Purpose: Adequate tutoring preparation involves planning the learning concepts and skills alongside session routines and logistical details. Students benefit from more learning time when tutors prepare ahead because less time is spent settling in or clarifying misunderstandings. With this checklist, tutors can plan facilitation moves that lead to successful one-on-one tutoring sessions and support them to reflect on their practice.
Facilitation Moves Checklist: One-on-One Tutoring
| Pre-Session Preparation | |
| Task | Completed? |
| Set a clear, data-informed goal for the session based on teacher, family, or student input. | |
| Write main talking points to explain concepts and address misconceptions. | |
| Connect concepts to students' daily lives. | |
| Prepare all necessary materials (e.g., examples, practice worksheets, templates, digital resources). | |
| Open all relevant materials in advance if tutoring virtually, ensuring they are ready to share. | |
| During Session: Facilitation and Directions | |
| Session Culture and Directions | |
| Expectation | Completed? |
| Give simple, concise, step-by-step directions. | |
| Break down directions into smaller chunks when they exceed 3–4 steps. | |
| Provide visual directions (e.g., whiteboard, worksheet, screen-share) alongside verbal instructions. | |
| State expectations clearly when giving directions. | |
| Set and enforce expectations that promote productive struggle so students know how to respond when stuck. | |
| Define what success looks and sounds like during the activity. | |
| Academic Expectations | |
| Share the session’s learning objective, rationale, and progress updates with the student. | |
| Support productive struggle using the least invasive strategies. | |
| Promote a growth mindset by praising effort and linking it to progress. | |
| Use precise academic language consistently throughout the session. | |
| Require students to use academic vocabulary and justify their thinking. | |
| Limit talking points to essential content. | |
| Demonstrate all necessary steps to complete a skill through an explicit model, making the reasoning process visible. | |
| Reinforce high expectations for responses and engagement (e.g., citing text evidence explaining relevance to claims). | |
| Increase Student Talk Ratio | |
| Guide the student through problems by asking prompting questions instead of immediately providing the answer. | |
| Ask open-ended questions to assess and deepen student understanding. | |
| Pause after questions to allow for student thinking time. | |
| Revoice student responses and encourage the student to amplify accuracy and reasoning. | |
| Addressing Misconceptions | |
| Address common misconceptions proactively. | |
| Respond to unexpected misconceptions by helping students understand and correct them. | |