After reading over the handout on the Tutor Cycle again, I’ve realized that I do a lot of these steps without even thinking about it. When a student comes in I let them know that I’m a PLANNER, I plan, always. So I ask them point blank, “What are your concerns? Do you have any specific questions? Did you bring your notes and book? What are you doing in class now? What has your prof said? etc.” I let them know that we can do whatever they want with the time we have however, we need to plan it out. When we finally establish an agenda and we get to the questions, I tell them to explain to me what they know about it…to me, out loud, I tell them I need to know how much they know, where we’re starting exactly. That usually works, I mean, how more straightforward do you need to be? Anyway, they tell me everything they can and we work from there. I always use every course material they bring in and suggest to use those they don’t. We get into the textbook, even the textbooks from the general 100 level type books. When we don’t understand something (yes, me too) I go to the textbook and read it aloud with them. I do this to show them that it just doesn’t come naturally, I had to read it too. That’s how it works. Then the last five minutes of our appointment, I start to fill out the sheet while they repeat back to me everything we did. If they hesitate or stumble I’ll look up and ask them if they still have a question about it which usually answers any unresolved issues. Then they leave :)