• To serve those in need, do a survey! Talk to teachers and students; find out where they need the most help!
• Start small and specific! Don’t try too much at once, you may start with only a handful of participants but that’s okay. Come up with one easy goal for the semester so that you make sure it can be achieved.
• Take your time! Give yourself a semester to set-up the program; the planning process may be more work than you bargained for. Find a group of kids who want to help with the program and delegate tasks so that you don’t get overwhelmed.

Set

Now that you have thought about your program and decided exactly what you want to achieve, it’s time to start taking action.

Recruit tutors: Advertise and spread the word to look for students who are interested in tutoring. Print a few flyers and distribute them to teachers in the upper level classes, ask if they have any suggestions for kids who might want to help. Hold an information session and explain what the program will entail.

Hold your first meeting: Now’s your chance to transform students into teachers. Do some icebreakers so that tutors get to know each other. Then, run a few training activities.

• Ask them to fill out a questionnaire about their learning experiences so they start thinking about what the learning process entails.
• Come up with a list of good tutoring techniques.
• Do some role-playing, split tutors into pairs and give them different difficult scenarios they might face when tutoring. Ask them to perform a short skit for the group, showing how a tutor might respond a student that is having trouble. Some examples are: a student who isn’t paying attention, an unresponsive student, a student who keeps distracting you by asking irrelevant questions.
• If tutors will be helping with specific subject areas, give them time to prepare.
• Split tutors into groups and ask them to come up with a list of fun games or activities that they can use when they are tutoring.

Supplies: What do you need? Can your teacher lend you pencils, paper, a whiteboard, or other materials? Should program participants bring their own supplies? Make a proposal to your school administrators or even community members, maybe someone will be interested in providing snacks!

Teach!

Now that you’re organized and prepared, it’s time to start the program. In order to make sure that things are going smoothly you can use these tips.

Hold periodic tutor meetings: Try to talk to your tutors once a month, hold a meeting to discuss problems they are having. Get tutors to share ideas or techniques they have used with their students. Maybe hold another training activity!

Celebrate your volunteers: Head to the ice-cream parlor after one of your sessions. Even if you can’t afford to pay for all the tutors, this will give everyone a chance to hang-out and get to know one another. Well-fed tutors are happy tutors, and happy tutors will be enthusiastic and excited for the program.

Evaluations: Ask students and tutors to fill out evaluations to find out what they like, or don’t like about the program.

Expand: If things are going well, there are endless ways to expand your program. Reach out to more students who need help or add another day for the program. Think about continuing into the summer. To help your students get to know their tutors, take a field trip to a museum instead of a session one afternoon, or hold a pizza party on the last day! Feeling a little overwhelmed? Sometimes it feels like there are just too many things to consider when starting your program. If you need help getting specific, here are a few sample programs that are easy to replicate at your school!

• Reading Together: Every Friday afternoon, hold a two-hour session and help kids enjoy reading. Split into groups and have kids practice reading to each other with a tutor supervising. For the last half-hour, read a chapter from a harder book that the kids all enjoy. Talk to a few first grade teachers and let them know about the program. Ask them to invite their students to participate or distribute flyers to parents to let them know about program.
• Homework Help: Offer homework help to middle school students. Choose a few days a week when high school tutors can stay after school for an hour. Post flyers at the middle school and make an announcement so that students know about the program. Invite them to stop by if they need help with some math homework, or want you to read over an essay that needs editing.
• Reaching Out: Find a suffering school nearby. Talk to an administrator or teacher at the school and let them know that you want to help. Choose a grade or classroom to focus on and find out what the students are learning. To address the need, devise a lesson plan to teach anything from simple mathematics to how to write an essay. See if you can meet at the school on Saturday mornings to hold a few extra class sessions so those who need help have the opportunity to get it.
• Languages at Lunch: If your school offers foreign languages, then there are definitely students stumbling over their words. Talk to the teachers in the language department and choose a day of the week for students taking the same languages to eat lunch together. Make everyone speak in their foreign language during the entire period so beginners get a chance to practice and improve.

For more advice about tutoring check out The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory they have an endless list of resources and articles that offer guidance for tutoring.