You will be expected to motivate and encourage your students. You will make a difference for them by supporting their learning process and helping them see that they are capable of successfully reaching their goals.

Sometimes a student will have so much going on outside of class that they won’t be able to focus on that day’s lesson. That’s okay. As a tutor, you understand, and there is no “penalty” for being an adult with a life. Why do I say that? Because I’ve heard from students who felt they’d been given up on because of how their lives were going.

It won’t be your job to help get their outside lives in order, but it is your responsibility to help them learn the necessary information to reach their goals. They need to know you won’t give up on them. If they want to succeed and are trying their best, you will be there to help.

This may sound like a lot of responsibility, but sometimes all it takes is letting a student know you understand.

If a student has a strong, or even a mediocre, outside support system, that’s wonderful and can make a world of difference. You can’t change what’s going on outside our department, but you can be the strongest support system within the literacy program.

You, as a tutor, can make all the difference by offering that encouragement and support. Sometimes, all it takes is telling them, “You’re doing great—keep it up!”

Penny Chastain is the adult literacy coordinator at Muskogee Public Library, a branch of the Eastern Oklahoma Library System. Contact Chastain at pchastain@eols.org or (918) 682-6657.