I believe that given the correct motivation and structure, all students can and will be successful. Building trust with students and their families is key to every student's success.

Get to know the student, their interests, and what they feel they can and can't do. Ask them about themselves and how they think you can help them. Talk about yourself and start building the trust that is imperative to overall success.

Students become independent when they begin to achieve successes, no matter how small. When they start to believe that they can be successful, they will become more independent.

Encouragement, building on the small successes, and gearing the tutoring towards their interests. You can use sports, shopping, video games...everything for every subject area. Give them the tools they will need to be career learners.

Reread the material and read aloud to me; possibly their own decoding or fluency is impeding their overall comprehension. Stop reading, ask questions, and use picture clues if appropriate. Try and gear the reading material to something high interest to begin with.

Building a relationship; building trust. Students are afraid to fail, and they want to know there is a safety net and someone to help them get over the hump and learn the material they need. Make sure they know you believe in them and have their best interest at heart.

Be excited yourself, gear it towards their interests, build background information, see what they already know about a subject, and if you can align the tutoring session to their likes and interests.

Reviewing, questioning, informally assessing, and asking them to demonstrate the task without assistance and/or guidance.

With every success, a student will feel more confident in the subject. Success builds on success. Once a student starts to build confidence in a subject, they are usually more willing to put forth more effort.

Informally assessing, using the work they are given at their grade level, parent's input, possibly the school's input, and input from the student as to what they feel they need to be successful.

Each student is an individual, and every tutoring session should be based on the specific student and their needs. if you need to reteach, you do; if you need to clarify directions, you do; if you need to break the work into smaller steps, you do; what the student's needs are drive the session and the future plan.

All types: whiteboards, paper, pencils, books, worksheets (whether teacher created or self-created), calculators (if allowed), computers, and possibly manipulatives if needed. You use household items sometimes. You use what is needed to make the student feel and be successful.