6th May 2010 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Preparing lessons can be a difficult conundrum for a tutor, and the type and amount prepared depends very much on the particular tutor and student. This is very different to classroom teaching, where nowadays teachers are taught to prepare each lesson according to a framework.
Why is lesson preparation so different for a tutor? Well obviously a teacher will have a lesson objective for each lesson, and can plan the lesson virtually minute-by-minute, but a tutor’s lesson has to be more flexible, tutors can’t say that they’re going to spend 10 minutes on a topic; what if the student doesn’t understand after 10 minutes? Or what if they understand after 30 seconds? A tutor has to tailor lessons for each student, and react and change the lesson as it happens.
As tutors, we have to decide how this affects our preparation. Ultimately it’s very much up to the individual tutor to decide how to prepare, and to make sure that they’re comfortable with teaching in that way. Some tutors will do a lot of preparation, and consider many of the routes the lesson could take, so that they’ve recently looked at any areas that the student may need help with. This is particularly important when a tutor is teaching a subject which they haven’t studied for some time. However, a tutor shouldn’t devise a strict lesson plan from which they aren’t prepared to deviate.
Some tutors choose not to do very much specific preparation at all. They will ensure that they have an in-depth knowledge of the material to be covered, but won’t necessarily write a physical plan to follow. This method can work very well, especially when the tutor’s role is to provide supplementary education. It can be difficult though if the student requires first-time teaching of a topic.
The important point is to ensure that the tutor prepares in a way that works for them, and for their students. It’s easy to assume that a written lesson plan is necessarily better than something less formal, but it’s not always the case. A good lesson plan in a tutor’s head is better than a poor lesson plan on paper.