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A Tutor’s Touch Philosophy

A Tutor’s Touch believes very strongly that until lower level skills have been mastered, higher level skills and concepts will not be completely understood. It is like building a tower with some of the foundation’s blocks missing. Eventually, construction on the tower must stop or the tower will topple. This is what happens when a child seems to not progress any further in school. Until the foundational skills that are missing are mastered, the child will continue to struggle.

A Tutor’s Touch uses the Brigance CIBS-R to discover what skills the student has not yet mastered. After determining what skills are needed, we create a computerized report detailing goals and objectives for the student. The tutor uses this report as a guideline for instruction. The tutor is given curriculum that has been hand picked for the student’s needs and will use a variety of materials to help the student master the concepts. Some of the materials include hands-on activities and games, worksheets, and computer games.

A Tutor’s Touch believes that understanding the concepts of what is being learned is the first step to building a strong foundation.  We typically use hands-on activities and games for this step. The student then uses the hands-on materials to practice the skill.  After the concept is understood, the student practices the skill without the hands-on materials.  After the student can do the skill easily, repetition of the skill is key. We spend the first ten minutes of each tutoring session reviewing past skills, usually with short speed drills. We usually use worksheets with a timer and/or computer games for this step. Because repetition is so important to mastering skills, we give about 10 - 20 minutes of home practice a day. Students who do this work daily will significantly increase their speed of learning and decrease the overall length of time needed in tutoring sessions. 

Periodically, a reevaluation will be done to ensure mastery of skills and determine new goals and objectives. Students progress at different rates.  The reevaluation will take place when the tutor believes the present goals and objectives have been mastered.
 
Our goal at A Tutor’s Touch is to help each student progress through our program as quickly as possible.

How we teach new skills to elementary and middle school students:

 

  1.   We use hands-on activities and games to introduce the new skill or concept.
  2.   The student practices the skill or concept with and without hands-on materials.
  3.   The student practices the skill or concept daily.
  4.   When the student can do the skill with no hesitation, short speed drills are used.
  5.   After mastery, the student practices the skill daily until the tutor believes the skill will be permanently retained.

       6. Skills are reviewed periodically to ensure mastery.