Tutor Training Manual for Mastery Hour

We’ve prepared some tips to help you as you tutor children for the first time. The most important tip, however, is to ask for help! There is always a supervisor in the breakout rooms. We have professors who are here to come and give you help. And lots of people on slack to give you advice and support. Our tutoring team is here to support you. The more you ask for help, the better.

Top 5 Tips for Mastery Hour Tutors

1. Smile! Start with a warm hello and chit chat. Forming positive mentoring relationships is at the heart of what we do and the key ingredient for a child’s success in math and life. Many of the children in our program have experienced trauma and building a strong friendship with them will help them succeed in school and in life more than any math technique you ever teach them.

2. Apps! If kids don’t bring homework, encourage them to play a mastery-based adaptive learning app and screen share.

3. Questions! Ask good questions & model learning, instead of giving answers

4. Movement! Take movement and mindfulness breaks every 15-20 minutes

5. Survey! Fill out the feedback survey after every session and encourage your student to do the same.

Overview

A lot of tutors who start for the first time are nervous because they don’t have experience teaching.  However, have no doubt:

• You are qualified for this role.

• If you have ever helped a friend with a math problem, you know how to tutor. As tutors at Mastery Hour, we are peers and friends helping kids get unstuck when they come to a difficult problem. You have recently been in that child’s situation, so you may be able to relate to them better than an experienced tutor.

• If you’ve ever used google, youtube or asked a friend or teacher for help with math, you know how to tutor. One of the best things you can do as a tutor is model how to solve a difficult problem when you get stuck. So it’s actually great to search together (while screen sharing) for resources, activities and practice questions together when you come to a difficult problem or don’t know how to explain it. By modeling how to learn, you will give kids the tools to fish, instead of giving them a fish.

• So, there is no need to be nervous if you don’t have experience tutoring! Your main role as a tutor is to guide children’s learning, not to teach them specific information. Remember that teaching is the final level of mastery, so when you figure out how to teach a concept effectively, you yourself will have truly mastered it.

• Starting the session. When Mastery Hour starts, all the tutors and students are gathered together In one zoom room. Then the shift supervisor assigns tutors to students. You will re-name yourself with your title tutor and the grades you teach and foreign languages you speak fluently (eg Manisha- TK12 French). They you will either be invited to stay in the independent study hall, go to the Prodigy Game room or work one-on-one with a student (most common) In Mastery Hour, you will generally not get the same student every time.

• Shadowing. Generally during the first session you’ll be invited to shadow another tutor. This is an opportunity to observe a step-by-step tutoring session. If you don’t get assigned to shadow, you’re supervisor may not be aware that you are new. So be sure to request that they allow you to shadow. In certain cases, we may be direly in need of tutors and ask you to shadow right away.

• Your one-on-one We have a shared spreadsheet you can use to see information about the student and what they worked on before. It’s nice to take a little time at the beginning of the session to become friends with your student. Ask them what grade they’re in, what they’d like to work on together, what their favorite stuffed animal is or what kind of music they like.

• Pauses. Our approach in Mastery Hour is a little different than traditional tutoring programs. Generally students will come with homework and ask for help as needed or come with a learning app and ask for help as needed. Sometimes students will come to Mastery Hour and not need a lot of help. They may ask the occasional question. Or you might want to intervene and clarify to make sure they understand a concept or encourage them to slow down. Some tutors feel uncomfortable with this. They feel that they are not helping if they are not teaching all the time. However, you are contributing a tremendous amount by just being there, giving them your supportive presence while they work and answering the occasional question. This method of learning is also much more organic and allows students to move forward at their own pace. We encourage you to bring a book or your own work, so you don’t get bored during this time. Other times, they will need a lot of help and your session will be quite active!

• Tutoring more than one student at a time. During a particularly busy session, you may be asked to tutor more than one student at a time. You can start the session by saying that since there are multiple students, we’ll have to take turns and we can help each other. If students have a lot of questions, determine the order you’ll go in and try not to spend more than 5 minutes on each student if others have questions. Since Mastery Hour students often are working on a learning app or homework, one student can work while the other asks questions. Sometimes other students can chime in and help teach as well. Then all will learn.

• Dealing with parents. We try to discourage parents from chiming in and nudging their kids during tutoring sessions. It’s usually a good idea at the beginning of the session to greet the parents and gently say that during sessions, we generally find it best if a parent is not present. If a parent is lingering around during the session, you can gently suggest that the student might learn better and be less self-conscious if the parent is not there. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, just tell our tutoring shift supervisor and they’ll jump into the room or send a polite note to the parent afterwards. We already cover this with them in their orientation, so they are probably aware. If they want to stay, that is fine. Ultimately we always assume that a parent knows best what is best for their child and we don’t judge.

• Taking movement and mindful breaks. One of our aims at Mastery Hour is to help students navigate technology mindfully. We encourage you to take frequent movement breaks (dance break, 100 jumping jacks, yoga stretch) and mindful pauses (30 second meditation. You can also mix this up with drawing or anything that lets students take a pause. Make sure you also do the activity you encourage the student to do. If you ask a student to dance, make sure you dance too! Modeling is the best teacher.

• Don’t be a helicopter tutor. We encourage tutors to ask questions, rather than explain answers as much as possible. Students need a lot of time to digest and process information. It’s ok to leave as much as 1-2 minutes after you ask a question to give a student time to think. Being overly helpful can unintentionally lead to math anxiety.

• Curriculum, activities and other resources. Sometimes students come with existing homework or are playing a learning app. Other times, you’ll ask them what they are working on and they’ll just say “I don’t know.” In this case, the best approach is to ask them what grade they’re in, guess what they’re working on based on that and use google to find free resources on that subject. While you are searching, make sure you screen share so kids can follow along with your process and do it themselves the next time! We like Prodigy Game a lot and often encourage students to play this during the session. If you need additional games and activities or lessons to use with students, we like the free worksheets on Teachers Pay Teachers. Math.com is also a great site for practice problems. Math antics has a lot of fun videos explaining various topics. There is lots great content on Youtube as well. It’s perfectly fine to search on google during your session for free materials. Just make sure you screen share and explain what you’re doing so your student can be involved in that process of searching for learning materials.

• What to do if you don’t know a topic or don’t remember it. This is ripe territory for learning because you can learn with the child. There are a myriad of awesome youtube videos and other lessons to explain almost any concept. Screen share, find them together, watch them together, pause, ask questions and learn together.

• Take notes and give feedback at the end of the session. The last 5-10 minutes of the session are a great opportunity for you to reflect on what has been learned, what’s gone well and what could be improved. We rely on tutor/student feedback to make our program better. Take this time to help your student fill out a feedback form (or you can ask the questions and do the typing if they’re younger) and fill out one yourself. Also, please put notes on the student in the spreadsheet so the next tutor can pick up where you’ve left off.

Teaching techniques

Follow the child.

One of the benefits of 1-1 tutoring is that the students can guide the lessons. When a student comes to you for help because they want to learn something or improve a skill (as opposed to you coming to tell them something they may or may not want to know), they are much more likely to learn because the drive to learn is self-motivated. It may be that they’re passionate about the subject, want to do well in school or please their parents. Try to get clear on their goals and meet them where they are.  It may be they feel that they have to come and in this case, you can help them tap into more intrinsic motivation by personalizing learning, inquiry or other techniques listed below. Avoid directing the lesson and see how much space you can give the student to direct it and take advantage of your intuition and wisdom to support their learning.

Learn with your student (don’t teach)

It used to be that teachers and libraries held most of the world’s information. Now, with information at our fingertips, the role of the teacher has changed. Rather than purveyors of knowledge, we have become facilitators of knowledge. A lot of new teachers are intimidated by the idea of teaching subjects because they’re worried that they don’t understand them. Nothing could be further than the truth. If you are committed to learning and model that behavior, you can encourage children to develop the skills they need to solve any problem in the world by developing grit, coming to a deeper understanding of their own learning skills and drawing on the wealth of information available to them. The harder it is for them to learn something, but the more persistent they are, they more skills they are likely to develop to learn anything. So by your student’s teammate in learning. Don’t tell them, but learn together with them, providing an invaluable role model as a passionate, determined, creative, gritty lifelong learner. .

Inquiry

Students tend to retain information best when they figure out problems themselves. If a student asks a question, you can respond with a question. Always allow at least 3-7 seconds for a student to reply. Often, just by saying a question out loud, the student will come to an answer. If a student is answering a question wrong, rather than saying “that’s incorrect,” ask them to prove to you that it is correct. That way they will expose flaws themself.

For example,

Student asks: “I don’t understand how to do this problem.”

Tutor replies: “What do you think?”

 “Are there any parts of this problem that you understand?”

“What do you know that can help you solve this problem?”

Allow lots of space for silence while those wheels turn in their minds. Pauses are our friend.

Here is more on the Socratic method of teaching or Inquiry-based learning.

Modeling/Social Learning Theory

Modeling is vital to effective teaching and learning. Children learn by imitating mentors and peers. Rather than telling the child how to learn, learn with them. Explore how to solve the problem together. Go searching for the way to solve the problem on google or youtube while screen sharing with the student. This will help them see different tools they can use to teach themselves. A great way to teach growth mindset is to point out times you struggled even though something was hard for you, celebrate your own mistakes and how they help you learn. This can be especially helpful if you don’t understand the concept that you’re supposed to teach! Don’t be afraid to say I don’t know or ask a head tutor for help. And it goes without saying that the more passion you demonstrate for learning, the more the student is likely to pick up on this passion and become passionate about the material themselves. Anything you ask the student to do, you should do too, whether it’s a complex algebra problem or dancing like wild in a dance break to wake up in the middle of the session.

Personalizing  learning

Students are more likely to retain information (and be inspired to learn) if they have an emotional connection and understand how the material they are learning is relevant to areas they are passionate about. On of the most effective ways to motivate a student is to explain why the information might be useful to them.

For example, if a student loves cooking, you can practice fraction problems by choosing a cookie recipe and figuring out how to make that for a party of 50 people.

It is very important to give meaning to the work students are doing. And for that to happen, you also have to challenge yourself to understand the meaning. No one likes doing senseless work. If you respect your students and understand how deeply intelligent they are, you’l realize hom important it is that they understand the why of what they’re doing. Even if you don’t agree that the homework they are doing in class will contribute to their success later in life, it may be that you can understand how doing well in school will help lead them to better opportunities and how sometimes doing work that doesn’t make sense, but doing it well, can be an important part of being a team player. Preparing for the SAT can be an interesting exercise in understanding how systems work, even if the math on the test itself isn’t that much of a judge of their abilities. In general though, it’s our hope you can find more meaningful reasons why the work they are doing is important, such as preparing them with skills to manage their budget, have a successful career, design their own video game, understand the geometry of their NFL football game or create a budget for their future theater company. Don’t underestimate your student’s intelligence. Help them understand the sense of what they’re doing.

Student as teacher

It’s widely considered that the ability to teach is the final level of mastery. Ask your student to explain a concept to you as if you are a five year old. If possible, encourage them to explain the concept to a parent or peer. Students who can teach concepts are sure to have an in-depth understanding of them and to retain that information. Trying to teach the problem will also easily expose any gaps in their understanding. If you can encourage students to teach concepts, you will be able to “teach” any concept in the world, because you won’t have to know it yourself. All you will have to do is encourage your student to find the information they need to be able to explain it to you. Sometimes you’ll find that students are just guessing answers or answering a bunch of questions correctly in the same row. This is a great time to get them to try to think about the process they are using to solve the problem. and try to explain it to you.

Make connections

To deepen understanding and give sense to learning, draw connections.

Draw connections between lessons you’ve learned before and material you’re learning now. For example. If you’re studying fractions, you might want to relate how that’s similar to the decimal problem you were studying earlier, but stated in a different way.

You can also draw connections between the problem you’re learning and the student’s own life. For example, if they solve a complex subtraction problem, you might point out how useful that would be if they were going to start their own dance company and needed to know how much money to raise to buy all their costumes.

It can also be helpful to connect some emotion to the learning. Kids love jokes. Try to make the lesson funny and they’ll be more likely to retain the information. Share a moving personal story that relates to the concept or encourage a student to share theirs.

Encourage mastery

One of the benefits of tutoring is that students can take the time they need to master one concept before moving on to the next. Encourage students to take their time and not rush. Slowing down speeds things up later. You might even train the by encouraging them to verify their answer three times or use a different strategy to answer it to check their work. Getting a problem right isn’t enough. Try to ensure that a student has mastered the concept by seeing if they can teach it to you. (Teaching is the final level of mastery)  Learn more about mastery learning here.

Celebrate hard work, not success to cultivate a growth mindset.

In Angela Duckworth’s book, “Grit” she explains how research has shown that those who tend to be successful in life are people with a certain sticktoitiveness. If then confront a challenge, they get more creative and persistent, rather than choosing an easier route. The problem in our culture is that we tend to praise or criticize character, rather than behavior. For example, we’ll say to a child, “you’re so smart!” rather than “I love how you worked even harder when you were confronted with that obstacle.” Here is a great blog by Sal Khan describing why it’s important to praise process over talent.

Differentiate learning  (learn with multiple modalities and all five senses)

They say a person needs to see an ad 16 times before it even registers in their brain. Successful marketing campaigns try to introduce potential customers to a concept in different ways to make it register (in a facebook ad, on a radio, through a community ambassador at their school, via a personal referral). Likewise, different students learn better in different ways. According to Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligence theory, there are eight types of intelligences (though researchers believe there are far more). Try to understand your student’s learning style to figure out the best way for them to learn. But regardless of how they learn best, try to teach them in different approaches to help reinforce information.

Here are a few  examples of ways to approach learning:

Visual: Show a youtube video or write it down

Auditory: listen to a podcast (or explain it to the student)

Kinesthetic: Ask the student to draw a picture, take notes, count on their fingers

Musical: Make up a song with the student about the concept

If you think of neat ways to make learning multi-sensory, share them in the slack group so all can benefit.

Differentiating learning for different age groups, learning styles, cultural differences, languages can be an important part of anti-bias education which we discuss in this guide as well.

Communicating with Children

Positive Guidance

Pay attention to the language you use with your students, and try to speak in terms of do’s rather than don’ts. Speak in terms of the skills you want to encourage, rather than those you want to dissuade. Children (and often adults) don’t tend to hear the no. For example, research has shown if you want a child to stop running. It’s much more effective to say “please walk,” rather than “don’t run.” If you say, “don’t run,” the word “run” is likely all they will hear.

When teaching math, if a child says, “I’m bad at this,” rather than correcting them by, “you’re not bad,” you can say, “you’re learning,” or “you’re working hard to develop this skill.”

Rather than saying, “if you don’t underline the numbers you’ll make a mistake,” consider saying “If you underline the numbers, it might be easier to understand.”

Try to use positive, rather than negative language whenever you can to send a signal to the child’s brain of what they CAN DO, rather than what they can’t.

For more information on child-centered communication, please check out Adele Faber’s wonderful book, How to Talk so Children Learn.

Acknowledge Point of View

If a student feels frustrated with a problem or bored, resist the urge to make them feel better or entertain them. A student might exclaim, “I’m terrible at this. I’ll never get it right!” Rather than say, “oh no! You’re really smart,” consider empathizing with their feelings. “I can tell you feel really frustrated with this.” You don’t know if they’re frustrated because of the problem or if there is something else going on in their life but hearing and emphathizing with them before you evaluate will help build trust - and eventually make them feel better. There is nothing more meaningful and soothing to a child than feeling truly understood.

Repetition

It may not be that a child registers a concept on the first, second third or 20th time. But they will likely register it on the 100th or 1000th time. One of the most important, albeit valuable ways to communicate with children is to repeat things over and over until it’s finally sunk in. It takes a lot of patience. But the pay off is huge.

Take breaks!

Sitting in front of a screen is no fun. If you sense a student is getting bored, have a dance party, do jumping jacks or chat about nothing. Share fun brain breaks with the group!

Communicate with the team

If you see any behavior that concerns you or have any reason to suspect a child is in danger physically or emotionally, report it immediately to your supervisor at masterylearning. Don’t try to handle the situation on your own.

Learning differences

“Many people struggle with math, and they can struggle with it for different reasons. When it comes to kids, some simply need more time and practice to “catch up.” But trouble with math can also be a sign of common learning and thinking differences.

Some learning and thinking differences can impact math in ways that look similar on the surface. But they may require different strategies for kids to make progress and improve at math.”

Learn about the different types of learning differences that impact math and strategies to address them here.

https://www.understood.org/en/learning-thinking-differences/child-learning-disabilities/math-issues/how-various-learning-and-thinking-differences-can-cause-trouble-with-math

Anti-bias education

Through our work at Mastery Learning Hour, we are trying to level the playing field and give all students access to the best education possible. Even with the best intentions, hidden bias can play a huge role in how we interact with children. If we choose to look within and examine our bias, we can play an empowering, not destructive role in children’s lives as their mentors and teachers.

Here are some strategies

1. Review critical practices for Anti-bias Education

“This critical practices guide offers practical strategies for creating a space where academic and social-emotional goals are accomplished side by side. It also provides valuable advice for implementing culturally responsive pedagogy and describes how teachers can bring anti-bias values to life by

• building and drawing on intergroup awareness, understanding and skills;

• creating classroom environments that reflect diversity, equity and justice;

• engaging families and communities in ways that are meaningful and culturally competent;

• encouraging students to speak out against bias and injustice;

• including anti-bias curricula as part of larger individual, school and community action;

• supporting students’ identities and making it safe for them to fully be themselves; and

• using instructional strategies that support diverse learning styles and allow for deep exploration of anti-bias themes.

Critical Practices for Anti-bias Education is organized into four sections: Instruction, Classroom Culture, Family and Community Engagement, and Teacher Leadership. In each section, you can explore recommended practices, find helpful explanations and learn how each practice connects to anti-bias education.

We recommend starting with Critical Practice for Instruction to develop strategies for helping students as tutors.

https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/publications/critical-practices-for-antibias-education/instruction

1. Take a hidden bias test

“Hidden Bias Tests measure unconscious, or automatic, biases. Your willingness to examine your own possible biases is an important step in understanding the roots of stereotypes and prejudice in our society.

The ability to distinguish friend from foe helped early humans survive, and the ability to quickly and automatically categorize people is a fundamental quality of the human mind. Categories give order to life, and every day, we group other people into categories based on social and other characteristics.

This is the foundation of stereotypes, prejudice and, ultimately, discrimination.”

Take the test here:

https://www.tolerance.org/professional-development/test-yourself-for-hidden-bias

3. Expect the best - and be genuine about it. It is vital to expect the best from each child and show total commitment to finding a good strategy to helping them learn. Children who are expected to succeed, succeed. Children who are expected to fail, considered lazy or hopeless, fell. You can become the consistent voice inside them cheering them on saying “I believe in you. You can do it.” The more techniques you try until you find something that works for them the more you are showing your belief in them and your commitment to them succeed them. They can model that behavior and show the same commitment to themselves.

4) Differentiate learning.  Every child learns differently. Above in teaching techniques, we’ve outlined strategies you can try until you find the best approach for each child (and it’s an ongoing process). Differentiating learning is a way to honor differences in learners that extend beyond learning style. For instance, when you personalize learning material, you can make it culturally relevant. When you talk to a student about their goals and create a project around their goals, you are giving meaning to their learning, helping them succeed where it’s important for them in their unique community, not just because a grownup says, “I told you so.”   By differentiating learning and making it culturally relevant, you are also modeling ways that students can keep searching for the best learning approaches on their own. This teaches a growth mindset. With creativity, grit and perseverance, anything is possible.  

Best practices for online teaching

• Arrive 5 minutes early to ensure your sound and video are working well

• Make sure your name is displayed correctly (If necessary, you can rename yourself)

• Laptop/computer not ipad or phone: To help kids see and hear you, use a computer, not your phone.

• Camera angle: The computer’s camera should be at eye level or slightly above. (No one wants to see your nostrils)

• Prepare to be in a clean, well-lit setting.

• Use headphones. Some younger children are especially difficult to understand. Wearing headphones will help you hear them better and be heard.

• Setting: Prepare to be in a clean, well-lit setting.

• Audio: If possible, try to find a space where you can close the door so there is no background noise. Use wireless headphones if possible. Some younger children are especially difficult to understand. Wearing headphones will help you hear them better and be heard.

• Lighting: Make sure that your face is well lit. Don't sit in front of a bright window.

• Record all your sessions. It is helpful to have a record if you need to review or a parent has a question about something that happened during the session.

• Movement breaks. If you sense a child is getting tired, give them a movement break. It’s great if you do it as well to encourage them. 10 jumping jacks, push-ups or putting on music and having a dance party are all great ways to have a brain break. Whatever you encourage the children to do, do it with them!

• If you’d like to go more in-depth, here is a training video we created on teaching on zoom.

Here are some more helpful tips in an article from USA Today

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/04/11/zoom-meetings-go-better-these-6-tips-look-your-best/5125980002/

Resources for further exploration

https://www.youcubed.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/12-Steps-to-unlock-your-students-math-achievement.pdf

https://www.youcubed.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/How-Students-Should-be-Taught-Mathematics.pdf