4 Fun Tutoring Strategies

By Tamiera Vandegrift on April 7, 2017

Tutoring students is one of the most worthwhile and educational experiences that a college student can hope to have. Even if you are not interested in entering the educational field as a full-time career, tutoring students has a ton of advantages. You will learn how to communicate with others effectively. You will learn how to enhance your leadership skills. Most importantly, you will learn to think creatively and “on your feet,” so to speak.

Not every student is created equally. Each student will come to you with different skills, needs, and struggles, so it is important to adopt a “jack of all trades” attitude. This is where thinking creatively comes into play! In order to keep students engaged and interested in your lessons, you will need to throw out your mental manual and be innovative.

Keep reading to see some fun, funky ideas to enhance your tutoring session and make learning great again!

Image via: www.pexels.com

Quizlet Games

As most students know, Quizlet is the place to go when you need to pass your exams. Quizlet offers users a free flashcard-making service where students can enter in their own terms and definitions for different classes and subjects. While this might seem like a singular effort, meaning only one person can take part, Quizlet is interactive enough for more than one member. Quizlet offers games for users to play in order to enhance their knowledge on a subject. Two of these games are called “Match” and “Gravity.”

Gravity allows your inner astronaut to break free — academically, of course! Protect your planet from the dastardly definitions by typing in the corresponding, correct term to go along with them.

Match is perfect for all of the visual learners in the world. Users can drag and drop terms and definitions onto other terms and definitions to match them up.

There is no shortage of academic fun with Quizlet!

Be Artistic

If your student is a visual learner, they will learn best from some pretty sweet visuals, wouldn’t you agree? Take a basic concept, some sheets of paper and a few pencils (colored pencils if you want to go the full mile) and get started! Explain the concept to your student and have them literally draw out their train of thought as they hear your explanation. Be sure to make it as visually interesting and eye-catching as possible in order to have maximum efficiency. Coloring is an excellent stress buster too!

Have your student sketch lists, graphs, charts, and other visual aids to help them process information for studying later on. The more colorful, the better! Colorful and interesting visual aids are more likely to strike a chord within your student’s memory so that they are more likely to remember the information in time for an exam.

Image via: www.pexels.com

Offer Rewards

There’s nothing better than some awesome rewards for your hard work, right? Trust me, your student will definitely feel and think the same way. Pick up some bagged candies and treats from your closest drug store. The smaller, the better. Think of something compact like Starburst, Skittles, or M&Ms. For every answer that a student gets correct on practice quizzes and other activities, give them a piece of candy, or more depending on how generous you may be (kidding!). The positive reinforcement will encourage the student to work harder and give their all during the session.

Alternatively, you can choose to give them these fun rewards for something much larger: improved grades. When your student comes back to you with higher test scores, reward them with some fun prizes. Buy them lunch. Take them somewhere fun and interesting for your next tutoring session. Make their learning experience more than just something about school. Make it enjoyable and memorable. You will definitely have more fun with this method too.

Play Teacher

I had a college algebra professor that had a very unique method of teaching me the concepts that I had the most difficulty with. He would have me teach them to him as if we reversed roles. At first, I was super intimidated. Who was I to lecture a professor on something I know little to nothing about? However, at the end of the day, I walked out of that session with a greater understanding of the concepts than I had ever had before. Your student could definitely benefit from such an activity.

Have your student “play teacher” for a session. Ask them to explain the concepts to you as if you were the student. Your student might be intimidated by this activity, and rightfully so! With that being said, make sure not to intimidate them too much by speaking over them or being overly critical. Let them have fun in this role. If you are unclear about some things, raise your hand like any good student would. By teaching the subject, your student will have a much greater understanding than they had in the beginning.

Happy tutoring!

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