Session planning

It is important to provide some structure to your tutoring sessions. If you are working with more than one student, you may work with your students individually or you may work together as a group.

How you work together will depend upon the learning needs of your students and homework they bring. If you have more than one student, it is preferable that your students are approximately the same age and have similar learning needs.

Here are some planning tips for your meetings:

• Choose a place that is comfortable. Avoid loud places or distracting situations.
• Discuss what you will do together each time you meet. Draw up a plan together for the session.
• Dive in! Vary your activities. Every time you work together, spend part of the time doing homework, reading aloud together or working on a project. Make sure your students read and write something during every session.
• Leave some time to talk with your students about what you have read together. This discussion is essential for developing comprehension abilities.
• If you are working with more than one student, you may decide to play a word game or lead a group learning activity near the end of the session.
• At the end of each session, decide together what you will do during your next meeting. This will help you to get the most out of the time that you work together.

It is important for you to bring reading and other learning materials to your tutoring sessions. Over time, you will see how much you need to bring as your students may bring lots to work on or they may arrive without any homework.

Here is an example of how to structure a 45‐minute session with a grade two student:

5 minustes - Talk about how each of you have spent the week since you last met. Look at the books and activities you will be working on today

10 minutes - Read a familiar story book together

10 minutes - Study some of the difficult words in the book. Play some word games using these words.

5 minutes - Write about how the story could be continued

10 minutes - Read a new story book together

5 minutes - Talk about what books your students will read over the week. Discuss what you may read together the following week.