Assess understanding
Review the student’s current work, prerequisite skills and explanations. Compare independent performance with a guided attempt to identify a useful starting point.
Ask: “Show me how you reached that answer.”
BEST EDUCATORS · RESEARCH & LEARNING
Understand the learner.
Make every lesson purposeful.
Assess current skills. Gauge engagement. Support meaningful learning.
Educational theories offer ways to think about learning. Planning frameworks help organize lessons, and research on teaching practices helps inform our choices. We connect these ideas with the student’s work, questions and goals.
FROM OBSERVATION TO THE NEXT TEACHING STEP
Assessment, engagement & learning.
Gauge engagement
Invite questions and notice attempts, strategy use and willingness to retry. Ask the student what feels clear or difficult. Quiet participation can also be meaningful engagement.
Ask: “Which part would you like us to work through together?”
Check learning
Use a fresh task, explanation or later review to see what the student can now do. Adjust the next lesson using evidence from the work rather than participation alone.
Ask: “Can you use that idea in a different problem?”
Our $195 academic assessment is the starting point for discussing a personalized plan. Lesson checks help guide ongoing instruction. These educational activities focus on academic skills and instructional planning.
COGNITIVE · SOCIAL · MOTIVATIONAL · INSTRUCTIONAL
Twelve keys for thoughtful teaching.
These teaching perspectives and planning tools help us ask thoughtful questions about assessment, engagement and learning. Each key connects a learning idea with a purposeful teaching step.
Guided support
Compare what a student can do independently with what becomes possible with guidance. Use prompts, examples and questions, then reduce support as understanding develops.
A teaching check: Compare an independent attempt with a supported retry.
Cognitive development
Explore how the student reasons about a task. Ask for an explanation and use concrete materials or representations when an abstract idea needs a clearer foundation.
A teaching check: Listen to the reasoning behind the answer.
Prior knowledge
Connect unfamiliar material with concepts the student already understands. A short preview, familiar example or concept map can reveal missing connections.
A teaching check: Check the prerequisite skill before adding the next one.
Scaffolding & guided discovery
Break a challenging task into manageable steps. Model a strategy, guide a practice attempt and invite the student to take increasing responsibility.
A teaching check: Notice which prompts are still needed.
Experience & reflection
Use meaningful problems and discuss what happened, why it happened and how the idea could apply elsewhere. Activity becomes an opportunity to explain and reflect.
A teaching check: Ask the student to transfer an idea to a fresh example.
Purposeful learning objectives
Plan for recalling, explaining, applying, examining, judging and creating. Match the task and assessment to a clear learning goal.
A teaching check: Look for evidence of the skill the lesson is intended to develop.
Modeling & confidence
Show how a strategy works, including how to correct an error. Give students manageable opportunities to succeed and describe the strategy that helped.
A teaching check: Ask the student to explain and try the modeled strategy.
Feedback & reinforcement
Respond to specific learning actions, such as checking work or explaining a step. Recognize useful habits and give a clear next step after an error.
A teaching check: Track the learning action, alongside answer accuracy.
Varied strengths
Offer different ways to explore and express an idea. Language, patterns, diagrams, movement and collaboration can provide entry points without assigning a fixed learner label.
A teaching check: Compare understanding across suitable tasks and representations.
Structured instruction
Gain attention, state the goal, connect prior knowledge, explain and model, provide practice and feedback, and check understanding. Revisit the skill in a new context.
A teaching check: Use a brief independent task to check the lesson goal.
Growth & strategy
Treat errors as information for the next teaching step. Pair encouragement with effective instruction, feedback, revised strategies and practice. Encouragement works alongside effective instruction, feedback and practice.
A teaching check: Notice whether a changed strategy improves the next attempt.
Supportive learning conditions
Create a respectful environment where students can ask questions and express uncertainty. Discuss readiness, comfort and learning needs to help students participate.
A teaching check: Invite the student’s perspective on what helps participation.
COGNITIVE THEORIES IN PRACTICE
Building understanding. Creating something meaningful.
Constructivism
Learners actively build and revise understanding through experience and reflection. A tutor can uncover an existing idea, introduce a carefully chosen example and help the student explain what changed.
Example: Compare fraction models and discuss why differently sized pieces represent different amounts.
Constructionism
This related approach emphasizes learning while creating something meaningful that can be shared, discussed and revised.
Example: Create a fraction game, an illustrated science model or a short digital explanation, then use feedback to improve it.
MANY WAYS TO EXPLORE AN IDEA
Eight areas of multiple intelligences.
Multiple intelligences theory describes eight areas of human ability. This perspective encourages varied activities, recognition of individual strengths and different opportunities for students to demonstrate understanding.
Linguistic
Working with language, meanings and expression.
Logical–mathematical
Reasoning with numbers, patterns and relationships.
Spatial
Visualizing shapes, positions and relationships in space.
Bodily–kinesthetic
Using coordinated movement and physical actions skillfully.
Musical
Recognizing and working with rhythm, pitch and melody.
Interpersonal
Understanding others and interacting with them.
Intrapersonal
Reflecting on one’s own feelings, goals and understanding.
Naturalist
Recognizing and classifying features of the natural world.
LEARNING STYLES & PREFERENCES
Preferences can start a conversation.
Students may prefer different ways of engaging with information, and many use a combination. Four commonly discussed preferences are:
Visual
Diagrams, charts, maps and visual relationships.
Aural
Spoken explanations, discussion and listening.
Read/write
Written explanations, reading, notes and summaries.
Kinesthetic
Practical examples, demonstrations and hands-on application.
Our approach: We combine varied teaching methods suited to the subject, current skills and lesson goal. We check what the student understands and use their work, questions and progress to guide the next step.
WHAT ARE WE HELPING THE STUDENT DEVELOP?
Three learning domains.
Cognitive
Knowledge & thinking. Remembering, understanding, reasoning and solving problems.
Why it matters: Helps us set clear academic goals and check understanding. A student might explain a reading inference using evidence.
Affective
Attitudes, values & engagement. Participation, willingness to consider ideas and reflection on goals.
Why it matters: Keeps the learner’s perspective in view. A student might reflect on which study habit supports a personal goal.
Psychomotor
Coordinated physical skills. Movement and practical actions involved in a task.
Why it matters: Recognizes skills needed to carry out learning activities, such as handwriting, keyboarding or using a ruler.
Six levels of cognitive thinking
These levels help align an objective, activity and assessment. A lesson can move among them as needed.
| Level | Learning goal | Tutoring example |
|---|---|---|
| Remember | Recall a fact or procedure. | Name the parts of a fraction. |
| Understand | Explain the meaning of an idea. | Explain what the denominator tells us. |
| Apply | Use knowledge in a task. | Find an equivalent fraction. |
| Analyze | Examine parts and relationships. | Compare two ways of solving a fraction problem. |
| Evaluate | Judge using reasons and criteria. | Explain which solution is valid and why. |
| Create | Develop something using what has been learned. | Write and solve an original fraction word problem. |
INSTRUCTION · PRACTICE · REVIEW
Make practice purposeful.
Explain & model
Connect words with useful diagrams and concrete examples. Work through an example, then give the student a related problem to try.
Revisit & retrieve
Space review over time. Ask students to recall and explain key ideas, then provide feedback and return to material that needs more work.
Educational research helps inform our teaching choices. We connect the student’s starting skills with clear instruction, active participation and purposeful practice, then review progress to guide the next lesson.
FORTHCOMING BOOKS
More to explore. Coming soon!
Theoretical Framework for Teaching
Coming soon!
A forthcoming book exploring educational frameworks, assessment, engagement and learning. Theorist biographies and references will be included in the book.
Working title. Publication date, price and purchasing link will be announced here when available.
Request teaching book informationAll About Me
Coming soon!
A forthcoming book for students who have experienced trauma. More information about the book will be shared here.
Publication date, price and purchasing link will be announced when available. Please keep personal experiences and sensitive student information out of online inquiries.
Request All About Me informationYOUR STUDENT’S NEXT STEP
Connect learning goals with a plan.
Talk with Best Educators about tutoring in Chicago, Homewood and the South Suburbs.