Hi everyone. I’m coming back from a nice vacation in Sedona, Arizona. It was gorgeous weather and so relaxing. I’m not quite ready to be back in the real world yet.
A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from a reader (does that make me sound like a big time blogger? haha- what if it’s the only e-mail I’ve received 
) asking me about tips for her first day of tutoring a new child. I thought this was a really good question and could help others, so here are my tips:
1. Try to find out about some interests of the child beforehand. Let’s say the kid loves soccer, incorporate soccer clip art into the game you are playing, or better yet, find a book about soccer to read that day.
2. Even if you get a general sense of where the child is from his/her parents, it’s best to bring a variety of things at different levels. You don’t want to frustrate a child. It’s okay if things are a little easy the first day, but you’ll get a better sense of where a child is if you challenge him/her a little bit.
3. Stay simple as far as materials are concerned for day one. You don’t want to be fumbling around looking for things or you may lose the child’s interest.
4. Make sure you play at least one game, if not two. Also, try to let the child win. Normally I am not an advocate of letting kids win, but on the first day of tutoring it’s a must. I always make a big show of TRYING to win and dramatize my terrible loss. The kids love this.
5. Take LOTS of movement breaks if necessary. It’s hard for kids to focus for a whole hour.
The following is my typical tutoring structure for Day 1. The times are just estimated, sometimes I get to everything and sometimes I do not.
Minutes 0-15: Quick introduction, followed by a Game. A good beginning game is either letter/sound bingo or sight word bingo (depending on the age and skill level of the child). I have games posted in this post and in the Games tab at the top of the blog. I strive for this game to be easy for the child so I don’t risk frustrating them this early. Of course, they win this game. (Tip: In order to win at Bingo, make sure that one of the letters or words that you have is on the bottom of the stack. Then insist that you and the child pick up the cards in order.) Have a sheet of paper out so you can make notes of any letters or words the child has difficulty with.
Take a movement break if necessary. You can also switch Bingo boards and play the game again if it seems to be at a good level for the child.
Minutes 15-30: Have the child read you a book. Again, it’s best to bring several books in case you estimate the level wrong and I often let the child choose the book. If a pick a “too-easy” book, I usually just say something like “oh wow this book is TOO easy for you, let’s try another one.” On the other hand, if I pick a “too-hard” book, I’ll just say, “okay let’s read one more page of this book and then try a different one.” Or, I’ll just have the child read every other page and I’ll read the alternating pages. I always ask the child a few comprehension questions after just to get a sense for that. If you like to do DRA or the Fountas and Pinnell assessments, now would be a good time to do that.
Minutes 30-45: Try some writing! You can either use a notebook or a white board. I start by dictating a few sounds, “what says /sh/?” or “what says /e/?” They, write the corresponding letter. Next, I move on to words. I use the Orton Gillingham method for spelling, so I turn it into a game. I think of a word I want the child to spell and I “throw” it to them. They get to run across the room and pretend to catch it. As they walk back, they count and say each sound as they raise a finger. Then, they touch each finger and say the letters that corresponds with that sound. Finally, they write it on the whiteboard/notebook. If they still have any attention span left, I’ll give a sentence or two so I can see how they are doing with leaving spaces between words, starting with a capital, punctuation etc.
Minutes 45-60: End the session with another game. This game would depend on the age of the child and/or what the parent wants me to do with them. Sometimes I work with kids on math too, so the final game would be a math game, probably fact memory or Go Fish. If there is no math involved, I’d either play a word game or phonemic awareness etc. There are lots of great games on the Florida Reading Research site. Another idea if you don’t have a lot of time is to play some of the Heidi Sight Word Songs. Kids love these and they are great for all kids but especially struggling learners. You have to take into consideration where you are tutoring but you could use an ipod with headphones to play with directly into the child’s ears.
I hope this is helpful to anyone who is tutoring children either at school or outside of school. Let me know if you have any questions.
If you tutor, what do you usually do in the first session?
I’m all about the games! (That was a really good tip) It’s all about tricking them into learning
. I would also add to keep things fast paced – so come prepared!!
I have a sheet that I got in some class in college about a get to know you survey, so I always do that as a get to know you with the kid, and tell them about myself in the process. I find out what their favorite candy/treat is and what books they like. Then I generally (depending on the age) run through basic vocab/math facts, or letters/sounds whatever is appropriate. I try to play a bingo game/go fish game, read something, write sentences, anything else to assess where they are at. I have been dealing A LOT with math with my one little guy this year. Over the summer it was all about catching him up with language related things and that has flourished during the school year but math is horrendous! The middle schooler I work with I mainly stress study skills, organizing and we are working hard on getting her to pass American History!
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These tips are great. I left teaching (after 22 yrs) 5 years ago. I have decided to tutor for some much needed money. This is my first time tutoring and am a little nervous. Your tips have given me a good starting place. Thanks.
I’m glad I could help! It’s definitely a bit scary tutoring the first time, but the good thing is- it’s only 1 kid to mess up in front of, so its much easier to recover from tutoring mess ups than classroom mess ups! It’s also harder to learn from them because kids are SO different individually. Sure, in the classroom I’ll sometimes have a lesson that worked with one class and not with next year’s group, but in tutoring I find a lesson will go awesome with one child and will often totally fail with the next. It’s okay though because you can just quickly grab the next thing and the kid will barely notice
The most important thing is to just play games and have fun. Also, you’ve probably learned this in many years of teaching but you can’t take anything personally in tutoring- most kids don’t really love it haha. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions- I have LOTS of tutoring kids this summer so I may be adding some more about tutoring at some point.
This post is seriously a life saver! I just got my first tutoring job and I start tomorrow. I have a ton of anxiety about it, since I don’t have an education background (I’m a grad student with a bachelor’s in English, tutoring a 5th grade boy with disabilities). This is a great place to start! Thanks!