- Get to know your students. Remember that you want to establish a friendly, comfortable environment while remaining professional. It also makes it easier to plan lessons for your student if you know his/her interests and needs.
- Don’t strive for perfection. Your student may not get everything right all the time, and you may have to go over materials more than once, but don’t let that discourage you. Your student should not be expected to be a perfect student, and you are also not expected to be a perfect tutor. Be patient, and remember to give the student time to think through questions and problems before you give them the correct answer.
- Set goals.It is very important to set goals. (“This lesson will cover X and Y” and “By next month, we want to be able to do X”). This will not only help you and your student stay focused and on task, but also give you a roadmap for your lesson plans.
- Be positive and humble. Show your enthusiasm in seeing your student achieve his/her literacy goals, and give lots of specific praise (“Great use of adjectives!”). Try not to have the attitude of “tutor is always right,” but show respect towards your student by actively listening to him/her. Paraphrasing what your student have said will show that you are listening to him/her. Admit it if you don’t know the answer to something, and plan to research together.
- Make learning interesting.Use a variety of ways to explain the material. Try to make the material more relevant to the student’s life. See if you can present things in a different perspective than how they are presented in books or other learning materials.
- Ask the right questions. Occasional “yes” and “no” questions are ok, but try to ask questions that your student can think through and explain. Turning the question back to the student can also be helpful (“What do you think about that?”).
