Chapter 9: How to Run Consistent High-Value Lessons 🙌

High Performing Tutors

The difference between high and low performing tutors is their commitment and ability to consistently provide value to their students. The more value you create, the more income you earn, the greater the impact you have. 

To provide your students with value you need to understand: 

1. Your students goals;
2. What your student needs help with;
3. They key milestone(s) they are working towards; and
4. What type of student they are (.e.g a HAS; SCS; or DS)

The FLQ has been designed to help you gather this information, which in turn supports you in creating a lesson plan with your student that you are both on board with. 

‍

‍Standard Lesson Format

Here’s a standard lesson format we have found works effectively to run lessons consistently: 

1. Start with greetings and a short catch up. For example, you can ask your student how their week has been; what they covered in school; what progress they have made towards an upcoming assignment etc.
2. Then re-cap what you covered last lesson and re-visit the lesson plan to confirm what you will be covering today; 
3. Start working through material as planned or work on another topic if the student has something new and urgent. The Theory: Application ratio of your lesson will be based on what type of student you are tutoring. 
4. In the last few minutes of your lesson, re-cap what you covered in your lesson and ask if the student has any final questions. 
5. End the lesson by confirming the time and date of your next lesson and the topic / content to be covered next lesson. 

To consistently provide value in your lessons will require some planning. When you first start lessons it may take time to find a lesson structure that works best for you. As you complete more hours of tutoring you will naturally find your tutoring style and lesson planning will take less and less time. 

‍

‍Online lessons

Online tutoring has become our primary form of tutoring since 2020. We have found online tutoring to be just as effective and more productive than in-person tutoring depending on how well trained the tutor is, both in the method of tutoring and the online tutoring tools available to them. The online tools we recommend: 

• Zoom or Google Meet for the video call - the free version of Zoom has a 40 minute time limit; Google Meet is free and has unlimited video time.;
• Screensharing on Google Meet or Zoom e.g. to work on an essay or problem questions together.
• Google Docs or OneNote to collaborate - set up a shared Google Doc / OneNote for you and your student to help you both keep track on what you will be covering each lesson. This also becomes a record of everything covered so far, making it easy for your student to review content from previous lessons, and saving you time when preparing lessons on the same topics for other students.  
• An online whiteboard and/or a real whiteboard to keep lessons interactive. Some of our tutors find using a real whiteboard more engaging for both the tutor and student and can help deal with zoom fatigue. Here are links to a whiteboard + whiteboard stand.

‍Tips for online lessons:

• Check that your online tools work before each lesson (microphone and webcam); 
• Make sure you have good lighting and adequate quality on your camera; 
• Check your internet connection; 
• Open up all resources and documents you may need during your lesson; and
• Try and look into the camera when speaking to your student vs at them on the screen.

‍

ET Resources

To assist you with the Application side of your lesson we have a bank of past papers available for a number of subjects on our Google Drive. These resources are accessible here and on our TutorCruncher Dashboard. We are also in the process of creating Theory resources for Year 11 and 12 subjects, starting with English, Maths and Business Studies. We will let you know when these are ready for you!

‍