Tutoring for Students

Many students need only occasional or supplemental instruction with respect to reading or writing. I can certainly provide that, and I’d love to; I’ve worked with many students who only needed to meet a few times in order to fill in a few gaps in their knowledge.

However, I specialize in helping students whose reading or writing skills are significantly underdeveloped. More often than not, these students have been taught incorrectly at school, and they are deeply frustrated because they are being asked to perform at a certain level despite never having been given the necessary tools.

With these students, I take a first-principles approach that is similar in many ways to physical therapy in the sense that it emphasizes healing (the undoing of bad habits) before strength training (the creation and practice of new, better habits). When I meet with students who need significant help or remedial instruction, I use a time-tested, evidence-based process that can be tailored to each child’s strengths and weaknesses:

Step One: A Clean Slate. Whereas most sessions are sixty minutes, our first meeting is ninety minutes (but I don’t charge extra for the additional time). At minimum, I spend the first thirty minutes getting to know your child—specifically, the pain points or stressors that have made reading or writing unpleasant or difficult. I begin showing him that I am here to relieve his stress and increase his confidence, not to “fix” him. I ask questions such as:

• “What if writing could be understandable and fun and useful?”
• “What if you could write an excellent paper or story in just a few hours, learn something from it that you’ll actually use many times for the rest of your life, get a good grade, and then move on to other things?”
• “Doesn’t it feel really good when you finish something hard and you know for a fact that you did a good job? Wouldn’t it be great to feel that way about writing?”

Most students are eager to learn how this 180-degree reframing is possible. At this stage, my job is to give your child reasons to begin to believe that I’m here to be a cheerleader, not a judge.

Step Two: A Rock-Solid Foundation. Once we begin working on your child’s core skills, I identify gaps in his knowledge and reassure him that his misunderstandings are not his fault—but he is responsible for putting in his best effort once he is shown a better way. Starting with simple examples, I demonstrate the principles of good writing in age-appropriate terms and in answer to a question that nearly all children are thinking but are afraid to ask: “What’s in it for me?”

As I learn more about your child’s natural strengths, I encourage him to demonstrate his proficiency in those areas at gradually increasing levels of difficulty, and I offer enthusiastic praise when he does; this gives him much-needed motivation and confidence that we then use to shore up his natural weaknesses. Countless times, I have seen children positively light up as they finally begin to grasp ideas and skills that have eluded them for years. Such understanding comes much more quickly when writing is framed as something that makes life easier and better rather than as something that kids must do because adults say so.

Step Three: From “I Have To” to “I Want To.” If time allows, I help your child practice reading and writing about his deepest passions before moving on to school assignments. By leveraging your child’s existing interests, talents, and skills, I give him reasons to want to learn to write well. Often, teachers tell students to allow ten or twenty hours for an assignment that, in reality, should take only one or two. Once your child’s core skills are in place, mandatory school assignments become far easier, less tedious, and less stressful. Nearly all children embrace reading and writing enthusiastically once they understand how to do both correctly and well.