Thursday, March 29, 2007

Student Needs Assessment

A Student Needs Assessment (aka Student Needs Analysis) is essential when you are teaching students one-to-one. Completing this process gives you a beginning roadmap to follow for the first couple of lessons with your new student. You'll learn more about the student's needs as you spend time with your student.

I work with adults only. The majority of my students are advanced ESL students, so they are able to tell me the areas they would like to focus on. That doesn't mean I slack off in doing the Needs Assessment. Sometimes the student may not be able to articulate the precise areas they need to improve. They just know that they want to improve their listening skills, for example, but they don't that the problem they are having is identifying reductions commonly used by native English speakers.

I always set up a free first meeting with a potential new student. This allows me to do an English skills Needs Analysis and it also gives the student and me an opportunity to decide if we would like to work together. This meeting takes between an hour and an hour-and-a-half. Of course, for beginning English level students, it takes a lot less time.

No comments: