What is tutoring?
Sea level (literally): Ben More (966m) from my canoe.
Contemplating which route to take up a mountain from canoe-level made me think about the shape of things, tutoring included.
Most mountains are not climbed from sea level. Usually, we begin with some height advantage and so although the challenge is considerable, a bit of leg-work has already been accomplished by car, train or bike. As I studied Ben More from my seat at the front of our canoe, I could trace the faint outline of the route that we would take from the loch shore and up the mountain’s shoulder towards its summit ridge. “It is a fair old plod,” Liam announced cheerily from the back of the canoe in between crunches of apple. I nodded, squinting over glittering water-ripples towards 900m of vertical ascent.
Our route up Ben More would be slower and less dramatic than the route that Liam would choose with friends or fellow outdoor instructors. I am very happy with challenging walks and long uphill routes but I do not enjoy scrambling with significant 'exposure', the term used to describe being at height with air and open space beneath you. Liam would relish scrambling the mountain's exposed ridge but - together - we’d take the plod route and pack a picnic rather than climbing helmets.
Tutoring also offers two routes: a gentle walk and a rapid ascent, which I define as ‘the shepherd’ and ‘the intervention’. The shepherd model involves a steady academic companionship during which I shadow a student’s academic work through a school term or a whole school year. This is a faithful process of enrichment with tutor sessions providing the student with weekly or fortnightly opportunities to revise topics, practise skills, or request additional assistance with texts or techniques. Companionship in this form offers young people the chance to build their confidence and their knowledge in a supportive one-to-one context that takes into account all their learning needs and preferences.
The intervention approach is usually a shorter-term piece of work defined by a student’s need for rapid support to achieve a particular academic target. Each student arrives at tutoring with a unique set of circumstances but families seeking my help often describe a rapid increase in a student’s workload before exams, the illness of a subject teacher, anxiety about revision, or an episode of ill-health that left the student behind in their work. Experiences of bereavement, relocation or family upheaval can also disrupt a student’s learning.
In an intervention context, the student needs a quick academic plan and a clear target. So a GCSE student who missed half a term’s teaching after a broken leg and recovery from surgery might require ten sessions on Dicken’s A Christmas Carol for the AQA English Literature paper. During these sessions, I teach the text chronologically and thematically with a particular focus on strategies for answering closed-text (no book allowed) essay questions. The tutoring target would be a practice mock examination that I would set and mark ahead of the school’s own mock examinations. This teaching unit supports the student’s return to school, eases any anxiety about catching-up with missed work, and ensures that they were confident about completing the remainder of the school year.
As a tutor, I teach in both of these shapes simultaneously by shepherding some students and intervening with others. This variety is part of the joy of my work because is a delight to develop long-term relationships with students as I shadow their school work over months or years; it is also a great pleasure to offer ‘course-corrections’ for young people who feel that their studies have strayed off track. For me, a tutoring highlight is the moment of sudden relief when a student’s worry about a text or topic is transformed into a positive intention to succeed. Another highlight is recognising a steadily increasing glow of confidence as a student begins to feel that the subject is not only manageable but also (perhaps!) a little bit enjoyable. And then there are moment of unmitigated joy when a student emails to say that they are actively looking forward to their next session and that they have (drum roll) completed a piece of work ahead of time.