Tutoring juniors for English

[nacho]

I was going to start tutoring a student in grade 4 and was wondering if anyone on this site has had past experience with this and could point out anything I should perhaps know or do?
Would it be standard to cover things like "what are verbs, adjectives, etc" or would I skip to essay writing or vocabulary building, creative writing and the such?
For the life of me I could not see what a child so young would need a tutor at such a young age for, unless they're struggling with standard reading/writing or school work (which is not the case) or unless they're going for scholarship tests (also not the case for at least another two years).
Does anyone have younger siblings, what sort of homework do they get? Do they get homework at all even?
Thanks.

[JaneDoe]

I've been tutoring a 3rd and 4th grader for over a year. The students I tutor get homework each week on Monday and have to hand it in on Friday. Their homework has activities on three areas spelling, mathematics and integrated studies.

Spelling usually consists of L.S.C.W.C, reading and activities involving their spelling words. There's usually no creative or essay writing. Any writing tasks are usually just incorporating spelling words into a sentence. At a 4th grade they know nouns, adjectives and verbs and therefore tend to learn about adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, etc. I wouldn't suggest essay writing unless they're being taught that in class at the time which so far I haven't heard of being done thus far. Mathematics focuses on multiplication, division and problem solving/ application. (e.g. Ben has a dozen eggs and wants to share them with his 4 friends, how many could he give each friend?) Integrated studies is usually where more lengthy writing occurs. It tends to cover current events or topics they're studying (endangered animals, the Olympics, geography, etc.) For example, the child I tutor had to invent a new sport and write about it and another activity was writing a letter of encouragement to an Olympic athlete.

This is just my experience in tutoring primary school students who go to a public government school so what homework children get will probably vary depending on the school.

Anyways, hope that helps you.

[nacho]

Do you mind if I ask how long your tutoring sessions last for and do you end up giving them homework at all?
Also, would you  know what sort of books/authors these kids are into? From memory I think it would be like Emily Rodda, Andy Griffiths, Morris Gleitzman but I'm not sure if those are more grade sixy or not.
I was thinking I'd focus on spelling, writing and vocab. Get them to read books/passages and make a list of new words they've learnt, then give them spelling tests. Crosswords?!?
and thanks for your input, very helpful.

[JaneDoe]

I tutor each child for an hour each week however if they have a project I'll help them for an extra hour or two. Personally, I find an hour a bit restricting when tutoring the 4th grader since all the homework is expected to be completed and it obviously takes time to explain concepts and such. I don't tend to give out extra homework because what they get from school is enough for their age in my opinion. They are just kids after all.

In regards to books, the ones they're assigned to read for school are various authors that aren't well known and generally don't interest them. When they borrow books of their own choice the boy tends to go for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series, Morris Glietzman and Andy Griffiths. The girl prefers the Girls Rock! series and similar books.

I'd focus more on writing and vocabulary. In my experience, writing tends to be one of the weaker areas as it's hard for them to get their spoken words down in writing. With vocabulary make sure to test them regularly to ensure they remember the words meanings and pronunciation. You can tell them it one week and it will probably be forgotten by the next week. Crosswords like you mentioned would definitely be a good method to help with those issues and ensure they actually understand what you're saying to them.