After receiving a disappointing report card
or seeing that your child has been struggling in school and with homework, you
may be thinking about getting a tutor. This is a great first step, but what is
even more important is knowing how
the tutor should be helping your child for optimal results. If you've seen your child struggle through
his/her schoolwork for several months, it is easy to assume that your child's
tutor should be helping with homework. If the tutor helps your child with
homework and gives extra explanations along the way, that should do the trick,
right? Not necessarily.
Homework
Help v.s. Tutoring
Parents looking to have their child tutored
tend to seek out homework assistance.
What parents don't realize is that homework help isn't usually the
answer for a struggling student. More often than not, students need the type of
tutoring that involves teaching. In
other words, actual re-teaching of curriculum content. If your child has been
having difficulties at school and with homework, it likely that weakness in
basic skills in a particular school subject or across several subjects is the
culprit. Giving your child the
opportunity to be retaught curriculum through "teaching tutoring" is
the only way he/she will come to master the skills required to do the homework.
For example, say your child is struggling
with Math, and he/she is in grade 4. It
is quite likely that your child has fallen behind in Math in the past, and did
not master many of the skills and competencies from the previous year. This results in struggles from the very start
of a new school year, because your child was already behind when new material
or more complex material was introduced.
Having someone help your child with homework will not be enough to allow
your child to catch up on notions he/she still lacks, because this schoolwork
may be too difficult for your child. If
your child needs to recoup Math skills from a previous year, doing only
homework assistance is like putting scotch tape over a crack in a wall—it’s a
temporary fix that won’t stand up to the test of time. What’s worse, always requiring help to
“survive” his/her homework can lead to the idea of learned helplessness, making
your child believe that he/she will never be able to complete homework without
assistance.
If, on the other hand, your child
participates in personalized tutoring lessons that are aimed at targeting your
child’s actual academic level—not
his/her grade level necessarily—this will allow your child to finally catch up
and master skills that have been lacking.
This may require the tutor-teacher to go back to a previous year’s
curriculum and reteach the elements that are lacking, so that your child can be
moved forward and progress to a more appropriate academic level. Your child will then be equipped to deal with
the current school year’s workload and ultimately, be able to handle his/her
homework on their own. In time, a student who has been given the chance to
catch up will have a better sense of self-esteem and perseverance than a
student who has just been helped along the way but never really received proper
support to fully master the material.
But what if your child is on par with the
current grade’s academic curriculum, but is still not getting homework done or
is scoring poorly on assignments and weekly quizzes? In this case, it may be appropriate to offer
homework assistance.
If you have already ruled out learning
difficulties and if your child presents no academic weaknesses per se and can
actually do the work without difficulty once he/she finally decides to do it,
it may be that a lack of study skills and organization is at the root
cause. In this case, homework assistance
can help guide your child toward success. Sometimes students need a study buddy to help
them organize their time, their study habits and to plan for upcoming
assignments. Having a tutor keep track
of your child’s time efficiency, upcoming assignments, tests and projects is a
good start to helping your child learn effective study skills.
In other cases, your child may be overwhelmed
with the tasks at hand and has trouble beginning homework. Having a tutor start homework with your
child—ensuring that the first few questions of one assignment are done
correctly—can help your child feel reassured and give him/her the confidence
and willingness to continue on their own.
So how do you know whether your child’s
tutor should be doing homework assistance or preparing personalized lesson
plans for your child? If you are unsure
of the root causes of your child’s struggles in school, having an academic
evaluation done at a professional tutoring center is a good place to
start. This will help determine your
child’s actual academic level, and allow you to make a good decision as to
whether or not your child needs “teaching tutoring” or homework
assistance. Also, consulting with your
child’s teacher may offer insight as to how your child performs during class
time or on regular work, versus how your child performs during quizzes or tests.
Being tutored can be a successful,
rewarding experience for your child, provided it is done right and that the
approach is geared toward your child’s individual needs. In the wide world of tutoring, there is no
such thing as a “one size fits all” program!
About the
Author;
Lisa Cipriani is the Director of Centre
Pédagogique La Renaissance, a tutoring center in Laval that provides academic
services for primary, secondary and adult learners. As an experienced teacher, Lisa has been
working in education for almost 15 years.
Lisa Cipriani | Author
Lisa Cipriani is the current
Editor of Laval Families Magazine, and has been working in education and
publishing for 15 years. She currently
balances a career in the fields of education, journalism and health/fitness.
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