Tutoring teenagers is as much about building self-confidence as it is about teaching skills. Low self-image and feelings of powerlessness trouble so many adolescents who are not motivated to read in school.

Adolescents who have disengaged from reading probably had difficulty learning to read in the primary grades, according to most research. At this critical age, they missed the pleasure of getting lost in a story or discovering new information in books. By their teen-age years, reading becomes an activity imposed on them at school. As adults, they might read well enough to get by, but they miss the personal satisfaction and professional benefits that good literacy skills provide.

Critical literacy is a state of being “wide-awake,” says educator and author Maxine Green, in Landscapes of Learning. We can think of tutoring, then, as awakening a young person to the expansive world of print information, literature, and the infinite possibilities of reading, writing, and talking. Here are 14 questions to consider as you prepare for your unique tutoring situation.