1-to-1 lessons

How do you tailor lessons to meet the needs of my child?

tutoring
August 05, 2024•3 min read

How do you tailor your tutoring approach to suit individual students?

 

I look at my brother and I, we are both very different. My brother is a genius and has always found retaining information relatively easy. I work hard and get there in the end. I look at my three children and they again are all uniquely different. They are all inspired by different things, have different ways of learning, have different goals and aspirations.

So, out of 5 people who have a very similar background, yet are all very different, how can we expect to embrace a bigger range of people with those that we work with and expect them all to want to learn the same thing, at the same time, at the same pace, in the same way.

Yet this is what many educators do. They generate a 1-style-suits-all program of education.

 

tailoring the lesson to suit the child

20 years ago, when I started learning about different learning styles one of the key things I learned was that if we provide our children with one form, one resource to learn we will help them to create one memory.

If we, for example, give them a second worksheet to do, we are helping them to strengthen that memory. However, their brain still only has one place to go to where they will find that piece of information.

However, if we provide them with a range of resources, we will help them to create multiple different memories making it easier to recall the information when needed.

So, at the beginning of each lesson, we will provide the child/student with a range of resources. It might be a code breaker, a formal worksheet, 2 or 3 games to choose from all focused upon the learning objective for that lesson.

The child can then choose the one that they feel will be most relevant to them.

Often over a series of lessons a pattern becomes clear as to what their preferred choices are. Some children will always choose games, others will never choose a game. Most will choose a range of resources.

This is their time, and the choice is theirs to make.

Through observations as we work, we can determine whether the work is too easy, or too hard. If they appear to be struggling, do we need to phrase the method differently. I think something we often need to reflect to our school days and think about how often it wasn’t the task that was necessarily difficult but the way it was explained that made little sense to us.

Is it our fault for not understanding, or the fault of the person who is supposed to be helping us to understand it for not explaining it in a way that makes sense to us?

By working with these observations, conversations with the child, and parents, when necessary, we can work to meet the needs of the individual child helping them to understand and retain the information that is needed to both get through the curriculum but also to pass any necessary exams.

If you have any questions about tutoring, please do send me an email to: info@clarajamestutoring.co.uk

If you are interested in joining us as a Clara James Franchisee, click here

 

 

tutoring1-to-1 tutoringtailored tutoringindividualised tutoringdifferent learning needs
For the past 20+ years I have been a firm believer that learning should be an enjoyable experience. I appreciate that traditionally education has revolved around worksheets, textbooks, listening to teachers. But a grounding in early years and working with children who had a variety of learning styles from I learned that it is an individual activity that is personal to all of us. We don’t all learn in the same way. Our influences, our experiences, our capabilities all influence how we retain information. But through it all, I believe that if we can make it enjoyable and engaging, they will want to participate. With participation comes practice which in turn boosts skill and confidence. With an increase in skill and confidence comes a willingness to have a go. This in turn leads to more practice which leads to a positive spiral of success. The moral, we need to make learning fun, engaging, use a range of techniques.

Dawn Strachan

For the past 20+ years I have been a firm believer that learning should be an enjoyable experience. I appreciate that traditionally education has revolved around worksheets, textbooks, listening to teachers. But a grounding in early years and working with children who had a variety of learning styles from I learned that it is an individual activity that is personal to all of us. We don’t all learn in the same way. Our influences, our experiences, our capabilities all influence how we retain information. But through it all, I believe that if we can make it enjoyable and engaging, they will want to participate. With participation comes practice which in turn boosts skill and confidence. With an increase in skill and confidence comes a willingness to have a go. This in turn leads to more practice which leads to a positive spiral of success. The moral, we need to make learning fun, engaging, use a range of techniques.

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