Spectrum Tuition are always refining our materials in order to take the guesswork out of providing consistent, high quality tutorials. Our weekly course books give our students everything they need to master new skills each week. They also enable a clear line of communication between students, tutors and parents. Let’s take a look at how our course books work…
Class Objectives
Here’s what a typical front page looks like. It looks pretty simple, but it actually contains a number of different sections, each of which play an important role in our classes. Firstly, is the class objectives. This section provides a concise summary of the learning goals for each week’s class. Students can tick off these objectives when they feel that they have adequately mastered them. This section also has a space where tutors can leave comments for parents to read.
Results Section
Beneath the class objectives, is the results section. This section is used to record all of the student’s results for the class. This means that parents can pick up their children’s books and see how they performed that week.
Question Slip
The next section on the front page is the question slip. Students use this slip throughout the week to record any problems they have with the homework. We found that, quite often, students encounter questions or difficulties when completing the homework, but then forget them when they arrive to class the next week. That’s why we believe that it’s important to provide a space for students to write down any questions or problems that they encounter.
Reflection Slip
The final section of the front page is called the reflection slip. Students are asked to fill this slip out at the end of each class, so that the tutor can get a good idea of how successful the lesson was, and whether their students had any difficulties or concerns. This is all part of our attempt to ensure that we are constantly improving our service.
When students open up their books, the first page they will see is also an administrative page. Here’s what it looks like…
Homework Table
This page contains a homework table where students record what homework they must complete each week. This table is very important because it is the primary channel of communication between parents and tutors. Each week, the tutor, the student and the parent must sign the homework section. This ensures that everyone is on the same page.
There is also a section where parents, students and the tutor can leave notes for each other to read. This helps tutors and parents to pass on messages about difficulties the student is having, or to provide advice on how students can improve their results.
Victorian Curriculum Achievement Standards table
You will also notice the Victorian Curriculum Achievement Standards table. As you may be aware, our classes align to the current Victorian Curriculum. This table gives detailed information on what specific learning outcomes each week covers.
Spelling Test
If the book is an English book, the next page will be the spelling test. Our students are given a spelling test every week to help improve their vocabulary. This page has a space for students to rewrite any word they spelled incorrectly in the test.
Spelling Revision Page
At the back of the book, there is also a spelling revision page to help students revise their spelling words throughout the week. Each week, students are given a pre-test of the next week’s spelling words, to test for existing knowledge.
After the spelling test, each book contains a quiz that covers the previous week’s content. This quiz allows students to test how much they have learned, as well as providing a useful way of recapping the previous week’s work.
Building Knowledge and Introduction
After the quiz, the book contains all of the class work for the week. In English classes, there is a grammar section, which introduces a new grammatical skill, and then a text section, which gives a more in-depth exploration of how to read and write particular text types. In order to ensure students understand all of the content, the class work is broken into four sections.
The first section, building knowledge is where the tutor explains a concept. This section gives a summary of all the information that the student needs to learn in each section. This section often starts with an engaging introduction, which is used to get students interested in the topic at hand.
Worked Examples
The next section is worked examples. Students are given example questions with full worked solutions. The tutor guides the class through this example, to show students how to answer questions.
Have A Go
Next is the have a go section. This section includes a small amount of questions that quickly test whether students have understood the worked examples. Students can have a go at each of these questions. If they get the answer right, they can carry on with the practice questions. However, if they get these questions wrong, the tutor knows that they need to spend more time teaching and giving worked examples.
Finally, the practice questions allow students to practice their new skills.
We understand that some students work faster than others. We also understand that there’s few things worse than a student who finishes all the questions early and is left to feel bored and unchallenged. That’s why our books also contain extension questions to challenge students who finish their work early.
Homework Section
There is a homework section at the end of each book. Our homework recaps everything that was taught that week.
The end of the book also contains a mistakes section where students are encouraged to redo any question that they got incorrect throughout the class. This is to ensure that our students can learn from their mistakes.
Finally, all of our books now have a full set of answers from the previous week at the end of each book. With these answers, you can correct any work that you didn’t complete in class. This ensures that students and parents feel confident in the feedback given.
Overall, this may seem like a lot of sections just for one week. But it’s all part of Spectrum Tuition’s goal to provide a consistent, well structured and high quality tutoring service each and every week.
To download your free sample course book based on your current learning goals, please click below
