The techniques in the Tutor's Bag of Tricks not only help the tutor, but once students become aware of them, they help them learn on their own.
Games
Create a learning game.Something like "jeopardy" is fun, and everyone knows the rules.
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Images
Use drawings to illustrate concepts rather than relying only on words. This is especially good for tutoring in the sciences and math. Remember that some students' preferred and most effective learning style is visual.Return to the top of this page
Quizzes
Use "practice" quizzes to help reinforce learning.Have students write their own quizzes, either for the Tutor or for other students in a tutoring group.
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Keywords
Have students make lists of key vocabulary words and write down their meanings and the page number in the text on which they are defined.Return to the top of this page
Analogies
Analogies are comparisons of similar things. When using an analogy in tutoring, you compare a new concept to be learned with a similar concept that the student is already familiar with.Return to the top of this page
Flash Cards
These are good vocaculary-builders.Compared to keyword lists, flash cards have the advantage that shuffling the cards creates a new order of memory-cues.
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Mnemonics
Mnemonics are tricks to help remember things.For example, to remember a list of words, you could make up a sentence in which the first letters of each word correspond to the first letters of words to be remembered.
Like this:
M My Mnemonics C Cat Can H Has Help R Red Remember T Teeth ThingsOr, you can draw a picture in which each object in the image represents something to be remembered.
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Commonplace Examples
In a discussion of the physics principle of deceleration (a moving object slowing down), the Tutor could use a comonplace example of a driver slaming on the car's breaks to avoid hitting a pedestrian.Return to the top of this page
Student as Tutor
Tutors ask Students to teach them or to teach others in a tutoring group.All teachers know that the best way to learn something is to teach it so someone else.
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