Tutoring help!?

I used to tutor an 8 yr old boy in Maths and English, and sometimes he wasn’t too keen! I used to use a timetable which I showed him at the beginning of every session – a laminated piece of paper with small pictures blu-tacked on i.e. reading, writing, comprehension, maths, etc. This showed him what we were doing that day, and he could look at it to see how many more things to do, or whatever. I know you’re only tutoring maths, but you could decide what specifically you’re going to do during a session and use pictures for them. For example – mental maths game, times table practice, division game, writing answers to word problems. You could use an arrow to point on the board to which one you’re at, this will help your student to know the session will not be everlasting!

I also tried to listen to what my student was telling me, and incorporate his interests into our lessons. I learned pretty quickly that he was a big fan of Dr Who! So I made some games and activities that were kind of about Dr Who, but really focused on what skill I wanted him to learn! He was always really enthusiastic to play these. It also helped, because I let him borrow a game most weeks, but of course I could have not let him if he wasn’t behaving!

Your student needs to know the boundaries for her behaviour. She doesn’t really know you, and will push you to see how much she can get away with doing, or not doing! Think about agreeing ground rules with her, such as listening when each other is speaking, not leaving the desk or whatever without asking or being asked, always trying your best, that sort of thing. If she has a say in them she will be more likely to stick with them, and also if they have been discussed she will understand the reasons she can’t do certain things. Once they have been agreed, write a contract and both of you sign it. Then any time she acts up you can remind her of her agreement.

In general, I would say most kids are glad of one to one attention. She doesn’t really know you yet, but the more she sees you the more she will calm down and get on with what you ask her to do. Also, some kids think they have to save face by pretending they don’t want a tutor, so their friends don’t think they’re a goody two shoes or whatever. My student sometimes moaned a bit, but actually he rarely wanted me to leave!

Remember it is her summer vacation, and she will be aware that a lot of her friends will be being allowed to do whatever they want while she has to study. Try to make activities fun wherever possible. Don’t make any one activity last too long unless she is really enjoying it – little and often is often the key. If possible go outside and do activities in the sunshine. Maybe ask her mum if you can take her out somewhere – using money in real life situations, calculating totals and change etc is great at developing mental maths strategies. Perhaps you could save a trip to somewhere she wants to go as a reward at the end of the summer for weeks of working hard for you?

Hope you get on okay, and that you enjoy your tutoring!

I would make the problems about something she likes. If it’s fractions, how much of the pie does each kid get. If it’s algebra, if the teacher gets 2 cookies for every cookie the kid gets, etc. Or if she is into dogs or pets, just make the examples things she can relate to – or how many minutes are left in your math lesson if we are 1/2 done?

Assume the best and attack the situation running and see where her mind is before you think of making special plans. If it turns out that she is hyper then the challenge becomes one of focus. Make everything interactive for a while and see if she picks it up faster or slower. If it is faster start everything that way. If it is slower then test her and see if she responds better to challenge than to support.

Math games are fun, try it out. Math Blaster is a really good one.

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