering questions, meeting with specific students, reading with students, etc.) during that four-hour window. Having a clear schedule will enhance your experience and increase your effectiveness. 

3. Develop a positive mindset

A positive mindset in the tutoring relationship is crucial for success. Your students will be more excited and have a more positive attitude to learn if you create and foster that dynamic. 

You can do this by taking the time to listen to your student's thoughts and struggles. From there you can highlight what they are doing well and encourage them to build off of their strengths. Your students will be more eager and excited to keep learning because of how they are doing in other areas. Read this article to learn more: Effective Praise in the Classroom

Reading strategies for tutors:

1. Read with students individually in order to focus on phonics and comprehension. 

Beginner to phonics? Watch the video, everything you need to know about phonics, and read, teaching phonics and blends, to learn about what phonics is, why it's important, and what it looks like in the classroom. 

When watching this video, what do you notice?

Here are the strategies that I used:

1. Identify the rules of language by using helpful phrases

• When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking
• Examples: Beat, load, and meet
• The sneaky e: the 'e' at the end of a word makes the vowel say its name
• Examples: Ripe, snake, or spoke

Read the "teaching phonics and blends" article above to learn more helpful phrases 

2. "I do, we do, you do" strategy

3. Focus on vocabulary by pointing out difficult words and asking for their definitions. If the child doesn't know a word, give them a friendly definition. Ask them to repeat the definition back to you to make sure they heard you.

4. Repetition! Repeat words and what they mean as often as possible!

Math Strategies

1. Use whiteboards to engage students and make learning math more fun! 

If you can get your hands on a whiteboard/whiteboard markers then you are already in a better place than where you started. Students love the idea of writing with something other than a pencil and having the ability to erase something their work quickly. 

2. Challenge student thinking through engaging questions.

Students often feel frustrated in math. I used to hear, "I can't do it," or "I don't know how," all the time. This can either be an opportunity to give them the answer (which does not help them improve) or to challenge their thinking. Ask them about what they already know or about what they were thinking about before they gave up. 

Watch this video to get a clearer idea about how to challenge student thinking in math: