Tutoria itself does not provide services, but the volunteers on our platform provide the following:
English
Citizenship
Legal Aid
After making a connection on our platform, clients and volunteers decide how they want to meet. They can meet in person, by phone, or online via third-party applications like Skype, FaceTime, Zoom, or WhatsApp. To ensure the safety of our volunteers and clients, we ask that any in-person meetings take place in public places.
Tutoria does not set the commitment; volunteers and clients agree on a schedule that works for both. In general, we see clients meeting with volunteers for 1-2 hours per week for 1-6 months.
Yes, our clients range from those with little to no knowledge to those who have been studying on their own for months or longer and need someone to practice with or answer questions. Our tutoring programs are tailored to clients’ needs.
Absolutely! Most of our clients are referred to us from non-profits. We would be more than happy to discuss your clients’ needs and how we can help. Our help can even be outside our current programs. Feel free to reach out.
For the security of our community, volunteers must be at least 18 years old. Clients must also be 18 years old to create an account. A client’s minor children may participate in a tutoring session if supervised by the adult client.
Yes, all new volunteers must pass a criminal background check at their expense.
Yes, please call or text our Community Managers at +1(929)-780-2783 or email [email protected] .
Since our sessions are customized for each client, it is possible that volunteers might agree to help in other ways. Please speak with our Community Managers about your case so they can help facilitate. Note that we do not offer legal aid but do refer you to organizations that can help.
Yes. Just sign up for our platform as a Legal Aid client and we can refer you to a legal aid organization.
Yes, you can share an account with someone else. In the interest of your and the volunteers’ comfort and safety, please contact us before opening an account on someone else’s behalf.
When clients search for volunteers, they can see the language skills in your profile. So, we would not expect them to reach out to you. If they do, please reach out to us and our Community Managers can help re-direct the client to a more suitable volunteer.
Given the diverse backgrounds and needs of both volunteers and clients’ and the wealth of publically available resources, we do not offer a set curriculum. However, we have and will continue to expand a list of resources. See our Resources section below. If you have a question about how to best serve your client, we’re here to help. Do not hesitate to reach out.
Please refer them to our Legal Aid Referral program, or reach out to us to help re-direct the client.
Once signed in, delete your availabilities from the Availabilities section. When clients search for volunteers, you will no longer appear in the results. If you decide to accept clients in the future, you can re-add your availabilities.
Yes, we can provide a confirmation if the client can verify your hours. To request this, email us at [email protected] . Please do this as soon as you are matched with the client since we will need to ensure they are comfortable verifying your hours.
First Session:
What language(s) does the client speak, and how well? Assess your own ability and comfort level with the client language(s).
Introduce yourself! Break the ice. Make the client feel comfortable. Remember, questions are always better than statements.
Ask client their goal(s) for learning or improving their English. Personal? Professional? Ask for details up to the client's comfort level.
What is the client's support network to help achieve goals? Teachers? Family? Friends? Non-profit or religious institutions?
Evaluate skill level. Most online tools are geared for classroom teaching, but this blog offers to some promising, open-ended tools for tutors: https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/esl-for-adults/
Get client's feedback/buy-in on a tutoring plan.
If client has time/ability to study, assign homework. Less is more at first, until you see what client’s capabilities are.
Keep subsequent sessions focused on the goal(s) you set in session one.
The naturalization test has two sections: English, which has speaking, reading, and writing components, and Civics. Depending on your client’s age and number of years as a permanent resident, they may be exempt from the English test (as explained here), and depending on their naturalization date, they may be assigned one of two versions of the Civics test (see here). So find out these three pieces of information (age, time as a permanent resident, and naturalization date). Not sure what naturalization date means? That’s explained here.
What is the client's support network to help achieve goals? Teachers? Family? Friends? Non-profit or religious institutions?
If you determine the client will need to study for the English and/or Civics tests, use practice tests to assess their current skill level. These tests will be your primary resource, so don’t feel you need to go through the whole test in one session!
Once you have assessed your client’s skill level, get their feedback/buy-in on a tutoring plan. Point your client to the Citizenship Resources below, where they will find online flashcards for English and Civics questions
Based on client’s assessment of their own time, and your assessment of the client’s areas of improvement, assign a certain number of online flashcards to go through for the next session. Reassure client that wrong answers are a chance to learn, so client should keep track of both right and wrong answers.
Find out in what city the client lives. If New York City, what borough.
Research legal aid organizations in their city. These organizations provide free legal aid to those who qualify. In NYC, examples of legal aid organizations include: The Legal Aid Society , Legal Services NYC , and New York Legal Assistance Group .Often, these organizations will break the kinds of assistance offered into categories or practice areas on their websites (for instance, “Arrests and policing” or “employment.”)
At a high level, understand the client’s legal question. If possible, connect their question to an assistance category from the aid organizations you have researched. This process does not necessarily involve collecting personal information, so do not collect any more than needed to do the referral.
If the client wishes, call the legal aid organization on the client's behalf to make the connection, and get a contact name and phone number for someone who speaks their language and, if possible, also specializes in the client’s area of need.
Pass this contact information along to the client.
Follow up with the client to ensure they've successfully connected with the organization.
Here are some resources for tutors that look promising to us at Tutoria, but which we haven’t yet tried in tutoring sessions. Feel free to try these out, provide us with feedback on them, and look for your own resources, too. If you find a site or video that works, let us know about it so we can keep adding to this page.
Although this site is titled Tutoring Adult Learners Using the Internet , many of the other sites linked here offer help for in-person tutoring, too. This site looks like a great place to start for tutors in need of resources at different levels.
The Simple English News site is geared toward clients who have some English comprehension and want to improve it.
We Speak NYC videos tell the stories of New Yorkers who have come from all over the world to make New York City their home. The show helps English language learners improve their language skills, learn about their rights, and access City services. The site also features study guides, lesson plans, and various reading and listening comprehension exercises.
Tutoria doesn’t expect you to be versed in English as a Second Language pedagogy. We’re more focused on meeting our clients’ language needs in a practical, friendly, and effective manner. “Effective” means whatever helps your client(s) best improve their English. However, if you’re interested in a theoretical model, here are some free “ESL Pro” self-paced, online classes from LINCS .