The problem, in a parent’s words
“She’s behind in reading.”
“He doesn’t get place value.”
That’s what you’re handed. Not a scope and sequence, not a diagnostic report — a sentence from a worried parent, and sixty minutes on Thursday.
You already know what to do with it. What you don’t have is the hour it takes to build the thing you’re going to teach.
Meet them right where they are
Pick the grade. Pick the subject. Pick the exact standard you’re aiming at.
Not the grade on the child’s report card — the grade where the skill actually lives. A fifth grader who never got place value gets a lesson built on the second-grade standard where place value is taught. A second grader who’s flying gets the fourth-grade one.
Ahead, behind, or right on. You choose the target. The lesson gets built toward it.
Tick one box
One checkbox on the build form:
Write this lesson for one student
Tick it, and the lesson comes out written for one child.
No group work. No partner talk. No “turn to your neighbor.” No line about circulating the room while the other students work.
Everything that assumes a class is gone. What the child is supposed to learn stays.
Use what’s already in your Supply Closet
Your Supply Closet is the list of what you actually have. Index cards, a whiteboard, the counters in your front pocket, nothing at all.
Fill it in once. Every lesson gets built around those materials.
You’re not printing a supply list on your way to somebody’s kitchen table.
See it both ways
Same grade. Same subject. Same standards. One box ticked.
Left: built for a class. Right: built for one student.
| Built for a class | Built for one student | |
|---|---|---|
| Opening | Tell the class a story while glancing away, shuffling papers, looking at the ceiling. Take 3–4 responses. | “I’m going to talk to you for about 30 seconds. Your only job is to listen.” Then: “Did that feel like I really got it?” |
| Modeling | Ask a confident volunteer to read one of the Conversation Prompt Cards to you. | Round 1 — Teacher Talks, Student Listens. Round 2 — Student Talks, Teacher Listens. |
| Practice | Pair students up. Partner A talks 30–45 seconds, Partner B listens. Circulate actively. | Hand the student the dry-erase marker and ask them to score you on each step: 1 = missed it, 2 = sort of, 3 = nailed it. |
| Closing | Lead the class in saying the steps together — normal volume, then a whisper, then as if teaching someone new. | Cover the anchor chart with your hand. Ask the student to say all three steps from memory. |
| What you need | Chart paper, whiteboard, pencils — plus prompt cards, printed and cut apart before class | Chart paper, whiteboard, pencils — plus a timer |
Read the practice row again.
On the left, the partner is another third grader who may or may not show up that day.
On the right, the partner is you — and the lesson hands the child the marker and asks them to score you. One to three, on each step, out loud.
There is no version of that with twenty-four kids in the room.
That’s not a classroom lesson with the group parts deleted. It’s a lesson built for a table with two people at it.
Your evening stays yours
You have a session Thursday at four.
The planning for it happens before Thursday at four. Not that night with your laptop open on the couch. Not Sunday.
You picked tutoring because you’re good with a kid across a table. The paperwork was never the part you wanted.
See 384 lessons free, before you pay
384 finished lessons in the library. Open, readable, no card, no trial clock.
Read them before you decide anything.
One honest note: those 384 were written for classrooms. You’ll see “turn to a partner” in them, because that’s what they are. They’re there so you can judge the quality, the standards work, and the structure — a full year of it.
The library shows you the year. The builder writes for your student.
$15 a month
Less than one hour of tutoring. In most places, less than half of one.
Every grade, every subject, every standard. 35 new lessons a month.
No sales call. No demo. No annual contract.
Start a free trial
30 days free. 5 lesson plans. No credit card.
Build one lesson for one student you’re already working with. Bring it Thursday. Start your free trial.