I surely understand the needs and rhythm of each student. The students must participate from the first second in the class. I do use differents method or approaches to make them easy to learn.
I prepare for every single class the lesson plan. This way I can organize the aims, possible problems, and give to the students a reason to believe everything they learn makes sense.
I have been teaching one to one with students who contacted me. I have done my practice in the Cervantes Institute based in London with classes of 6-8 students.
In my experience I have been using course books (Gente, Bitacora), but I prepare specific material depending on the level for extra activities.