As a tutor at the Loyola Community Literacy Center, my main objective was to help people (natives and immigrants) from the surrounding neighborhood learn English. For the people that I tutored (learners), learning English was one barrier that they had to overcome in order to reach a much larger goal. Some of the learners that I worked with had big goals like taking the TOEFL in order to obtain a medical residency in the US, or a goal of taking the U.S. Citizenship Test in order to become naturalized citizens.
My responsibility as a tutor—having previously worked with a learner or not— was to make a lesson plan (oftentimes spontaneously) given what they want to improve on and learn. I met with the learners and engaged in conversation with them for about five minutes at the beginning of the tutoring session. Thereafter, I would find books to read, grammar exercises to work on, and writing prompts to improve their writing. The ratio of all of these activities depended on the specific learner, and if they wanted to focus on one aspect more than the others. In addition to my direct interactions with the learners themselves, I was also held accountable for filling out forms on each learner that I worked with. These forms acted as logs that track what was worked on during each session, any improvements in specific areas, as well as suggestions for what to focus on at the following session. A few different tutors usually worked with a learner each week, so having a form to log progress and future plans was very helpful for the person that would work with the learner next.
My responsibility as a tutor—having previously worked with a learner or not— was to make a lesson plan (oftentimes spontaneously) given what they want to improve on and learn. I met with the learners and engaged in conversation with them for about five minutes at the beginning of the tutoring session. Thereafter, I would find books to read, grammar exercises to work on, and writing prompts to improve their writing. The ratio of all of these activities depended on the specific learner, and if they wanted to focus on one aspect more than the others. In addition to my direct interactions with the learners themselves, I was also held accountable for filling out forms on each learner that I worked with. These forms acted as logs that track what was worked on during each session, any improvements in specific areas, as well as suggestions for what to focus on at the following session. A few different tutors usually worked with a learner each week, so having a form to log progress and future plans was very helpful for the person that would work with the learner next.