Step 4: Identify the thought process
I begin every meeting by casually talking to the student about things other than schoolwork. I think this helps them feel at ease with me, enabling them to open up more so I can see how they are thinking. It’s usually pretty clear immediately how prepared (or ill-prepared) a student is. For example, I have had some that were clearly prepared and were probably just coming in in order to make sure that they were indeed going to get A’s on their tests, while there were others that really didn’t have a great idea as to what they had to study. These students tend to ask more questions about key concepts, while the more prepared students ask more detailed questions.
Step 5: Set an agenda
I’ve never really had to set an agenda because most students come in with a review sheet. We generally just go through the entire sheet and discuss all the topics.
Step 6: Address the task
This kind of goes along with number 6. Again, we go through each question and discuss them until the student feels confident they can answer it on their own. Sometimes I don’t know the answers to all of the questions, so we look things up in the textbook or in the student’s notes. If there is something we can’t figure out together, I make a note of it so the student can research it, and I also research it and e-mail the student what I’ve found to help them.
Step 7 and 8: Summarize the Content and Process
These go together for my sessions. However, instead of summarizing at the very end, we summarize after each question. When we are sure that everything has been addressed, the student then leaves, feeling much more confident than before!
