VoRTCS - Volunteer Refugee Tutoring & Community Support Program - How should we structure our tutoring sessions?

How should we structure our tutoring sessions?

It is up to you how you structure your tutoring sessions, and this may depend on the makeup and needs of your family. Each session will last for a minimum of one hour, though you are welcome to stay longer to assist your family if that is convenient for the family.

If is generally a good idea to make time for some basic conversation at the start of each session, to ask the family how their week was, find out any important information and get a guide as to whether you need to focus on anything in particular this session. It is also a great way to practise conversation skills.

Where possible, we recommend that you include the following activities in your session:

A ‘warmer’ activity at the beginning of a session
Conversation practice – this could be as simple as chatting about what you both did that week – anything that gets your students both listening to and speaking English.
Reading practice – both having your student read to you, and reading to them if they are a beginner reader
Writing practice – some tutors get their students to keep a journal and write in it each session. Your student may also get writing practice from completing worksheets or other activities.
A game or other activity to finish your session – and don’t forget to tell your student how great they did!

Use varying activities
Your sessions should not involve you having your student complete 15 worksheets each week. This will quickly get boring for the student, and tutoring will become a chore rather than something that they look forward to. If you are working with children, remember that their attention span is roughly twice their age – so if they are nine years old, they are likely to be concentrating on what you are doing for about 18 minutes. Don’t expect too much from your students! It is much better to vary activities and keep your student (and yourself) interested and having fun.

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