Ask Micki: Math Tutee

Question: I have been tutoring my tutee in Algebra 1 for a while now, and it just seems like he is really having trouble getting the concepts. We'll work on things, and by the next session he has forgotten pretty much everything we covered the week before. I have no clue what to do about this!

Answer: This can be a pretty frustrating scenario or both you and your tutee. Here are the steps that I followed when I came across this problem just last year. The results were phenomenal, and my tutee was doing much better within 2 weeks:

1. Make sure that your tutee isn't over his or her head. Maybe the material is too advanced, or the class is moving too quickly. Have a friendly, non-threatening talk with your tutee and find out how the class is going. Ask how he or she feels about the material. You may even want to talk to the parents to make sure that everything is going well for their child in school.

2. If the class is moving at a comfortable pace, and your tutee is relatively confident with the material, it may just be a problem with knowledge retention.

Have your tutee work on a few problems every night. Trust me, this method works best when you provide rewards upon the completion of a worksheet or problems from the textbook. Don't think of it as a bribe, think of it as a reward for going above and beyond the homework (something that few kids actually want to do with their free time!).

Doing a few extra problems every night will help the knowledge stay fresh in your tutee's head.

3. Find ways to make the material relevant to your tutee's interests. I once tutored a kid whose whole life was basketball. He loved it. So, from then on, our lessons focused on basketball themes, or related to basketball. It made a huge difference in the attention he paid to the tutoring.

4. Let the tutee know that learning is a process, and he or she doesn't need to learn everything all at once. A little understanding and encouragement in your tutoring sessions can go a long way in boosting your tutee's confidence and pushing him or her to try a little harder with the material.

Good luck, and happy tutoring!