Being a tutor involves a lot of dynamic thinking. You should
learn to get the students’ attentions and provide them with information that is
not difficult to grasp. Basically, you should provide them with easy methods
that are both interesting and informative. This can be quite tough if you teach
subjects that normally require much concentration; however, here are eight
interesting instructional strategies you could use when you tutor.
Realization Sessions
Most students will be wondering about the importance of a
certain subject. They may feel that Algebra may be a pain and won’t bother
paying attention because of this assumption, for instance. Focus on redirecting
their thoughts and cite examples where the subjects can be put to use in
everyday activities. This will help students relate to the subject matter a
whole lot better.
Emotional Connections
If a subject makes people sad, show it instead of tell them.
For instance, history topics tend to arouse emotions a lot, so try and connect
with your students so they can feel the pain of the victims of World War II or
perhaps the success of the Great Roman Empire. Take note of language use and
emotional responses; people tend to retain information that has a certain
emotional tinge to it because they can recall the ideas when they think of the
emotion, so work with that.
Interactive
Discussion
Engage your students by allowing them to share their ideas.
Start with open-ender questions that will motivate your students to think. No
matter how farfetched their ideas are, try to channel them so that your
students are not intimidated. Interactive discussions are very good ways of
improving self-confidence.
Practice and
Repetition
Sometimes, an exercise in repetition is vital for allowing
students to learn the subject material even better. Show them fun mnemonics to
learn for the natural sciences or some techniques in solving math problems so
that students can understand these concepts and equations with ease. Give them
fun examples to try out so that they can enjoy solving.
Game Association
Relate the subject material through a game; this involves a
lot of learning and team work. People enjoy playing games because of the fun
element. If you channel in your tutoring scheme with this, you can easily tap
into the learning centers of the students.
Reinforced Learning
Instead of focusing on one subject matter, show students the
connection with other important topics. For instance, instead of focusing on
just History, show how this subject affects Economics and even Geography, two
other subject matters. This will widen the students’ scope of learning.
Skills Assessment
Assess your students’ skills by giving out tests. Then, help
them improve. This cycle allows you to gage the level of learning your students
achieved. Afterwards, you may adjust your teaching strategies to meet the level
of learning at hand.
Positive Conditioning
Whenever a student answers a question correctly or scores a
high score in a test, reward him or her. This motivates the student to perform
well during the tutorial sessions. Positive conditioning also increases
learning potential because of the desire to achieve success based on the
initial reward. Students will be more prompted to be more active in the
learning process.
Tutoring is fun, particularly if your students enjoy the
sessions. Be creative in administering the instructional strategies to ensure
effective learning and development during your tutoring sessions.
