Tutoring Matters: Everything You Always Wanted to Know about How to Tutor

240 Pages·2011·0.8 MB·English

by  Tiffani Chin

Tutoring Matters

Tutoring Matters
Everything You Always Wanted
to Know about How to Tutor
SECOND EDITION

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
www.temple.edu/tempress
Copyright © 2011 by Temple University
All rights reserved
First edition published 1999
Second edition published 2011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chin, Tiff ani.
Tutoring matters : everything you always wanted to know about how
to tutor / Tiff ani Chin, Jerome Rabow, and Jeimee Estrada. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Rev. ed. of: Tutoring matters / Jerome Rabow, Tiff ani Chin,
Nima Fahimian. 1999.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-4399-0740-5 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4399-0741-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4399-0742-9 (e-book)
1. Tutors and tutoring—United States—Handbooks, manuals, etc.
I. Rabow, Jerome. II. Estrada, Jeimee, 1986– III. Rabow, Jerome.
Tutoring matters. IV. Title.
LC41.R33 2011
371.39'4—dc22 2011002812
Th e paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992
Printed in the United States of America
2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1
Contents
Preface to the Second Edition and Acknowledgments ix
Preface to the First Edition and Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 1
1 Attitudes, Anxieties, and Expectations 5
Normal Fears and Anxieties 7
Will the Students Like Me? 7
Will I Like My Students? 7
Will I Be Able to Fit in with and Understand
Kids Who Are Diff erent? 8
Will I Be Able to Teach the Students? 9
Will I Succeed? 10
Acceptance 11
Attitudes 13
Giving Up Expectations 14
Displaying Enthusiasm and Interest 20
Feeling Empathy 22
Practices 25
Practicing Patience 26
Being Observant and Asking Questions 28
Interacting as Equals 32
Setting Boundaries and Goals 32
Setting Boundaries 33
Setting Goals 34
Recommended Reading 36
Resources 37
vi Î Contents
2 Building Relationships 39
Making Connections 41
Responding to a Request for Help 42
Picking Up on an Interest 42
Avoiding Gift s and Bribes 46
Building Trust 47
Overcoming Past Experiences 50
Showing Respect 52
Establishing Reciprocity 56
A Few Practical Concerns 61
Motivating Students to Work 62
Applying Tutee Interests 63
Providing Companionship 67
Bargaining on the Relationship 69
Educated Expectations 69
Going beyond Academics 72
Establishing Boundaries 75
Dealing with Jealousy 76
Preventing Overdependence 77
Recommended Reading 81
3 Teaching Techniques 83
Getting Students Interested and Involved 84
Drawing on Student Interests 85
Making Work Visual and Hands-On 90
Encouraging Friendly Competition 95
Easing Student Fears 97
Showing Support 97
Breaking Assignments into Manageable Steps 99
Tying in Familiar Concepts 103
Letting the Student Lead 105
Listening to Students 108
Looking at What Is Not Working 112
Adjusting as You Go 113
Challenging Students 116
Recognizing Student Ploys 118
Recommended Reading 124
4 Race, Gender, Class, and Background Diff erences 127
Anticipating Diff erences before the Relationship Begins 128
Quieting Pre-site Fears 129
Contents D vii
Evaluating First Impressions 134
Adjusting to Organizational Set-Ups 136
Riding the Roller-Coaster Relationship 137
Allowing for the Student’s Attitude 138
Putting Your Foot in Your Mouth 139
Coping with Situations You Have No Idea
How to Deal With 141
Overcoming Diff erences 145
Fitting in and Being as “Same” as Possible 147
Maximizing Acceptance and Embracing Your Diff erence 148
Opening a Conversation 149
Recommended Reading 152
5 Other Adults: Parents, Teachers, and Administrators 155
Attitudes and Involvement of the Other Adults 158
Involvement with the Tutors 158
General Interest and Involvement in the Students’ Lives 162
Discouragement and Lack of Involvement 164
Assignments and Activities 167
Labeling 171
What Can I Do as a Tutor? 178
Forming Relationships with the Other Adults 180
Try Not to Rely on Labels 181
Recommended Reading 182
6 Good-Byes: Ending the Tutoring Relationship 185
Diffi culties in Saying Good-Bye 187
Harmful Ways of Saying Good-Bye 189
Not Saying Good-Bye 189
Making Empty Promises 193
How to Say Good-Bye: Th e Clean-Break Principle 195
Gift s 196
Talking about the Experience 199
Learning Experiences 202
Recommended Reading 205
Twenty-fi ve Final Pointers for Tutors 207
To the Reader 209
Bibliography 211

Preface to the Second Edition
and Acknowledgments
TIFFANI CHIN
When we wrote the fi rst edition of Tutoring Matters, I had no idea how
profoundly tutoring would end up shaping my career and my life.
Th roughout high school, college, and graduate school, tutoring was
something that I did and enjoyed, but it was rarely a central part of my
life. I got my fi rst tutoring gig, as an SAT tutor, when I was a junior in
high school. At the time, I was just amazed that I could receive a raise of
more than two dollars an hour above what I had been making in retail,
just because I had good SAT scores. In college, tutoring was community
service: a way to see the city of Los Angeles and to help a group of amaz-
ing young children who needed academic support. In grad school,
tutoring became, once again, a way to make money. And, through pri-
vate tutoring, I entered and learned about a whole new world: the privi-
leged and exclusive world of private-school admissions in Los Angeles.
During that time, I continued to do community service, the most com-
pelling of which was with young parolees, on early release from lockup,
in South Los Angeles. Th ese smart, articulate young men, with little to
no education, were striking in their potential and in the fact that many
would never step out of the lives that they had—even given their intelli-
gence and the fact that we wanted to help them.
Overall, I enjoyed tutoring, I learned a ton from my tutoring experi-
ences, and I felt that I had a knack for it (the kids seemed to do well, in
any case). I almost always had some kind of tutoring going on, and
I toyed with the idea of teaching, but I never followed through. By the