It is said in the teaching world that every piece of new information needs a hook to hang on. If you try to hang your coat on the wall without a hook, your coat will simply fall to the floor. The same can be said for new information. You will only remember something that connects to something else you already know or care about. That is what we tend to call "meaning" outside of the education system. Meaning matters.

When I teach anything to anybody, I want to make it have intrinsic meaning to that person, even if it's grade 2 math or grade 10 science class. If it doesn't have meaning, if there is no context for the knowledge, then the student doesn't have a reason to learn it. And no, "the teacher told me to learn it" is not a good reason to learn anything.

That is why when my adult EAL student said she was trying to learn to cook, I supported her in that process by teaching her the English vocabulary for the things she was using. Next time I see her, we're baking cookies so that she can learn how to read an English recipe, while reinforcing the English vocabulary for the tools she's using.

Finding something in a student's life that matters to them to hang new information on is one of the best ways to teach anything to anybody. Context is key.

I understand that classroom teachers have a much harder time doing that for the 25 students they have, than I do as a private tutor. But my job as a tutor is to support the teacher in the classroom by doing the things the classroom teacher simply doesn't have the time to do. If that means I bake cookies as part of teaching English, it is my honor to do so.