Your child may require additional help and time to improve his or her reading and writing skills. Fortunately, many online tutoring services offer one-to-one sessions for reading, writing, and other subjects. However, the difficulty lies in hiring the right tutor for your child’s learning and development outside of a brick-and-mortar classroom education.

Selecting a good tutor will not only ensure the success of your child’s education but also justify your investment in tutoring services. To assist you with the recruitment process, we have compiled a list of qualities to look for in a writing and reading tutor.

7 Qualities That Make a Good Reading Tutor 

1. Positive Reinforcement

Positive feedback and praise from tutors will help students gain confidence in reading.

2. Precise and Clear Instructions

Ensure your instructions are clear and easy to follow for your student. Be patient if your student struggles to pick up speed in reading, or when you are explaining the meaning of new words.

3. Listen Carefully

It helps when reading and writing tutors do not look at a student’s academic struggle at face value but listen to him or her carefully to find out the root cause of the struggle. Active listening is crucial for effective tutoring.

4. Gentle Correction

Pay close attention when your student reads and correct reading errors right away but gently.

5. Reading Strategies

Teach new reading strategies and techniques to help your student to read effectively. Encourage readers to highlight sentences that require explanation or their favorite phrases.

6. Interesting Reading Materials

To retain your student’s interest in reading, choose books that are captivating to him or her.

7. Reading Goals

To see a marked improvement in a child’s learning curve, both the tutor and the pupil have to set reading goals and work towards achieving them.

7 Qualities That Make a Good Writing Tutor

1. Reading Helps Writing

Being a good reader will help improve your student’s writing skills. Whether it is leisurely reading or reading for research purposes, inculcate the habit of reading.

2. Building Vocabulary

Choosing the right words and forming correct sentences are crucial for writing impactful articles. Make learning new words every day a part of the lesson plan. Consulting dictionaries and thesaurus should become second nature to your student.

3. Right Writing Topics

Choose topics that your student feels passionate about for writing assignments. It will guarantee his or her dedication to the assignment.

4. Proofreading

Emphasize the importance of proofreading the draft of a writing assignment before submitting or sharing it with anyone. Proofreading includes checking for grammar, formatting, spelling, and punctuation errors, among other things. Ensure the final version is as error-free as possible.

5. Positive Feedback

Be generous with praise when your student shows improvement in his or her writing skills. Point out repetitive mistakes gently by patiently explaining the language grammar rules.

6. Creative Writing

Give your student the freedom to choose a unique writing style for creative writing assignments. Correct grammatical errors but don’t stifle your student’s creativity by being rigid about grammar precision in creative writing.

7. Writing Goals

Set writing goals and chart your student’s learning curve to see if there is an improvement in his or her writing skills. Working towards achieving goals will keep your student motivated.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are some crucial traits to look out for when considering tutoring options for your child’s education. Signs of a good tutor lie in one’s passion to learn more, to better oneself by avoiding common tutoring mistakes, and to stay updated on new teaching methods and tools regardless of experience.

Tutors must be proactive and take the initiative to make tutoring sessions impactful for their students. A student’s learning curve is dependent on his or her relationship with the tutor and the tutor’s teaching and communication styles. Moreover, eTutorWorld has a team of Expert Writing Tutors! 

Whether it’s communal or solitary, reading has a significant impact on children and the way they view the world. Regardless of our age, or the size of the group, discussions about books usually transition into conversations regarding the subject. With schools having moved their curriculums online, many extra-curricular activities including book clubs have suffered. If you have students who have been affected by a learning loss due to the pandemic, you must consider setting up a virtual book club.

How to Guide K-12 Students in a Virtual Book Club 

1. Send your students an introductory video message

Before starting with your virtual book club, it is crucial to introduce yourself to the students and make them feel comfortable with your presence. Send them a short introductory video message to let them know who will be guiding them in the days to come. Tell them a little about yourself, and give them a glimpse into your style of leading a book club so they know what to expect when they start.

2. Breaking the ice

Students are relative strangers in an online reading group. Not many have the confidence to participate freely without being faced with peer pressure. Knowing each other by name will help children develop the confidence needed to share their opinions and ideas with the group. In your very first session, make sure you dedicate some time for introductions. You could ask the kids to reveal their names and other information that is not very personal, such as their favourite books or movies. Doing so will help you create an online community and help the students develop a sense of familiarity, thereby making it more interesting and engaging for the whole group.

3. Promote student-to-student discussions

When students discuss their ideas with teachers, there is always some hesitation on the students’ part. Conversations between students, however, are more personal and engaging. Promote student-to-student discussions by creating smaller groups within your virtual book club. They can start by sharing their findings in groups before you ask them to share their ideas individually. You could also ask students to write down their answers to questions before reading them out, as this will make them more confident when sharing their ideas.

4. Ask questions to promote self-reflection

During your online reading group session, you can help your students better understand the story by connecting it to their own experiences. When you ask them questions regarding the story, do it in such a way that it leads to self-reflection among the students. For instance, you can ask them questions about which character they think they may befriend, or which character they can associate with, or what they learnt from the story. Simple questions like these enable students to reflect on themselves, thereby helping them get the most out of your online reading group.

5. Acknowledge participation

Some students are more shy and reserved than others. While you encourage them to share their thoughts and opinions, make sure you acknowledge their participation by offering positive comments on their answers. You could prolong the conversation with the shier kids, but do in a manner such that they don’t feel uncomfortable. The stakes are low in virtual book clubs, but kids may feel pressurized regardless. Their experiences in an online reading group will help them learn and understand better, so encourage them to practice self-reflection and take healthy risks.

An online reading group can help students get better at reading and comprehension, which in turn will help them develop proficiency in English and find career options they love. There are plenty of other benefits of virtual book clubs , and following these simple tips can go a long way towards making your virtual book club a success.

Getting The Best Story time Options For Children

Reading is one of the best tools to help children learn. From the time they are toddlers, children become fascinated with the power of words, and this expands greatly during their formative years.

While many parents think that their child will have little interaction with reading before first grade, there are increasing studies that show children can easily learn to read in Kindergarten. This is the right time to help them by introducing phonics for kids and the sounds of the alphabet. By the time a child is in second grade, they are filled with the curiosity enhanced by story time and books. At this age, they begin to understand that books can take their minds to another place and time filled with adventure and fun.

Reading as They Grow

One of the best tools a parent has to create a hunger for learning is to have a daily storytime for the child. Parents have a daily bedtime story to tell that helps in child reading later on. However, storytime does not have to be at a fixed time of the day and should be encouraged as an interactive time between parents and their children. Books should be chosen that are age and reading skill-appropriate too. For students in K-4th grade, books with pictures are often most helpful.

Other Places for Storytime

Once a child is in school, there are many places to participate in storytime sessions apart from home. Many local libraries sponsored storytime, which allows children to interact within a group setting. They usually will choose a story appropriate to the K-4th grade group with reading programs for kids specific to their age and abilities.

After school programs and church schools often have story time as part of their curriculum as well. These are particularly popular for students attending K-4 grade.

Great Media Storytime Options

For parents who want to expand their options for children and story time at home, media devices can be perfect reading for kids’ tools. Stories can be listened to or followed along on the computer, DVDs, CDs, or on a Kindle device. These usually have an adult reading aloud and the children can read along with the help of a computer or a handheld device. eTutorWorld can help young children who are a little behind in their reading skills and need guidance. 

Online reading for kids platforms have become quite popular for families to encourage their children to participate in reading time. Parents can find a wide variety of online reading material on kids’ websites that can help a child to read along. Most of them allow parental input to improve a child’s reading skills.

For parents of second graders, some of the more advanced stories of Dr. Seuss, Berenstain Bears, The Peanuts, Disney, Sesame Street, Beatrix Potter, and Winnie the Pooh offer parents a wide variety of great reading options to enliven their minds and enhance the hunger for kids reading books. Children love to identify with the stories they read, especially when they are young. Since many of these characters are ones they see on TV, videos, and DVDs, they become a source of inspiration for kids specifically 2^nd graders.

eTutorWorld offers a number of tailor-made courses for K-4 students that help them to read flawlessly and build their vocabulary.