Literacy Volunteers Tutoring Program
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Benefits to Tutoring an Adult

• You are able to provide immediate feedback to your student.
• You can focus on those literacy skills that need strengthening and your student's most pressing literacy goals.
• You will create individualized and customized lessons to help your student move forward.
• Since your student's skill level sets the pace for learning, you can speed up or slow down the lesson according to her ability.
• You will guide your student in setting realistic and achievable literacy goals.
• In working closely with each other, you will build up trust and mutual respect.
• You will empower your student by being a partner in learning.

Characteristics of a Good Tutor

A good tutor:

• Serves as both mentor and role model
• Encourages participatory and active learning
• Shows respect and tolerance
• Is patient, punctual, responsible, and professional
• Can commit the necessary time and effort to help a student reach her literacy goals
• Works hard to transfer classroom learning to the real world
• Has good communication skills
• Can put a student at ease with a positive attitude and a sense of humor
• Is well-trained and competent
  

The Tutoring Environment

Keeping in mind the characteristics of your adult learner, make sure that the physical environment you choose for your tutoring session is conducive to learning. In assessing your potential meeting space, ask yourself:

• Is the lighting adequate? If your student still has difficulty reading under adequate lighting conditions and with large print materials, she might need glasses.
• Are there any disruptive noises such as traffic outside, a day nursery down the hall, or others using the same room/area?
  Is the table large enough for me to sit next to my student? This encourages interaction and says subliminally that your student is an equal partner in learning.
• Can all tutoring materials fit easily on the table?
• Are the chairs comfortable?
• Is the site convenient to parking or public transportation?
• Is the site open at convenient hours?
• Is privacy guaranteed?

A common definition of literacy used today is, "the ability to read, write, and speak in English, and compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job and in society, achieve one's goals, and develop one's knowledge and potential."

It is important to remember, however, that the level of essential skills needed to meet any definition of literacy will necessarily change as the demands of the workplace, the family, and the society change.

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