Coordinating an Agenda
Coordinating an Agenda for a typical tutoring session should involve, a beginning, middle and ending. Moreover, a close eye should be kept monitoring your sessions progress, while leaving room for a final summary of your tutoring session. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind to help coordinate an agenda for your tutoring sessions.
Plan Your Session
To begin your session, first listen to the tutee express himself/herself about their problems in math. Things they will talk about may sound like an issue with: homework, past test, upcoming test, study skills, and/or time management. So just keep your ears open to see what their issue they are truly having with their subject.
Next, start planning your agenda. Ask the student if their is anything they would like to accomplish during their session. Make a list of these things and then ask the student where would they like to begin.
Allowing the student to feel in control (and a part of) the tutoring session will make them feel in control of the situation and this is what we want; otherwise they would feel inferior.
Persist and Follow Through
Creating a checklist to go through while you are tutoring can be wise. This will help you manage the allotted time to possibly go over all the concepts the student would like to go over. However, this will usually not be the case. While you would like the student to dictate the pace of the session, be prepared to alter your agenda if necessary. If you need to make a change in the agenda, make sure you let the student know. For example, if you see that you may need to go over study-skills because you see that the student is lacking this skill, inform him or her that you would like to go over this concept along with all the other before mentioned concepts. This of course, may then take away time to go over some concepts, however, the student will understand if time doesn't permit to go over all the concepts.
Be patient! Be adaptable! Although it would be nice, at times, you won't be able to complete every task on your agenda. This may be frustrating to the student, however, don't let it frustrate you. This usually happens because it took a lot more time to go over a particular concept than anticipated. Therefore, you should update the student frequently (every 15 minutes), on the progress that has been made, and what to expect from the rest of their session, because this might have changed since you first began your session with them.
Overall, keep a positive attitude throughout your whole tutoring session. Frequently, give positive feedbacks and positive reinforcements. In the long run, this is more effective than negative feedbacks, or negative reinforcements. Instead of saying, "this problem is wrong", think about saying, "steps 1, 2, and 3 are correct, however, we just need to reinforce the last step, and then I you'll have everything right". It's a whole lot more encouraging (and sounds more promising and hopeful) for the student to hear feedback in this manner.
Sum Up the Overall Tutoring Session
Before you should end your session (about 5 minutes) you should give a summary of what your tutoring session entailed. This will give the tutee the sense of accomplishment that they always search for.
A typical overview of a tutoring session may entail:
- Student filling out your Tutor Evaluation sheets.
- Tutor filling out the Student Log Sheets in the students file.
- Ask the tutee to verbally summarize their accomplishments made during the session.
- Re-iterate any concepts or main points that the tutee may have left out.
- If the tutee is not registered to make an appointment, get them to fill out a registration card so they can make appointments with you in the
future.
- Give the student positive reinforcement and positive feedback to reinforce key points they need to focus on when they work by themselves.
- Encourage the student to practice the skills they just learned.
- Thank the tutee for using the tutoring service.
Did You Have Enough Time?
There is not enough time to go over all of the students question and concerns in one hour. Therefore, there are some guidelines you should follow to manage the time spent with your student.
- Always inform the student how long their session will last.
- Always inform the student what time your shift ends.
- Always inform the student of the amount of time left during their session every 15 minutes.
- Always prioritize your time properly with the student.
- Don't start anything that you can not finish. If there isn't enough time to go over a particular concept with a student, don't begin helping with
the problem until you have discussed your time limitations with the student.
Overall, just be considerate and inform the tutees of the amount of time you are able to work with them. This will erase any wrong assumptions about the amount of time you are going to spend with the student. If you don't have enough time, always refer them to additional resources available to them.
Back - Next: Techniques in Tutoring
Plan Your Session
To begin your session, first listen to the tutee express himself/herself about their problems in math. Things they will talk about may sound like an issue with: homework, past test, upcoming test, study skills, and/or time management. So just keep your ears open to see what their issue they are truly having with their subject.
Next, start planning your agenda. Ask the student if their is anything they would like to accomplish during their session. Make a list of these things and then ask the student where would they like to begin.
Allowing the student to feel in control (and a part of) the tutoring session will make them feel in control of the situation and this is what we want; otherwise they would feel inferior.
Persist and Follow Through
Creating a checklist to go through while you are tutoring can be wise. This will help you manage the allotted time to possibly go over all the concepts the student would like to go over. However, this will usually not be the case. While you would like the student to dictate the pace of the session, be prepared to alter your agenda if necessary. If you need to make a change in the agenda, make sure you let the student know. For example, if you see that you may need to go over study-skills because you see that the student is lacking this skill, inform him or her that you would like to go over this concept along with all the other before mentioned concepts. This of course, may then take away time to go over some concepts, however, the student will understand if time doesn't permit to go over all the concepts.
Be patient! Be adaptable! Although it would be nice, at times, you won't be able to complete every task on your agenda. This may be frustrating to the student, however, don't let it frustrate you. This usually happens because it took a lot more time to go over a particular concept than anticipated. Therefore, you should update the student frequently (every 15 minutes), on the progress that has been made, and what to expect from the rest of their session, because this might have changed since you first began your session with them.
Overall, keep a positive attitude throughout your whole tutoring session. Frequently, give positive feedbacks and positive reinforcements. In the long run, this is more effective than negative feedbacks, or negative reinforcements. Instead of saying, "this problem is wrong", think about saying, "steps 1, 2, and 3 are correct, however, we just need to reinforce the last step, and then I you'll have everything right". It's a whole lot more encouraging (and sounds more promising and hopeful) for the student to hear feedback in this manner.
Sum Up the Overall Tutoring Session
Before you should end your session (about 5 minutes) you should give a summary of what your tutoring session entailed. This will give the tutee the sense of accomplishment that they always search for.
A typical overview of a tutoring session may entail:
- Student filling out your Tutor Evaluation sheets.
- Tutor filling out the Student Log Sheets in the students file.
- Ask the tutee to verbally summarize their accomplishments made during the session.
- Re-iterate any concepts or main points that the tutee may have left out.
- If the tutee is not registered to make an appointment, get them to fill out a registration card so they can make appointments with you in the
future.
- Give the student positive reinforcement and positive feedback to reinforce key points they need to focus on when they work by themselves.
- Encourage the student to practice the skills they just learned.
- Thank the tutee for using the tutoring service.
Did You Have Enough Time?
There is not enough time to go over all of the students question and concerns in one hour. Therefore, there are some guidelines you should follow to manage the time spent with your student.
- Always inform the student how long their session will last.
- Always inform the student what time your shift ends.
- Always inform the student of the amount of time left during their session every 15 minutes.
- Always prioritize your time properly with the student.
- Don't start anything that you can not finish. If there isn't enough time to go over a particular concept with a student, don't begin helping with
the problem until you have discussed your time limitations with the student.
Overall, just be considerate and inform the tutees of the amount of time you are able to work with them. This will erase any wrong assumptions about the amount of time you are going to spend with the student. If you don't have enough time, always refer them to additional resources available to them.
Back - Next: Techniques in Tutoring