Simplifying difficult concepts into easier steps for tutoring

By taking this opportunity to reflect on my last year of tutoring and Charlie, I have come to appreciate the value and skill in breaking down difficult concepts for students to understand. I have developed this skill particularly in the context of tutoring students in primary school. In this context I have found scaffolding is one of the most useful tools to help students understand difficult concepts. I recently found scaffolding particularly useful when teaching fractions using pre filled boxes to help reduce the cognitive load on the student to allow them to fully focus on the numerator and learn what a numerator is. In the following lesson I was able to create a activity with question that had a pre-filled numerator to help the student learn what a demonimater was. This helped the student learn the two parts of a fraction and feel confident using fractions, this was achievable after I used tool with broke down what was a very difficult concept for the student into manageable steps.

Another skill I found have to be core to be able breaking down difficult concepts into simpler ones is patients and following the students ability to ensure the lesson is at their level. While writing this I was inspired by Charlie Walker, who was tutoring next to me and his ability to change how he was explaining difficult economic concepts patiently in a tailored lesson to to his student. I have used the word tailored as Charlie followed the questions of his student and adjusted his lesson to be slightly different to what he had planned to meet the students needs and provide effective tutoring. To conclude, upon a reflection on my last year of tutoring and observation of Charlie I have come to appreciate the skill of making difficult ideas seam simple through strategies such as a scaffolding and using patience.