The tutor’s survival kit: paper and pencil

While teaching you will find that you can create a wonderful flow for your lesson where your comments, questions, instructions and jokes are blending perfectly with the student’s answers, laughter, chat and reactions. The least you would want in this harmonious situation is interrupt it with constantly correcting your students’ mistakes or making them wait for you while you explain a complicated grammar structure. Too much correction can lead to distraction from the main topic of the lesson and your students may lose their line of thought. You will not be able to regain their attention and will make them nervous about not being able to recall what they wanted to say. Keep it simple and put in on paper.

When you see that your student has “inertia” and his/her flow of conversation is good, i.e. he/she is brave enough to keep speaking in English, let them speak even if they make numerous mistakes. Some of them may be more major than others but at this point for you the most important thing is that they keep talking. So while they talk, use your pencil and a piece of paper to take notes of the mistakes they are making so you can revisit them later. This is the most effective way to keep track of mistakes you want to pay attention to and at the same time give your students freedom to express themselves without interruption. Most students expect tutors to take notes and provide these noted after the class so they can study later with them. I would encourage note-taking even if your students did not specifically ask for it. Make it part of your teaching style. When you meet a student for the first time, explain to them how you would approach their learning needs and what they should expect from you. For example,

“Usually when we are having a conversation, I will let you speak and while I am listening to you, I will take notes of the mistakes you may be making. Then I will go through them and will explain them to you in detail. You can ask me questions and comment of my notes any time. After the class I will give you these notes for you to study with later at home.”

Your student will know your style and this will also give them a structure for studying at home. They will know that what is written must be reviewed and will be addressed in a following class. Taking notes is also a good way of recording the material you went through with your student. You can always say: “Have you studies your notes? Do you remember we studies this last time?”

Note taking is essential. Make it a regular component of your class. Your students will appreciate it.