Math Department
MAKING EFFECTIVE USE OF A TUTOR
In the process of learning, it is essential to identify the gaps in your learning and then work to fill those gaps. This is why making mistakes is an essential part of learning...it identifies where those gaps are! Many students choose to hire tutors to aid in this process. However, to make the best use of your money, you must make sure the tutor is properly teaching you to fill those gaps and not filling in the gaps for you. |
Here is a guideline for a tutoring session:
1. Review the previous week's assignment to identify the gaps in the previous content and to fill them in prior to starting the new material.
2. Review the new concepts from the current week. This is where it would be helpful and time-saving if students keep a notebook summarizing the main ideas of the new lessons.
Students should ask questions on concepts that they are not sure about and a tutor should be able to explain the concepts and provide additional examples.
3. Go over homework questions. Each activity is assigned homework questions from the online textbook. Prior to the arrival of the tutor, students should attempt all of the questions and check which questions are right or wrong. Students should first try to identify their errors and correct them by consulting the textbook solution guide provided in the course before consulting the tutor.
The tutor should be able to identify any errors in a student's thinking, correct them, and then test with additional questions to see if the student has acquired the skill necessary to solve that problem. Simply showing a student how to do the question is not sufficient!
4. Grade questions on the assignment simply as right or wrong. The tutor should NOT mark the full solutions on an assignment and identify where the student went wrong, as they would do on assignment questions or as a teacher would do. Any questions that are incorrect should not be corrected by the tutor.
This assumes that the student has attempted the assignment prior to the tutor's visit. A student should never complete the summative assignment in the presence of a tutor. Remember that the assessments should be attempted without any additional resources.
5. Supply extra practice questions. Instead of correcting assignment questions, the tutor should make note of the questions that are incorrect and select additional questions (from the textbook or from their own resources) to review the concepts with a student and strengthen the students ability to solve the problem. Remember that the goal is not to answer the question on the assignment, but to learn how to do that question in case it ever re-appears (such as on an exam, when the tutor is not available!)
Remember that if you cannot answer a question independently without any help on the assignment, you will not be able to do so on an exam. The goal of the tutor should be to get you to the point where you can answer the questions independently and not simply to provide you with an answer.
In addition, it is not only the assignment questions that must be reviewed. Exams will cover a wide variety of questions, many of which will not appear in the assignments. However, most types of questions on an exam will have been seen previously in examples or homework questions, so be sure to review all questions.
1. Review the previous week's assignment to identify the gaps in the previous content and to fill them in prior to starting the new material.
2. Review the new concepts from the current week. This is where it would be helpful and time-saving if students keep a notebook summarizing the main ideas of the new lessons.
Students should ask questions on concepts that they are not sure about and a tutor should be able to explain the concepts and provide additional examples.
3. Go over homework questions. Each activity is assigned homework questions from the online textbook. Prior to the arrival of the tutor, students should attempt all of the questions and check which questions are right or wrong. Students should first try to identify their errors and correct them by consulting the textbook solution guide provided in the course before consulting the tutor.
The tutor should be able to identify any errors in a student's thinking, correct them, and then test with additional questions to see if the student has acquired the skill necessary to solve that problem. Simply showing a student how to do the question is not sufficient!
4. Grade questions on the assignment simply as right or wrong. The tutor should NOT mark the full solutions on an assignment and identify where the student went wrong, as they would do on assignment questions or as a teacher would do. Any questions that are incorrect should not be corrected by the tutor.
This assumes that the student has attempted the assignment prior to the tutor's visit. A student should never complete the summative assignment in the presence of a tutor. Remember that the assessments should be attempted without any additional resources.
5. Supply extra practice questions. Instead of correcting assignment questions, the tutor should make note of the questions that are incorrect and select additional questions (from the textbook or from their own resources) to review the concepts with a student and strengthen the students ability to solve the problem. Remember that the goal is not to answer the question on the assignment, but to learn how to do that question in case it ever re-appears (such as on an exam, when the tutor is not available!)
Remember that if you cannot answer a question independently without any help on the assignment, you will not be able to do so on an exam. The goal of the tutor should be to get you to the point where you can answer the questions independently and not simply to provide you with an answer.
In addition, it is not only the assignment questions that must be reviewed. Exams will cover a wide variety of questions, many of which will not appear in the assignments. However, most types of questions on an exam will have been seen previously in examples or homework questions, so be sure to review all questions.