Tips for Effective tutoring

1. Tips for Effective tutoring Julie Pangrac Literacy Program Coordinator Project READ Decatur, Il (217) 423-7323 jpangrac@richland.edu http://projectread.richland.edu

2. Staff The Partnership Student Tutor

3. Staff Student Tutor What does each bring to the partnership? What role does each play in the partnership?

4. Staff • Structure • Knowledge/Experience • Resources • Overall Accountability • Passion

5. Success Tutor • Love of Learning • Desire to help others • and make a difference • Knowledge/Experience

6. Hope /Desire • Knowledge/Experience Student • Shame • Fear • Feelings of Failure • Negative Messages/Attitude • Stress

7. Understandthe Hurdles • Demands of Social Service Agencies Public Aid DCFS Parole • Health • Time Management • Support System • Childcare • Transportation • Poverty • Phone Access • Home Environment

8. TOUGH Love “Because I’m your Mom. That’s why!” “If you don’t get it, TOUGH!” “TOUGH is mean.” Hold students accountable in a compassionate, caring way.

9. Walk in their shoes

11. Bust the Myths Myth: Not trying hard enough Myth: Not smart enough Reality Our students are intelligent and they are trying!

12. So what’s the problem? They lack knowledge, confidence and the ability to help themselves.

13. Our students are stuck. They need help to become independent learners. the RIGHT kind of help

14. What do we know about how the brain Learns Retains Retrieves and Communicates information? How can we use that knowledge to help students become independent learners?

15. Dendrites Neurons Axons Left and Right Hemispheres Cerebellum Cortex Hippocampus Neurotransmitters Frontal Lobes Synapse

16. “We spend lots of time preparing teachers to know the WHAT and not enough time on preparing them to know the HOW.” Tutors should learn the HOW and then share it with the students.

17. How the Brain Responds to Emotions Multisensory Instruction Questions

18. Emotions Support or inhibit learning Shame Feelings of Failure Fear Negative Messages/Attitude Stress Stop the Downward Spiral

19. CHANGE the direction of the spiral from Failure leads to Failure leads to Failure to Failure leads to Success Adopt a Failing Forward Attitude

20. The brain believes what you tell it. What are your students’ messages? “It’s too hard.” “I’ll never get it.” “I always have problems with this.” “I have never understood this.” “I’ll fail this like I did everything else.” Acknowledge“This IS difficult. It will take time.” Do NOT tell them “This is EASY.”

21. What can they say instead? “I’m going to get them all right this time.” NO! “I’m not going to miss any.” NO! “I will get all the answers I know right. And I know a lot of answers. I can miss questions and still pass. And I know enough to pass.” “I know this. How do I remember it?” “I’m going to do my best. That’s all I can do.” “I am going to learn from my mistakes and Fail Forward.”

22. Success leads to Success Student should be succeeding at every session. If they aren’t succeeding, WHY?

23. SHOW students that they are succeeding in visible, specific ways Look at Pre and Post Tests. Compare Portfolio Work over time. Review information taught in previous lessons. Share tutoring notes. Ask them how they are succeeding and making progress. Point out success as it happens.

24. COMPLIMENT in specific ways “That was good.” “You really improved.” “You had a super lesson today.” “You’re doing really great.” “You’ve learned so much!” ALWAYS be HONEST.

25. Babysitter canceled Not enough sleep headache A Bad Day? hungry Bill collectors Sick child Court appointment car troubles family issues had an argument Emotions support or inhibit learning

26. Is the student able to put information into Long-Term Storage? SENSE: “Does this make sense? 90% Do I understand it? Does it fit with what I know?” * RELEVANCE: “Does it have meaning for me? 10% Do I care? Why do I have to know this? When will I ever use this?”

27. To learn and remember, make BRAIN CONNECTIONS.

28. What Works? Multisensory Instruction Use as many senses as you can at the same time to get the most repetitions in the least amount of time Multisensory Instruction gets the most repetitions at ONE time.

29. How? SEE it WRITE it SAY it MOVE it HEAR it TOUCH it

30. Why? Repetition makes connections Repetition makes connections Repetition makes connections Repetition makes connections Repetition makes connections Repetition makes connections

31. Isn’t all that repetition BORING? YES and NO Yes if you know it don’t care don’t understand No if you are learning new information and experiencing success find it relevant understand it

32. and PLAN Know the GOAL Stay on the path. Don’t take side trails.

33. We Learn and Remember After a Month: 14 ____ % of what we hear 22 ____ % of what we see 30 ____ % of what we watch others demonstrate 42 ____ % of what we are exposed to through seeing, hearing, and doing in a regular, consistent, repeated fashion Sensory Redundancy 72 ____ % of what is linked to remembered or imagined life experiences Movies of the Mind 83 ____ % of what we perform as a challenging activity or action that applies to new learning 92 ____ % of what we teach others http://neurons.wordpress.com/2007/06/09/an-elephant-never-forgets/

34. Learners need to become teachers

35. “Show me.” “Explain it to me.” “Teach me.” Who else can they teach? Learners need to becometeachers.

36. Who holds the pencil? Who does the most talking?

37. The one who does the work is the one who learns. Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand. Chinese Proverb

38. How are you going to remember? LOTS of repetition OR Use a shortcut to long term memory storage. CONNECT what you want to remember ante 7 x 7 • to something you already know • to something you make up that is unique or unusual ab ad HOMES the boot

39. Take time to know “How am I going to remember?” When you are stuck, ask yourself “How do I remember this?”

40. Don’t overload the brain SHORTER is BETTER LESS is MORE Master ONE new fact or bit of information at a time.

41. Learn 1 fact After you learn the first fact, then learn the 2nd fact Nowmix1and2 Now learn the 3rd fact Now mix1 and 2 and 3 Now you can go on to learn the 4th fact Then mix123 and 4 121 and 231 and 2 and 341 and 2 and 3 and 45

42. Master more by CHUNKING Hte plpae si edr LSDN BCT VF BIU SA The brain can hold 3 to 7 new chunks.

43. Remember What Works Multisensory Instruction Use as many senses as you can at the same time to get the most repetitions in the least amount of time

44. How? SEE it WRITE it SAY it MOVE it HEAR it TOUCH it

45. Tutors tend to teach in their preferred learning style. Result? May not work at all if it is not the learner’s preferred style Will take more repetition and time than multisensory Very powerful learning tools for most of our students? MOVEMENT and TOUCH Tutors MUST incorporate Multisensory Instruction into their teaching style.

46. Let’s Practice or Rehearse Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

47. Do you have buy-in or relevance? Why do I need to know this? What is a Maslow? What is a Hierarchy? What are you learning? Learn ONE bit of information at a time. Does it make sense? I get it. How are you going to remember? Connect it to something I know. Learn with Multisensory Instruction.

48. Learn one fact at a time. Mix. Keep adding information. Take a break. When you come back, what do you remember? What do you need to reteach or review? Have you mastered it? Are you on Automatic?

49. Questions allow you to see what and how your student is thinking Not only Who?What?Where?When? and WHY? More importantly How?

50. ? ? ? ? Ask WHY ? ? ? ? ? ? Prove it to me. Teach me. Show me. • Quarter after 4 • Is Marilyn Monroe gorgeous? • 8,136 35, 618 • How would you use the piece of canvas?