The reason you have hired a tutor is probably because you or your child is struggling in a subject. So, you need to be sure that your tutor has a clear plan of action over a term of about a month or so. If your tutor is someone you have hired to help with homework and a few assignments, that is a little bit different. In essence, you have hired a study buddy, and this is a good thing. But if you are working with a tutor because you or your child needs to get caught up, there are a few things to be aware of.

First, both you and the tutor need to understand as much as possible about why the student is falling behind. Is it because they missed many days of school or lectures? Is it because they have moved around often in a short period of time? Or is it because there is a gap somewhere in their learning? Gaps in learning should be relatively easy to find with an assessment. An assessment is a test, assignment or project that has requires a set of skills to complete. A good assessment will isolate which skills are lacking so that they can be focused on and re-taught. I am sure most of you have heard of Sylvan learning. One of the things they are really good at is assessment. Even if you do not use Sylvan as your tutor, it is worth it to go and get a clear idea about which skills are mastered and which are not.

But, there are many other ways to get assessment information. Most schools send home the results of chapter tests with a letter, and often the teacher writes down what skills are lacking and need to be focused on at home. If you do not have access to this, start by asking your child’s teacher. They will know exactly what skills need work. If you are an adult, you can find out what you need with your tutor by writing down elements of tasks that are difficult for you. As a starting point for parents, the state of Florida is known for its excellent reading assessment and skill games that you can download and have your tutor use. One place to go is the Florida Center for Reading Research. http://www.fcrr.org.

If you are looking for math assessments, you can go to this site: http://www.nysedregents.org/Grade3/Mathematics. When you get there, scroll down to the end of the page and select scoring guide. This is a great resource because the test not only lists the math standard your child needs to master, but they also have real student answers and an analysis of them. You might be able to see where your child is by comparing their work to the student work samples in the document.

Second, once you and your tutor have an idea of what weaknesses need to be addressed, a plan needs to be made. The weak skills need to be taught in a reasonable order and each skill needs to be mastered before going on to the next one. This element of mastery is something that most schools are not able to focus on due to the large number of standards which need to be taught in a year and the pace at which many teachers are forced to teach. Teachers call this Drill and Kill. It means that your child or you have to do a task repeatedly over many days to get the information and skill into long-term memory. You and your tutor need to sit down and write out a clear plan for at least 4 sessions. Try to identify exactly what will be covered and what the student will be able to do at the end of the session. A good tutoring session should begin with a quick assessment, 5-7 minutes long. It should end with an assessment of the new material covered. Keep these before and after work samples. They will tell you how you or your child is doing. Read the rest of this entry »