I believe in communicating with students--and their parents--to best tailor teaching styles for each individual learner. Some students know what they need, while others don't. This means, as a tutor, I listen both to what the student is telling me and to what they aren't necessarily aware is a gap in their learning style, study habits, and knowledge to best help them fill the gap they long to overcome.

In a first session, I like to work diagnostically with a student. In the case of French, this may be holding a conversation or reviewing their past assignments (if they're studying in school as well). For test prep, reviewing a previously completed practice test to see a pattern in incorrect problems can help you to formulate a plan moving forward. For reading and writing skills, looking at writing samples and doing read-alouds with corresponding content questions at the appropriate level for a student can help indicate the best direction to take moving forward.

The ideal way to make a student become an independent learner is to find a way of thinking about their subject that makes them interested--and keeps that interest. This can be easiest in terms of reading and writing help--students who enjoy the books they read are far more likely to develop good reading habits than those who are prescribed certain books, and reading is the single most helpful habit in students' success throughout their school years. In other subjects, finding a way of thinking that makes sense to a student or an analogy that relates it to something they know or like can help push students to work independently and feel more confident in their studies.