While the 2026 Degrees of Maternity Summer Reading Program ended last month, it’s still very fresh in my mind. It was such a great experience, and there were several “lessons learned” that I took from the experience. However, the most important one that will guide me in my future tutoring endeavors is this . . .
I’m built to be a reading tutor who provides one-on-one instruction.
And, that fact was further solidified through this first-time experience of me conducting tutoring classes for the summer program. This was the first year trying this new teaching format, and it may truly be the last year.
Now, while I do prefer virtual tutoring over in-person tutoring, that discussion can be for another post. Actually, I do believe I’ve already discussed that particular preference of mine in previous posts. But, today’s conversation is reserved for the whole “working with one child at a time versus working with multiple children at once.”
I kind of knew in my heart-of hearts that holding classes wouldn’t be my jam, but I needed to prove that to myself. And, not that I did a terrible job of holding classes. No. The children were great. The families appreciated the results my program provided for their children. And, I just count it a privilege to support children in learning a skill that has personally brought me so much joy, regardless of the number of children I teach in one setting.
I mean . . . you would think that I would be sold on keeping the classes going because the program went well. But inwardly, I just had this nagging feeling like something didn’t feel quite right with this format of delivering reading instruction. At least, it didn’t feel quite right to me. I was out of my comfort zone, for sure. And, it wasn’t that I didn’t give classes a chance. I gave them a chance . . . ALL . . . SUMMER . . . LONG! But, teaching this way didn’t feel genuine or natural to me.
I didn’t like dividing my super-targeted teaching between children. I wanted to do what I had been doing with all of my tutoring sessions before this year’s summer program began — giving each child my undivided attention and being able to truly cater each tutoring session to maximize the learning experience for my tutees. It’s called differentiated reading instruction. My jam! And, I wasn’t getting to function in that capacity anymore.
So . . .
While I wholeheartedly value the opportunity to bring reading instruction to more students and appreciate the earning potential that can be gained by scaling a tutoring business through class offerings, providing reading instruction to a group of children (in the same tutoring timeslot) is a NO-GO for me . . . at this time, anyway.
I tried it and was successful in delivering an enjoyable program to my students, but I can’t help but think that I could have gotten farther with each one of the children if I had been able to take each one aside — individually — and work with him or her one-on-one.
So, that’s it in a nutshell! I like working with children (but individually) when it comes to providing reading instruction. And, I’ve noticed the following positives when doing so:
- I’m able to develop a deeper relationship with each child separately, where he or she gets to know me better and I get to know the child better.
- I can start working with the child where he or she is in the reading journey and bring that child to where he or she needs to be — quicker.
- I can specifically cater my lessons to the learning style that best suits the student.
- Effective incentives and rewards can be created to positively reinforce behaviors that I want to see more of in the student.
- My attention is devoted to the one student before me, and I’m able to address the needs of the student without distraction.
- I don’t have the added responsibility of making sure that one student’s negative or counterproductive behavior isn’t affecting the behavior of another student or other students in the class.
- A child tends to be more comfortable in making mistakes (and learning from them) when he or she is just dealing with me (and not me plus classmates).
- Handling scheduling matters for tutoring sessions is so much easier when you’re working with the schedule of one student per timeslot.
There are other advantages to meeting one-on-one with tutees, but I’m going to keep my discourse to my top 8 (above).
Plus, I have a couple of grant proposals that I’m working on for the nonprofit I tutor for. They’re due by month’s end. So, I must get going. I just wanted to come on and say that I’m so blessed to teach children reading skills for a living. It’s such meaningful and purposeful work!
And, I’m really glad that I tried a different teaching format for the 2026 Degrees of Maternity Summer Reading Program. I came away with more clarity on how I intend to function long-term as a reading tutor. Guess you could say that the tutor (me) got served some “teachable moments.”
