How to Be An Effective Peer Tutor
One-on-one tutoring is proven to be an extremely effective way for students to accelerate in their academics and gain confidence, and one of the best ways for schools to provide the opportunity for everyone is to offer peer tutoring options, either with small groups or one-on-one.
In the past, we have worked with schools to provide peer tutoring workshops for students aiming to become peer tutors and provide tutoring for fellow students. Our workshops teach kids the basics of how to be an effective peer tutor. In the following post, we want to share what we provide in these workshops for any group considering starting a peer tutoring program.
Want to learn more? Please contact us.
Tutors help students build confidence.
Tutoring Basics
Effective tutors set good examples for students when it comes to being responsible and coming prepared to sessions. That’s why it’s important for every tutor to start with nailing the basics, namely:
Arrive early to the tutoring session
Arrive prepared
Have a plan, but be flexible
Assess where the student is at currently by probing with questions and checking for understanding
Encourage spaced practice and retrieval practice
Stay patient, consistent, and positive
Be a role model!
Make the student do the work.
Follow-up
We’ll get into a bit more detail about what each of these means further into the post.
Preparations and Tutoring Session Agendas
Although tutors support students generally with existing school work, it’s important they come prepared to sessions with an agenda and, ideally, a goal. Here’s a basic session agenda scaffolding:
Personal check-in/warm-up
Organize & prioritize
General tutoring
Check for understanding/recap/debrief
Calendaring/scheduling for next session
Tutors may want to bring workbooks or other enrichment activities in case their student doesn’t have specific school work to do but could use the time to brush up on skills. It always helps to have backup content as needed. Tutors should also come to sessions prepared with a notebook (or laptop), writing utensils, and paper.
Tutoring requires a range of overlapping skills, including academic, teaching, and people skills.
Helping Students Get Motivated
A good tutor will move students toward a place of not only feeling confident about their ability to learn, but also feeling engaged in what they’re learning and motivated to learn. Here are some tips for how tutors can help students feel authentically interested, cared for, and successful:
Make learning relevant
Build your relationship
Give specific, positive feedback
Break down big tasks & establish realistic goals
Have students do the work
Helping Students Get Focused
Tutors often spend a portion of their sessions helping students optimize their study time by focusing on what needs to get done. In order to help students get focused, tutors should try to:
Identify and remove physical and mental distractors
Take breaks and block focus times into 5-10 minute chunks
Agree on session goals
Be physically present (if in person) sitting beside the student, saying their name, using eye contact
Keep the student working and provide encouragement
Supporting Self-Advocacy
The number one most important rule for tutors to keep in mind is allowing the student to “hold the pencil” for as much of the session time as possible. There may be some “I do, we do, you do” exercises peppered into the session. But for the most part, the tutors should only be facilitating what the students are able to do on their own.
Supporting self-advocacy also means helping students be proactive in communicating with teachers, and instead of doing that work for them, help them draft emails (but have the student send the email) until the student gets more comfortable with doing the communications work independently.
Ethics
Tutors can be extremely effective at helping students build confidence and become more successful in school. However, it’s important tutors take their roles seriously and follow ethical guidelines. Here is a clear Code of Ethics tutors should follow courtesy of the National Tutoring Association (NTA):
I understand my role as a tutor is to guide students’ to do their own work using the best learning approach possible.
I will provide honest feedback in the form of positive praise and/or constructive suggestions to students I serve in a manner beneficial to their overall learning.
I will demonstrate faith in each student's learning abilities understanding my primary goal is helping them discover and develop skills needed to reach their desired educational outcomes.
I understand my relationship to each student I tutor is professional and not personal.
I will respect and be sensitive to students’ cultural background and personal value system; keeping in mind their personal dignity.
I recognize I will not have answers to every question asked. Therefore, I will seek assistance in finding answers to the student's questions and/or directing the student to “how” and “where” appropriate resources are for the information needed.
I will maintain accurate records of tutoring sessions to fulfill expectations & requirements which exemplify excellence in tutoring.
I will respect each student's personal dignity at all times.
I will be on time for tutoring all appointments understanding excellence does not compromise time nor make excuses.
I will keep information about all students I work with confidential.
I understand the ultimate goal is to assist students in discovering how he/she best learns. I will accomplish this by helping each student develop the skills needed to achieve their best educational outcome.
I will share any concerns I have with my supervisor.
I recognize the win-win relationship tutoring fosters. I expect to learn along with each student I assist.
I will keep current in both my subject area(s) and learning methodologies.
I will remain flexible to my approach to student learning, respectful of the various learning styles and preferences.
I will share techniques for improving study skills with students; respecting their differing learning styles and preferences while exhibiting excellence in my approach to the content being tutored.
Want to learn more about our tutors? Reach out to us at info@tutorcorps.com.