5 Tips to Maximize Private Tutoring
Busy schedules and varied academic backgrounds have many parents scrambling to find short-term or long-term tutors for their kids. Have you been thinking about finding a tutor for your child? Not sure what makes a ‘good’ tutor or how to manage the tutor-family dynamic? Drawing upon my years of experience as a teacher and private tutor, I have outlined five tips to maximize private tutoring.
Tip 1: Find a Truly Qualified Tutor
I won’t say that only teachers make the best private tutors, because I know several successful tutors who have never set foot in a traditional classroom. However, there are clear advantages to having a teacher tutor your child: in-depth knowledge of academic standards and subject curriculum, experience diagnosing struggle areas, experience scaffolding lessons, and comfortability motivating or redirecting student behavior. Whether you are considering a high schooler, an undergraduate or graduate student, a teacher, or a professional tutor, here are a few things to consider when deciding if someone is qualified to tutor your child.
Expertise in academic subject(s): It is essential for a tutor to have significant achievement or expertise in whatever subject your child needs support in. A college student who barely scraped through calculus with a C+ should not be tutoring your high school senior who is failing AP Calculus. If you are looking for someone to help your child with preparing for an upcoming ACT, the tutor should be well-informed of the current ACT format and best practice study methods.
Ability to actually teach skills/content: Just because someone excels in an academic subject does not mean he/she can teach it. A good tutor needs to be able to explain complex ideas and help your child practice important skills. The tutor needs to be able to explain the ‘why’ behind concepts.
Patience: Any sensible educator knows that children don’t always understand something the first time it is explained. A tutor needs to have the ability and patience to explain concepts in different ways or try new study strategies to help your child learn. I’ve witnessed some cringe-worthy tutoring sessions where the tutor exclaims “Just do what I showed you. It’s not that complicated!” or “Why don’t you get this yet? I explained it last week!”
Professionalism: Whether virtual or in-person, tutors should arrive to sessions on time and well-prepared with all materials necessary to have a productive study session. Tutors should always speak to children in a positive and encouraging manner.
Whether you’re finding a tutor through word-of-mouth, a community board flyer, or on a service website such as Care.com, you should confirm a potential tutor's academic background and experiences. I encourage you to ask for reviews/references, conduct an interview, and schedule a trial session to observe how the tutor interacts with your child.
Tip 2: Communicate Regularly with School Teachers
If your child is struggling in a specific subject in school, meet with the teacher(s) to find out exactly why your child is struggling. Content gaps? Lack of effort? Time management? This information is crucial to you, your child, and the tutor. Write notes during your parent-teacher meeting or ask the teacher to email you specific skills/concepts that your child needs to master. Then, pass this information directly to your child’s tutor.
Some teacher(s) may be open to having ongoing communication with you and the tutor. I have had teachers include me on weekly parent emails, forward me study guides, and refer me to resources on their classroom website. Find out what forms of communication you are comfortable with as you get to know your child’s tutor and teachers.
Tip 3: Establish Clear Academic Goals for Tutoring Sessions
I’ve had parents tell me “My son has a 30% in science. I need him to get at least 80% by the end of the quarter. Can you do that?” or “My daughter has failed every time she wrote an in-class essay this semester. I want her to get an A on the next essay. Can you help?”
After requests like these, I engage parents in a discussion about setting realistic and measurable goals. If there are only three weeks before final exams and your child is failing, demanding that a tutor help your child get a B in such a short amount of time is completely unrealistic.
It is most effective to make three categories of goals.
Skills Mastery Goals: Examples of skills include long division, particular vowel/consonant sounds, incorporating more blend quotes in an essay, or simplifying variable expressions.
Content Mastery Goals: Content goals involve subject vocabulary mastery, understanding how to use geometric theorems, understanding a set of philosophical beliefs of Plato, or being able to explain the political movements that lead to Bolshevik Revolution.
Subject Grade Goal: A grade goal is just the grade you want your child to earn by the end of a term.
Again, it’s important to collaborate with your child’s teachers and tutor in establishing these goals.
Tip 4: Schedule Progress Meetings with the Tutor
Some parents pay for tutoring for months on end but have no clue what the tutor works on with their child. Just as with anything in life, neglect or lack of careful attention is not conducive to success.
Whether in-person or by phone, you should discuss academic progress with your child’s tutor at least once a month (weekly is better).
The tutor should be able to share his/her tutor session plans for the upcoming weeks and show you what your child completes during sessions.
I kept spreadsheet logs of what I covered in each tutoring session and typed plans for the upcoming sessions. Parents had access to the spreadsheet and could reference it in conversations with schoolteachers as needed. Since I scheduled most of my tutoring sessions back-to-back, I did not usually have time to chat with parents between each session. Instead, I called parents once a week to follow up on academic progress.
Remember that you’re paying a tutor to help your child’s academic growth. If your 6th grader is still failing math after tutoring three times a week for two months, you need to reevaluate the situation.
Tip 5: Be Disciplined
Whether you’ve secured a tutor to help your child close gaps or advance beyond grade-level benchmarks, it’s important to make sure your child regularly attends tutoring sessions. As a tutor, it can be frustrating to parents who repeatedly cancelled sessions due to playdates, sports, or family outings. If you agree to a regular Tuesday/Thursday 4:00pm - 4:45pm tutoring schedule, then do your best stick to it. Constantly cancelling sessions doesn’t send your child the message that academic improvement is a priority.
You Reap What You Invest
My greatest success story is about a 9th grade student whose parents asked me to tutor him in math during the 2013-2014 school year. At the time, he was failing his geometry class. The first goal was for him to improve his grade in geometry. They also gave me a second goal: to simultaneously teach their son Algebra II because they wanted him to test into a more academically rigorous high school. From January through June 2014, I provided 6 - 7 hours of one-on-one tutoring each week. The parents made sure their son was on time for each tutoring session and ensured that he completed his additional practice work between sessions. This was one of the most invested families I had ever worked with. This student ended his 9th grade year with an A- in geometry, passed his mathematics placement exam with flying colors, and secured a seat in an honors mathematics course for the upcoming school year.
Ultimately, supporting your child’s academic growth through private tutoring involves genuine teamwork: parents, schoolteachers, the tutor, and the child. If everything described in this article seems a lot of work, that’s because it is a lot of work! Successfully educating a child is no small feat. It requires a substantial investment of time and energy, but it will be worth it in the end.
Note: This article was originally posted here on LinkedIn.