Always Clarify Learner Goals

The teacher can help the student clarify his/her goals and together discuss ways of accomplishing them. Long-term goals, such as becoming a proficient reader or obtaining a GED, may seem overwhelming at first. But the teacher can also help the student develop short-term goals to establish a feeling of accomplishment as soon as possible. For this reason, goals should be broken down into smaller objectives, and the teacher should be careful not to make the instruction too fast-paced.

At the beginning of each lesson, the teacher should discuss what will be done that day to establish with the learner the daily objectives. Toward the end of the session, the teacher should do a short evaluation so as to emphasize what learning took place and to summarize.

For instance, at each session certain objectives can be established: the learner will read and write one sentence; learn three sight words, etc. At the end of the session, the teacher can point out how well the student reached the objective and succeeded. Besides specific feedback at every session, review of previously written and read material such as the learner's language experience stories can be effective in showing the learner just how much progress he/she has achieved.