As Peer Tutors, we are writing for other Peer Tutors. Our advice presented here is to help you as a Tutor to draw out what the Student already knows, build on that knowledge, help make connections, and create a foundation for new topics.
We know that students may come to the tutoring session in an emotional state: frustrated, angry, perplexed, wanting to blame someone for their poor performance…or questioning, puzzled, and in some cases, even excited about learning what isn’t yet understood. By conversing with the Student you set the stage for a dialogue where you engage the Student.
We have presented our Guidelines as short paragraphs, sample conversations, and illustrations because we know that reading advice is not often useful. While we were tutors we wrote weekly journals that were shared that made us think about what we were doing. We also had weekly meetings where we discussed various topics. This made us more aware of the process of tutoring.
There is a lot more we could share with you. We also are sharing our experiences based on only virtual tutoring sessions because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope that you will be able to choose whether to tutor in person or remotely or both. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.
Students who came to tutoring often did so before or after a test and then didn’t show up again. But there was the occasional student who came to tutoring sessions regularly. By having a student seek your help on a recurring basis, you can enhance the tutoring experience to work through goals for the semester, elevating the tutoring experience to be another kind of peer mentor or coach.
To sum up our advice:
- Learn your Student’s name, how to say it and how to spell it
- Listen more than you speak
- Ask questions
- Applaud the Student’s effort to learn.
