David B.

I learn best when I develop a personal interest in what I am doing. I learned to use the essential skills of the DP as tools to explore my curiosity, learn more about the world, and express my ideas clearly. I employ this approach with my students. In the short term, this helps students improve their grades. In a long time, it turns them into people with the skills to develop new concepts and the confidence to convince the world of their value.

Introduce myself and share my relevant background. Learn a bit about the student and their IB journey to discover their strengths and growing points. Encourage the student to realize and express what they hope to get out of our session(s). Please work with the student to develop a strategy tailored to their specific goals.

Life is full of things that inspire interest. Independent learners are effective at diving deep into their curiosities on their own. To help students achieve this, I teach them how to understand topics that interest them better and share their perspectives with others clearly and convincingly. I can help students develop: research skills so that they know how to seek knowledge; develop analytical skills so that they know how to improve their understanding; communication skills to share their discoveries, and self-management skills to set and meet timelines for their learning goals. These are life skills that, once nurtured, create instinctive life-long learners who can turn curiosity into information that is valuable in their school, work, social, and personal lives.

I try to ensure that students have a personal investment in their learning activities--usually by asking about their interests and using skills learned in the IB to explore them. In my IB life, however, my biggest motivator was a sense of personal growth. Once a student and I discover an exciting angle for learning, I work with them to develop clear intermittent learning outcomes and timelines so that they can track their progress. This way, they watch their efforts bear fruit, see and share their challenges, and feel empowered to continue working towards their end goals. Doing this while engaging with topics that interest the students ensures they can avoid getting bored, losing sight of their goals, or feeling like they cannot overcome an emergent challenge.

I pay attention to their specific challenges and encourage students to do the same as we solve them. I break down the complex skills and concepts into more uncomplicated steps so the student can see how they work. I run them through different exercises testing the step-by-step method so that they can develop an intuitive understanding of the process in other contexts. As the student progresses, I encourage them to have confidence in their growing knowledge. I also keep track of past challenges. This enables us to review them later, refresh the student's tactics for overcoming them and reinforce their confidence in their ability to grow.

The skill of breaking down skills and concepts is beneficial for comprehension. All texts are made up of different parts that weave together to form a coherent whole. I guide students to learn how to separate the parts from the total. This way, they can identify what they understand and are missing. This makes it easier for students to know what they need to pay special attention to so that, in the future, they know how to make sure that they understand the whole text well.

Building rapport is the best way to start working with students. My student needs to have the comfort and confidence to collaborate in goal-setting, and they need to trust that I am paying attention to their needs. This way, we can develop effective learning strategies tailored to their challenges, set clear paths for achieving goals, and approach future tutoring sessions with enthusiasm.

With the flexibility of the IB and digital learning platforms, there are many possible ways to approach every subject. I work with students to discover approaches that interest them and then shape those approaches to fit the subjects that they find challenging.

I like to use mini-assessments at the end of a tutoring session. This helps me and the student obtain a clear picture of how well they learned in that session. If the assessment reveals any challenge areas, we can note them down as a take-home practice area for the student once they leave the session. If the previous session identified a challenge, I let the student know that they would lead a review of the take-home assignment in the next session. One of the best ways to confirm understanding is when a student can teach the material. In any case, all subsequent lessons with a student begin with a recap of the previous session's material. I encourage the student to ask any questions they may need clarification on. Additionally, I like to structure subsequent sessions in a way that integrates the lessons of previous sessions. This keeps the material fresh in the student's minds and helps them see how the different sessions complement each other.

Revising previous lessons and integrating previous material into new material helps grow a student's familiarity with the subject. Successful mini-assessments and reviews reinforce the student's sense of progress. I also believe that the method of encouraging students to lead reviews and teach me the material motivates them to engage with it personally. When they own their learning process, they can develop an accurate understanding of their grasp of the subject that inspires well-founded confidence.

I encourage students to be forthcoming about their challenge areas, note them down, and take responsibility for tracking their progress. This begins with the first meeting and continues to the last session. I also keep track of their challenges and progress by tailoring lessons that address their needs and developing assessments that test specific challenges. As this is a continual process, I can track and target initial needs that become evident in later sessions.

In the initial stages, I dialogue with my students to gain perspective on what they have had challenges with and what they would like to improve. I can develop a learning strategy that accommodates the student's goals. As we progress, I use mini-assessments and lesson reviews to evaluate the student's progress toward the set goals. The outcomes of these assessments and reviews provide information on adapting the lesson topics, pacing, and testing to reinforce the student's strengths and iron out their challenges.

A lesson overview that outlines objectives for that session. A review document tracks the student's progress over the past sessions and includes a short recap of previous sessions. This document is updated at the end of subsequent sessions. If the student is trying to complete a specific task, I include a sample of the task. Where relevant, short video clips or extracts from web sources. Take-away tasks for the student based on the session. The pre-reading task for the next session.