Here are some helpful tips we've compliled about tutoring teaching. We hope they prove useful.

Making listening tasks easier, part 1
There are several ways to alter a listening task to make it easier. First you have to decide what the problem is, and then come up with a workable solution.
Problem
It's too long; students can't keep up the level of concentration needed to complete the task
Solution
1. Don't use all the listening passage. Read through the teacher's copy and decide what would be a good place to stop. You may of course have to alter the task set as well, but that's better than getting all the students depressed because they can't do what's asked of them.
2. Make it a split listening, where the students get to listen to part of the text in groups, and then put the various parts together to recreate the entire text. This approach also introduces speaking skills and group work to add to the effectiveness of the listening text.
3. Give students information about the listening passage, so that they don't go into it 'blind'. Knowing that a listening passage is about X and is an argument between A and B will make students aware unconsciously and they will expect two sides of an argument and have some idea about the lines along which the speakers will speak.
Making listening tasks easier, part 2
There are several ways to alter a listening task to make it easier. First you have to decide what the problem is, and then come up with a workable solution.
Problem
It's too difficult; students find it difficult to understand what the speakers are saying.
Solution
1. Give students the tape script. They will then be able to understand the speakers and follow the words as they listen. Their listening skills will still be tested, but they will have a crutch to help them. Make sure you don't give them time to read the whole passage before they listen to it; otherwise you will partly defeat the object of the listening exercise. If you feel uncomfortable giving them the tape script with the listening passage, you can adapt this by giving them the tape script for three minutes or the tape script with every second line missing, or part of the tape script etc.
2. Adapt the exercise. You can still make it a worthwhile exercise by, for example, asking the students to identify numbers or words, asking them how the speakers feel, from a list of adjectives written up on the board, or even, when there are more than two speakers, by asking them how many people are speaking. The other thing that you can do is split the exercise up, by giving one question to each student, rather than getting each student to answer each question.

Helpful tips for busy teachers, arranged by skill
Grammar
Vocabulary
Reading Comprehension
Listening Comprehension
Writing
Speaking
Pronunciation