Helpful Pointers When Tutoring

Start with your attitude

• Believe in your learner’s ability to learn – he may not have much faith in his abilities. Involve significant people in the learner’s life, if possible, to encourage him.
• Treat your learner with respect and dignity.
• Recognize that your learner has abilities and strengths as well as a learning disability.
• Pay attention to the clues that your learner gives you when he is talking about his learning.
• Be flexible. Think “Is there a different (maybe unconventional) way to learn this that might work better?” Constantly evaluate how the lesson is going and be prepared to make changes.
• Help your student to become an active learner.

When planning

• Think ahead about what possible problems your learner could have in processing the information.
• Involve your learner in planning and evaluating.
• Adapt your work area. Remove noise and visual distractions as necessary. Provide room for movement if necessary.
• Organize material so that the important information is easily accessible to the learner. This may mean creating charts, highlighting, discussing concepts, etc.
• Use easy material first. This allows the learner to focus on practising the strategy rather than learning the content (i.e. using memorization techniques – start with something simple to memorize so that the learner becomes familiar with the strategy of memorization).

When presenting material

• Begin with a review of the previous material.
• Capitalize on the learner’s learning styles and realize that he may not be able to be very flexible in this area. Use those sense modalities to increase tutoring effectiveness.
• Instruct explicitly. A direct approach to teaching strategies is more effective than a “discovery approach.” Examples of direct approaches are providing clear expectations, stating objectives, giving specific instructions and providing numerous examples.
• Reduce the number of concepts presented in one lesson.
• Use real life examples. Strategies and skills should be taught and practised in the context of “real life” and relevant situations.
• Generalize. Help the learner see other applications of the knowledge, techniques, etc.
• Explain what strategy will be learned and why. Explain the purpose of the strategy prior to using it with the learner to clarify expectations. Make sure you teach the ‘how’ and “why” in order for the learner to get to the “what” of the material.
• Model what is to be learned and what you are thinking as you do a strategy. Provide a clear demonstration of the strategy before practising it. Think-aloud as you do it.
• Choose instructional words carefully so they match what you want to convey clearly.
• Present the material in a variety of ways. Don’t just repeat yourself.