Where should an English tutor start? How can a tutor conduct his first English lesson?

• Before meeting a student, it is very difficult to understand what level of knowledge they have, what teaching aids to use, and so on. Therefore, it is important to ask as many questions as possible before class. If you have a lesson with a schoolchild, ask the parents how long the child has been studying English at school, what grades he has, whether he has any difficulties in doing homework, whether he has ever studied with a tutor before. Be sure to ask what textbooks your child uses at school, this will help you figure out which topics the student is currently studying at school and which ones have already been covered.
• If you are going to study English with an adult student, the most important thing is to find out the purpose of the study. Maybe a person has got or is going to get a job where English is required, perhaps even preparation for passing some kind of certificate is necessary. In this case, you will need to focus on grammar and writing. If a person just wants to improve his language a little for traveling, then the main time of the lessons should be devoted to conversational practice.
• When preparing for the first lesson, try to select as many diverse tasks as possible to test the student’s knowledge in various aspects. You can even create a short test with tasks for listening, reading, writing and grammar. Then you will have a better chance of understanding the student's level of knowledge.
• When you first meet a student, try to get in touch with him right away. Behave kindly and attentively with your child, ask what problems he has in learning English, look at his textbooks and notebooks to understand how the child studies at school. With an adult, you can start the lesson with a short interview, during which you can find out more about the person’s work, hobbies, and goals for his education. This will help you relax, and at the same time give you more information to prepare for further classes. If the student’s level of knowledge allows, it is better to speak English, at least partially.
• If your student is a preschooler or elementary school student, try to prepare the first lesson in such a way that it contains more interactive material: educational videos, songs, cards, games. Grammar assignments for students of this age should also be presented in a playful way; explain the rules using cards, books with beautiful, attractive pictures. This way, the child will immediately develop an interest in English.
• At the end of a lesson with your child, be sure to give him homework for the next lesson. Immediately explain to the student how important his independent work is, and that this way he will be able to achieve success in learning English much faster. Adults can print out a book to read, for example from the Cambridge English Readers series. Usually these are either detective stories or small exciting stories. At the next lesson, it will be possible to discuss the chapter read in the form of a retelling and questions about the text. This is excellent conversation practice and an opportunity to learn new words.
• A properly conducted first lesson will create a positive impression of you. Further in the learning process, the main thing is not to lower your standards, continuing to select interesting materials for both adults and young students.

Many novice tutors ask questions: how to properly organize classes, what to prepare for a training session, how to competently organize work with a student.

Julia, a novice tutor, came to me for advice:

In the past, I am a teacher of chemistry and biology, and later received an additional degree. education and I was lucky enough to work as a practical psychologist. For many years now I have been far from my favorite areas of activity. It so happened that I was to become a chemistry tutor, moreover, after the New Year holidays a student (10th grade) would come to me. He plans to pass the Unified State Exam and enter medical university. I rushed to compile a catalog of resources (I successfully used yours).

So, if you have never conducted tutoring classes or other training events (trainings, seminars, group meetings), then you need to complete and prepare the following points:

Subject preparation

To become a more or less decent tutor, you need to have a lot of knowledge and skills both in the field of teaching and in subject-related and general human knowledge.

First, pull up all your subject competencies: just read any preparation textbook for the subject. Use this list. Even if you did well at school and even graduated from a university with honors (and even more so if you work as a university teacher), this does not mean that you are a good tutor. You definitely need to repeat and structure your knowledge.

I remember how in the first year of tutoring I bought all possible literature on preparing for final exams and avidly read all the topics, each time discovering something new in biology and chemistry, made mind maps, notes, wrote out facts in a notebook, although A red diploma from the Faculty of Biology was gathering dust on a shelf. This does not speak of my incompetence after training, but only of the discrepancy between the school and university curriculum, the fragmentation and lack of structure of knowledge. Galina Enyutina

Find such textbooks and manuals on your subject, make a selection according to the complexity of the presentation of the material,

There is nothing complicated about this, just “pull yourself up” in the subject first.

Subject test

Thanks to a subject test, you can determine the student’s initial level of knowledge in a subject. The test result is important

a) to draw up a lesson program (as detailed as necessary),

b) to understand how much the student grasps and remembers

Take the Unified State Exam/Unified State Exam assignments from previous years or any collection for preparing for exams, throw out the difficult ones, leave the tests for a quick check.

For this case, I have prepared 5 different types of testing* for each subject (including in electronic form on my blog - here is an example).

*How to prepare trial testing (and why there are 5 of them), if you want, I will tell you in a separate material.

Psychological test

Take a test for educational motivation and development of the hemispheres, a temperamental questionnaire (although this can be determined in this way), memory and attention test.

The main thing is that you can interpret the test results and apply them in your practice, otherwise it all becomes meaningless.

Just don’t take questionnaires with 101 questions, filling it out will take 50 minutes, and the result will be 1-2 words. Look for convenient and visual methods, for example, drawing IQ tests, they will not only give results, but will also entertain the child while they are being performed.

Lesson program

I never work with spaces, I always go through everything from A to Z, only lingering in each topic depending on the level. For example, if a student is generally 0 in botany, but remembers anatomy, we study plants, but we go over people superficially. This is one of my methods for implementing an individual approach.

You can create a program:

a) based on the school curriculum for each grade, if you work with primary or secondary schoolchildren;

b) taking into account a special program for certain teaching technologies, for example, Elkonin-Davydov or Zaitsev;

c) data from the Unified State Examination/Open State Examination codifier, if you are working with high school students or applicants;

d) develop your own training program (Attention! Authored programs require a lot of work, many years of experience and painstaking work. If you rearranged 2 topics and combined 2 more, and threw out 2, this is not yet an original program!)

Training materials and CMMs

It doesn't matter whether you teach a lesson online or in person, you will need teaching materials to help you teach your lesson.

Here's what you'll need for your classes (especially for the first time):

• Prepare a thematic lesson plan
• For each lesson, write a summary plan, at least in the form of a simple list of what goes on and what questions to ask the student
• Lesson notes for the student
• Printed visual materials (diagrams, tables, drawings, IR, maps, portraits, route sheets, cards)
• Download at least 1 presentation on each topic according to the lesson plan
• Find YouTube videos for some lessons
• Assignments and tests for each topic

Tests can be taken online or taken subject tests, not collections of options for the Unified State Exam, it makes sense to use them only at the very end of the course.

Unified State Exam assignments

If you are going to prepare a student for the Unified State Exam/Unified State Exam, first familiarize yourself with the codifier and demo tasks for these exams, find out the dates and preparation program. The Unified State Exam tasks are not fundamentally different from regular school ones, they just have their own specifics.

Feedback

Sometimes it is enough to look at a student, and it will become clear to you how he has mastered the material, and sometimes (most often) you need to update his new knowledge and skills, repeat, consolidate and pay attention.

Good luck to you in your hard work as a tutor!

Want to ask your question? — Write to me at galina@site or fill out the form via the link Contact. I am happy to share my experiences and advise beginning tutors.

To realize your desire for teaching, it is not at all necessary to get a job at a school where you will have to be exposed to constant stress for a small salary. You can choose a quieter and more profitable alternative - tutoring. But, before you try yourself in this area, you need to study the requirements for tutors, as well as decide on a number of organizational issues.

Who can become a tutor

You can successfully give private lessons for a fee if you meet the following requirements:

Availability of higher education corresponding to the taught discipline. At the same time, it is not necessary to graduate from a pedagogical university - it is enough to have a profession that involves in-depth study of any discipline. For example, graduates of the Faculty of International Relations can teach foreign languages, and “techies” can teach mathematics or physics. You can engage in tutoring even with incomplete education, starting from your student days.

Ability to establish contact with children. The tutor will need inexhaustible patience, balance and friendliness.

The younger the students, the greater the demands on the moral qualities of the teacher.

Constant desire to improve your knowledge. To stay competitive, you need to regularly learn new information on your subject, as well as study textbooks published annually.

Punctuality, on which your reputation and the number of clients directly depend.

Tutoring has many advantages over employment in a school. This includes higher earnings, a free work schedule, and the opportunity to refuse a student with bad behavior. But this activity also involves a greater amount of responsibility, because your income will depend entirely on your activity in searching for students and on the results they obtain during the learning process.

Where to begin

Starting a tutoring activity involves solving several organizational issues. Let's look at them step by step.

Subject selection

First of all, you need to decide what you will teach. Ideally, this should be one subject, or 2-3 related disciplines. For example, you can teach algebra to high school students and at the same time higher mathematics to undergraduates. This approach will allow you not to spread yourself thin and provide the highest quality services.

Determination of student population

It’s good when a tutor knows how to work with any age group. But if he has classes in a row, first with a high school student, then with a primary school student, and after that with a student, this can negatively affect the quality of teaching and will also require more effort from the tutor himself.

How to start working as a tutor: secrets of the profession

Students of different ages require a completely opposite approach. Thus, in classes with a primary school student, you will need not so much extensive knowledge of the subject as the ability to find mutual understanding with the child. And teaching knowledge to a high school student requires higher qualifications and the ability to present complex concepts in simple language. Therefore, to increase work efficiency, it is worth forming a client base that is homogeneous by age.

Selecting a location

Tutoring sessions can be organized in four ways:

conduct lessons at home;

visit students’ homes;

rent a special room for classes;

teach remotely via the Internet using Skype.

As a rule, tutors go to students’ homes only at the beginning of their activities, until they have built up a reputation and there is a problem with finding clients. Over time, it makes more sense to set up a workspace at home. In this case, you save a lot of time and get rid of the need to carry a huge amount of teaching material with you. When arranging a workplace, it is worth eliminating all distractions and creating an environment that is familiar to the educational process. Ideally, this should be a work office, and not a living area of ​​the apartment. It is necessary to remove from it all kinds of souvenirs and other unnecessary items that will interfere with concentration in class. Soft chairs that promote relaxation are also not welcome - it is better to replace them with simple chairs. To effectively organize the educational process, the following minimum things are required:

bookcase for teaching aids;

two chairs;

spacious work desk;

a computer with Internet access for viewing media files, educational games and other electronic materials.

It is equally important to agree with your loved ones, who in no case should distract you from the educational process, or disturb you with music or noise from the TV. It is also worth isolating the office from pets, to which students may be allergic. Organizing the educational process at home requires a lot of effort, so many successful tutors rent separate offices for these purposes. Distance tutoring is no less popular. This option is convenient for both the teacher and the student.

How to start working as a tutor: secrets of the profession

Classes via the Internet save travel time and also provide psychological comfort due to the familiar home environment. To organize training, you need a computer, stable high-speed Internet, a webcam, microphone and speakers (headphones).

Studying methodological literature

To have a good understanding of your subject and how to teach it, you need to study as many sources of literature as possible. Over time, you will develop your own methodology, but you still need to keep your finger on the pulse and monitor regularly released manuals. Additionally, you should study the textbooks that your students use in school. Literature sources are not limited to textbooks. The educational and methodological complexes usually also include:

a book for teachers with tips on organizing the learning process;

workbooks for practical classes;

audio and video materials.

To save money on textbook purchases, you can look for used copies on free classified sites or newspapers. You can also ask people you know who have school-aged children. You can also borrow literature for one-time study from the library.

Determining the rate

The cost of services provided by a tutor depends on several factors:

Reputation. This criterion can be measured by the number of students who independently find you based on recommendations from friends. This also includes letters of gratitude, which you should not hesitate to take from clients who are satisfied with your work.

Place of training. If you go to a student’s home, and at a remote distance, you can safely ask for a bonus for this.

How to recruit students

Once you have an idea of ​​how and in what form you will conduct classes, it’s time to start looking for students. This is done by placing advertisements about your services in as many sources as possible. Among them:

Newspapers and magazines with advertisements. Not the most effective way, since many people associate advertisements in free newspapers with deception. The likelihood of finding students through print media increases if you live in a small town.

Street notice boards. The best places will be bus stops, entrances to residential areas and surrounding schools. But there is no point in posting advertisements in the schools themselves due to the large number of competitors in the form of teachers.

How to start working as a tutor: secrets of the profession

The advantages of such advertisements are the absence of financial costs for their placement, a huge target audience, as well as the ability to describe your services in more detail, which print publications do not allow.

Another profitable option is cooperation with a tutoring agency. For a small fee, usually equal to the price of one lesson, such an agency will independently select a student for you. It is important that the fee is charged only after the first lesson has been completed and confirmation of further cooperation has been received.

I would like to clarify the question: the first lesson for the tutor himself or the first lesson with a new student?

For every teacher, the first lesson in their life is a very exciting experience. There is uncertainty in every action, and anxiety about how students will accept you, whether they will take you seriously.

1) Prepare thoroughly for the lesson. Plan out each activity you plan to do with students, ordering them logically from easier to more difficult.

2) Stay calm. It is impossible to be prepared for everything, because the teacher is not a robot. You may make a mistake, but this is what constitutes work experience that will grow.

3) Be prepared for students to have tricky questions - don’t hesitate to double-check something in the dictionary.

4) Create a friendly atmosphere. It is important to show that the student is a person for you, that this person is interesting to you. Then contact will be established and work will be easy.

More advice for beginning teachers can be found here.

If the question was about the first lesson with a student, then it is necessary to analyze the goals, make sure of the student’s level, select the correct schedule for further lessons and the training program. The tricks in the first lesson are described in detail.

First, find out over the phone what the client needs. If this is a child, and you come to an agreement with the parents, then ask what the goals are, what problems are pressing, whether they need to improve their performance in the school curriculum or whether they need to improve their level outside of school. If this is an adult, find out the goals and problems, ask what to focus on.

If a client wants to prepare for an exam (OGE, Unified State Exam, Cambridge exams, etc.), then I often send a summary of the exam by mail a few days before the class, so that after receiving the answers, I can at least roughly understand the level. But if a student says that the level is weak, that there was no preparation for the exam before, it is better not to conduct any testing, otherwise they can be demotivated even before the first lesson.

The goal is for the student to leave the first lesson with answers to the most pressing questions throughout his life. If he stated that there were problems with grammar, then you can immediately make out some grammatical structure. For example, Present Perfect, if the student’s level allows. Usually this time is misunderstood by everyone whose level is Pre-Intermediate or lower. The “language barrier” is often considered a problem. Then you can immediately practice simple dialogues and monologues.

If the goal is simply to improve the level of the language, then in the first lesson it is best to practice equally different skills: reading, listening, speaking, grammar. The show element won't hurt either - watch a dialogue on YouTube on the topic, for example, disassemble it and practice it several times, slightly changing the script.

Prepare in advance - books, copies, audio, video. I often prepare material at two different levels - easier and more difficult, so that I can quickly get my bearings during class. If a student leaves the first lesson having learned something new or received new answers to old questions, then he will return, and the collaboration is likely to be long-lasting.

And another very important point - you need to quickly establish contact with the student and win him over. Many people are afraid of teachers and are nervous; Our task is to relax. Water, tea, coffee, a smile will help.

At the first lesson, people like to ask to rate their level, asking them to indicate the exact date when they will speak like Prince Charles. How to handle this is an art. You can’t remain silent, but you also don’t need to take full responsibility for deadlines and make promises.

Self-confidence, careful preparation for the lesson taking into account your wishes, sincere interest in the subject and the student - and everything will be fine!

Come and say: “Hello children, I don’t know how to teach, let’s dance!”

I once gave a lecture on sociology at the Chelyabinsk Institute of Law, and first I asked the “children” (many of whom were older than me, who were between 16 and 20 years old) what aspects of modern society they were interested in and what questions they needed to focus on will stop.

In general, it all starts with the introduction of general brief information (as a reminder).

I think in English you need to start studying topics that your students have already covered, but go through it as if fleetingly, but with details (not like in school - the teacher read it, and that’s it - children complete the assignments).

Repetition is essentially a repetition of the old, but for those who did not understand the essence.

Damn, I’m already talking about the English language as a philosophy.

Although learning English is harmony. Anyone who wants to understand him will understand.

Win someone over, but not by fawning. Ask him what he does best and praise him. And, of course, create a template according to which you will conduct the lesson. You will succeed! Do not be shy! And if you suddenly forgot something out of excitement or something else, then don’t be afraid to double-check it. And if this is an activity with children, then everything can be transformed into a game form.
Why did you enter the field of tutoring? When choosing a profession, I read a lot about various, on one of the sites called kedu ru there are many articles about professions. It says that although the earnings are large (if you try), they are still not stable. And you still need to earn a name for yourself! Ah, the beginning of the journey! Good luck!

Letters to the editor

Do you dream of working for yourself, but are hesitant to set out on your own just because you are not sure how you can be useful to the world? Start small: take a pen and a piece of paper and list all the skills you have. If proficiency in at least one foreign language is on this list, hooray, you have an excellent platform to start with.

Wait a minute, but all my life I worked as a manager selling household appliances, you say, and I only used the language from time to time to communicate with clients. You're wrong: there are a ton of benefits to be gained from this.

There are two ways to start making money from your knowledge of a foreign language as a freelancer:

1) start teaching it,

2) engage in translation activities.

In both cases, it is important that your level of knowledge of the language is really high. You can check this by passing an entrance test at any language school that prepares students to take exams to obtain an international certificate. Using the English language as an example: if the test shows that you are below the Advanced level, then it is better to start investing in your own training, and then only start transferring knowledge to others.

In the case of the second point, you need to immediately make a reservation: you are unlikely to get by without a specialized education. Translations, especially technical ones, require a truly excellent knowledge of the language and specific terminology. Of course, no one is stopping you from getting this education while you are already free.

With pedagogical activities in relation to language, the situation is simpler. Let's remember what distinguishes a good teacher from a bad one?

Firstly, the ability to explain and convey a thought to the student so that he not only understands, but also remembers.

Secondly, endurance and patience.

Third, ease of communication - no one likes “monsters with a pointer”; everyone enjoys gaining knowledge in a friendly and comfortable environment.

Fourthly, a certain knowledge base.

Fifthly, the ability to find an individual approach to each of their students.

At sixth, sincere interest in your business.

Seventh, confidence in the student and a burning desire to achieve results together with him.

Let's assume that you actually worked as a sales manager and used a foreign language. The client is the same student, only more capricious, wayward and often intractable. Therefore, if you managed to demonstrate good results or even lead an entire team under the company’s banner, rest assured that you possess the above skills and abilities to a certain extent. Another thing is important: to develop and strengthen them by setting out on a new path. Those whose activities were not associated with constant communication should not despair either. The main thing, as in any business, is your desire to succeed and knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses.

Where to begin?

So, you are determined to develop as a teacher. The main mistake you can make, provided that you do not have a teaching diploma, is to start advertising yourself as a licensed specialist. The presence of various kinds of diplomas and awards is easy to check, and if you are caught in dishonesty, your reputation will come to an end. You shouldn’t embellish, but you shouldn’t underestimate yourself in advance either. After all, the level of teaching skills is not always measured by the number (and availability) of diplomas and certificates. An important point: the level of language for teaching must be high.

Positioning yourself as a foreign language tutor, in this case, is the surest option. Here it’s worth remembering your career as a “sales person” (or someone else), and realizing that you are not just a tutor, you are a person who can offer a student knowledge not only of a general nature, but also “savvy” him in a specific area.

The next step is to explore your surroundings. Think (a piece of paper, a pen, a phone book and a list of friends on social networks will help you) which of your friends might need your help as a teacher, and unobtrusively offer your services.

People and money

Create a thematic page on the same social networks - this could be your personal profile as a teacher, or a thematic group. In your profile header, briefly and succinctly tell us about yourself and the services you offer. Make sure that the page is visible and don’t neglect it. The information that appears there must be strictly on topic and to the point - forget about pictures with kittens, there is nowhere to hide from them on the Internet. When you feel that the page is not enough, start a website. Of course, this can be done at the same time, but it will require more time and effort. At first, as a rule, competent work with the audience of social networks is enough.

When starting a tutoring activity, and without being a “pro,” do not inflate your prices. People are generally reluctant to part with money, and even more so, they are not ready to pay “some self-taught person.” Therefore, conduct a price analysis on the market, estimate your costs, and set a reasonable price that will not be extortionate either to the students or to you. It should be increased gradually, and not earlier than after a year of work, when you have gained not only experience, but also positive feedback from students.

Speaking of reviews, don’t be shy about asking a student to write a review of your work. If you approach your work in good faith, then you won’t have to worry about negative opinions. Constructive criticism is only beneficial.

Place and time. Or maybe online?

The main advantage of a tutor is that he is not a language school that you want to go to, you don’t want to, but you have to go to classes. A tutor is essentially a mobile version of a teacher. The degree of mobility is determined by him himself.

There are four options for organizing classes:

At the student's home

At the teacher's home

On neutral territory (cafe, library, coworking….)

Online format (Skype, Facetime….)

Practice shows that the majority - both students and teachers - choose the last two learning formats. Homeschooling, whatever one may say, is an invasion of personal space. In any case, the first meeting with a student should be held on neutral territory, in a quiet place where you can study calmly. Choosing a home learning format is only possible if you both feel comfortable, and no one has to overcome cosmic distances in order to get to your destination. The online format, despite its convenience, is still a good addition or periodic replacement for face-to-face classes. The monitor screen significantly interferes with the oral perception of language, especially at the initial stages. On the other hand, online lessons allow you to maintain contact with students even during your absence from the city/country, and, after some time, free you from being tied to a specific place.

It is clear about the unclear

The best format of classes, especially at first, is individual. In this case, it will be easier for both you and your student: for you to understand what kind of person is in front of you, how he or she learns the material, and where he or she is noticeably “limping”; for the student - to overcome the inevitable nervousness, overcome the language barrier and not feel stupid in case of mistakes.

During the introductory lesson, it is imperative to find out what goals and objectives the person has come to you with, and to adequately assess the situation. Don't bother if you're asked to cover three months of material in three days before an important exam or interview. Remember that you are not God, and disciples can also be careless. Unfortunately, your desire to help in such a case will not lead to success, but will only harm your reputation.

The main components of your success:

Find a way to explain so that the person understands;

Check to see if he really understood;

Repeat in different modes until he understands;

Create a friendly atmosphere;

Make your lessons varied. First ask the student about what he does, what he is interested in, what he is interested in - and then you will definitely be able to “hit the bull’s eye”;

Don’t forget to focus on the student’s level and needs;

PRAISE, even for small achievements;

Motivate;

Raise your level and expand your horizons: read, study, purchase manuals and textbooks, regularly check your level of knowledge.

And finally, praise yourself, because now you are doing what is really necessary - helping people become better, be more successful, and climb higher. That feeling when a grateful student wholeheartedly says “Thank you!” - it will stay with you for the rest of your life, and will illuminate it better than any shining career prospects in a large corporation. Good luck in this difficult, but such a bright teaching field!