Every tutor needs to give a “after-lesson” session report to their students in order to see if they are doing well with their tuition classes. It also helps parents see what else they can do to assist their children with their studies while at home. This can add to your credibility as their tutor.
However, some people find it hard to write session reports or even know what to write in them. If this is your current situation, here is a quick run through about session reports and how to do it well for your students and their parents.
What is a Session Report?
A session report is a special progress card students can receive from their tutors. This will help students and parents alike to see how well the student is doing during their tutoring sessions and what to do to support their progress. Providing a report will add value to your services as a home tutor.
How to Write an Effective Session Report
Show Progress & Areas for Improvement
Since a session report is like a report card for students, it must show clear milestones which will help students understand where they need to focus and where they are progressing properly.
For example, if they are good in math, you can point out they are good in fractions or need some help with their algebra techniques.
When writing up the session report, make it a point to also do summaries on what the student can do to improve it. Using the example provided, if they need to practice in algebra, you can give them references they can look up to so they can learn new techniques in dealing with algebraic formulas.
Provide Action Items
Aside from giving your students a progress report of their performance, the session report should also give them a list of action items or homework they need to complete before you begin their next session. This will give them opportunities to get used to the workload they are also doing in school and learn how to prepare before your sessions every day.
Having action items in the session report also helps parents guide their children with their studies at home after their tutoring sessions, as well as reinforce what they learnt. If parents are uncertain as to how they can reinforce the tutoring sessions, you can provide examples for them to use.
Collect Enough Data
You can’t immediately give a session report to a student, especially if this is your first time teaching them. Ask the parents what their student’s teachers are saying about their child’s performance in school and check their previous exams as well. You can then compare it to their performance when you sit down with them for their tutoring sessions. Here is a guide on what you should do before your first lesson.
Once you have all the data, see if the information you got is accurate and plan your tutoring sessions accordingly. For the session report, you should take note of the data you got and point out what can be done to improve the child’s performance.
TIP: Always take notes as your students are doing the tasks before them. This will help you list down all the data your student needs to know regarding their performance.
Communicate in Real Time
During your tutoring sessions, don’t wait until the end to give your students the feedback they need to improve on their performance.
If you want it to make an effective session report, you should sit down with the child and their parents and let them know what will be included in the session report after the tutoring session. This will help them know what to expect once you give them the actual report. Here is how to get their feedback at the same time so you can create a session report they can understand and follow easily.
When you are communicating with them, always stay calm and don’t be afraid to answer any inquiries they may have. Some parents may want further explanation about their child’s performance and it may not be seen in the session reports clearly.
Anchor Progress vs. Expected Performance
If you want your communication with the parents and students to be effective, you need to be upfront with them.
If you are upfront, you can give them an accurate assessment of how well they are doing. You can use the session reports to showcase their progress so far, what you think they will do in their exams, projects and other assessments. Here is how to assess your students without using exam grades.
You can then include the tips you can provide them to help them improve their performance potential in the session report for reference.
Create a Progress Trail
The session reports that you should be writing for the student and parents should be built on the previous notes you listed in the previous session report. This will provide the students a clear idea about their progress, see the effects of their efforts and move forward creating new study goals.
Parents will love to see a progress trail because it will show them that their investment is worth it and that their children do have what it takes to excel if they are given all the resources available.
Tutors will also benefit from having a progress trail visible through the session report because this will help you identify how you can help the student succeed in their academic goals. It will also help establish which areas need close attention as the student progresses in their year level.
Use session report tools
If you really don’t have the time to write individual session reports for your students because of your hectic schedule, don’t be afraid to check out session report tools available online. Some apps like this come with log options to record what occurred during a certain tutoring schedule and save notes for records.
Of course, make it a point to double check the report it will make so that your student or their parents won’t have to ask you about further clarifications.
Conclusion
As tutors, it is important we find ways to help our students improve in their academic performance once they go back to school. With a clearly written session report, you can definitely push them to the right direction because they will be able to see where they need more effort to improve on and which subjects they should continue excelling into.
To improve your services as a tutor, here are some tips to help you:
10 Podcasts that will Help You Improve as a Tutor
15 Ted Talks Every Singapore Tutor Should Check Out
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