“I thrive in structure. I drown in chaos.” -Anna Kendrick

Whether students want to admit it or not, academic structure from teachers is essential in the classroom or when undergoing private lessons. While "chill teachers" are cool, after a while of things were too lax and left without preparation, students would suffer and this would lead to more problems than solutions.

Academic instructors need to strike a balance between structure and fun to make classes beneficial for all.

So, how can tutors structure their lessons and ensure that students are getting the best private tuition possible? Let's find out in today's blog post.

Want to give private lessons?

Join the Superprof community and share your knowledge with interested and motivated students.

Create an advert

How Can Tutors Structure Their Private Lessons?

While there are many ways to skin a cat, when it comes to structuring your private tutoring lessons with your university or primary-level students, we recommend that you apply the suggestions mentioned below.

Greet Your Student

greeting the student
The first step in any lesson plan should be greeting the student and making brief introductions. (Source: Unsplash)

Whether it's your first class together or you've been having lessons for a while with the same student, there is one thing at the beginning of class that is more important than anything else. What's that? The greeting. Saying hello, establishing eye contact, and being friendly go a long way.

The greeting is always at the beginning and it establishes a common bond between the tutor and the pupil. After you've said hello, you could ask the student about their day or week and whether they had any learning difficulties that they would like to have addressed.

For first-time students, the greeting establishes the tone of the entire lesson which is crucial for garnering return students.

Outline Goals for the Session

checklist of goals
Students and tutors need to know what will be included in their lesson. (Source: Unsplash)

As a tutor, before the lesson, you'll want to draft a written outline of how you plan on structuring your time with your student and what learning goals you'd like to accomplish.

After the introduction/greeting is the perfect time to give the student a summary of what you'd like to cover. It's important to stick with what you've established from the get-go so that both the student and the tutor are kept organised. Nonetheless, don’t be afraid about diverging from the plan if you find that you need to spend extra time on a topic; you are there to help after all and diversions are essential to the learning process.

Presentation and Discussion of Topics

After the outline and plan have been related to the pupil, you'll need to take time to explain the topic methodically. Start with the basics and build up to the crescendo of what needs to be learned. Educators tend to call this scaffolding. Keep your lesson plan well-structured and adequately timed so that you don't spend too long on unimportant subjects or diversions.

In addition to teaching the core material, try and provide examples of how it is used in the real world. For instance, when offering maths remediation, you might show your student how fractions are of use in practical life.

It's important to remember that during the middle or the meat of your lesson you aren’t listening too long to your voice. Students need to take an active role so that they can receive feedback as to whether or not they are understanding what you are explaining. Making the tutorial session interactive also ensures that your student stays focused and interested throughout the session.

Try incorporating games, role plays, mindmaps, videos, podcasts, and listening exercises which will put your student’s knowledge to the test.

Leave time for questions after each key concept so that the student doesn't feel that they have to assimilate the information too quickly.

An Impactful Conclusion

strong conclusion
Tutors need to have a strong conclusion that summarises the main points discussed, outlines homework, and addresses what will be covered next. (Source: Unsplash)

While every section or part of the lesson plan is essential, the conclusion is as important as the greeting since it leaves the student with what they will be encountering in the next session. For example, it's a great time to pique their curiosity and intrigue by telling them that you have a special challenge in store for them. Most students will be excited by the prospect of a new game or puzzle.

Also, you can take advantage of the last few minutes by referring the student to interesting websites that will provide practice tests and/or games that will enable them to reinforce their understanding of the concepts learned during the tutoring session.

Another essential point to consider in the conclusion is reviewing the main points discussed and the difficulties encountered by the student.

What Makes a Good Tutoring Session?

Even though the structure of a tutoring session is of prime importance, there are other aspects that every tutor must consider to ensure that lessons are viewed as engaging and succesful by the student. Such as?

Firstly, academic instructors need to remember to be flexible at all times with each student. How's that? Well, for instance, if you notice that your student is particularly tired or mentally drained on a given day, don’t be afraid to veer from previously laid plans and put the focus on fun learning games that are as educational as a formal lesson.

If you're tutoring a student in a foreign language and notice that your student is having a difficult day, dump the textbooks and just play them a song in their target language. Explain key phrases, colloquial terms and idioms. Sometimes, the most pleasurable and effortless ways of learning can also be the most effective. So, promote flexibility and throw rigidness out the window!

Secondly, the mark of great tutors is the efforts that they put forth to see whether their students are fully understanding the topics in front of them. Promoting student comprehension needs to be addressed and teachers need to watch out for subtle signs that their students are failing to grasp important ideas. If you sense this, go over the concepts again in a different way and always try to use simple and practical examples so that your student does not feel that the concept is too esoteric or intellectually demanding.

If your student is struggling to understand the way you teach them things, it might be because you aren't teaching them according to their learning style. Adapt teaching techniques to deal with all types of learning intelligence.

In conclusion, we hope that you have found these tips useful on how to structure lessons. If you have any more you would like to share, please feel to add a comment to this blog post. Have fun lesson planning!

 

Want to give private lessons?

Join the Superprof community and share your knowledge with interested and motivated students.

Create an advert

Enjoyed this article? Leave a rating!

5.00 (3 rating(s))
Loading...

Brentyn

Avid movie-goer, reader, skier and language learner. Passionate about life, food and travelling.