Session Types

Quick Guide
 Tutor Guide to Session Types

Table of Contents

Session Type Approaches 3

Scripted Messages for Session Types 5

Learning Moments: Sample Sessions 7

Humanities // Daily answer 7

Humanities // Writing polish 8

Humanities // Brainstorm and research 9

STEM // Daily answer 10

STEM // Check my work 11

Daily Answer Info Icons 12

“I’m not sure” Session Flow 13

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 STEM Session Types
Student selects:
Check my work
BIG IDEA
Validate correct answers/strengths directly and collaborate over
errors/revisions
Explicitly verify correct answers or validate strengths as they come up
in the student’s work. Review work with students according to the
sequence of their choosing or assignment.
How should I validate the student? Make it clear they did a fantastic
job! Give the student specific compliments, congratulate their efforts,
and boost their confidence whenever the opportunity arises.

What if the student doesn’t want to work through errors/revisions

collaboratively? That’s okay—follow the student’s lead instead, and
activate whatever tools you feel are best! See errors in the student’s
work as opportunities to build rapport and encourage. Assure students
you’re there for them.

Humanities Session Types

Student selects: Student selects:
Brainstorm and research Writing polish
BIG IDEA BIG IDEA
Help the student with their ideas while gathering Assist the student with their writing or help them
and citing sources for their assignment go over Review Center comments

Lean into your inquiry-based approach in these Start by finding out what the student wants to work
session types. Collaborate with the student to look on with their writing. If they say the want a full review,
for material, discuss research methods, and identify try engaging with them to see if they’d like to focus on
reliable sources. a specific part in the Live Help session before
mentioning the Review Center.
Provide students with ideas and suggestions in line
with their thinking if they get stuck. Remember, Take a close look at the student’s writing. Give the
prioritize respecting the student's agency in these student suggestions such as revising their thesis
sessions. You don't want to tell them what to put on statement or adding some content to their conclusion
the assignment or how to express their ideas. paragraph!

What if a student gives pushback? You can be a bit If the session is positive and collaborative, keep that
more direct in offering suggestions while still student in the classroom with you to work on
maintaining a healthy mix of inquiry and elements of their writing. Making a large, daunting
collaboration. tasks into smaller, doable tasks will show our
students we are here to support them through their
writing process.
Humanities or STEM Session Types
Student selects: Student selects:
Daily answer Let’s work together!
BIG IDEA BIG IDEA
Use the standard Paper Method with added
Directly answer the student’s question
elements of direct instruction

Provide one direct answer in this session type. Use the Paper Method as you normally would in
this session type to guide students through their
What happens if the student asks a second work. Collaboration is the priority here, but take on
question? Do not provide another direct answer. the “teacher” role and be direct when needed.
Use collaborative language to prompt them to work
with you in an inquiry-based way. How do I incorporate direct instruction elements
Need extra time to formulate an answer? Let the in my approach? Provide information directly to
student know that you are working on it and will get close knowledge gaps, or get the student to the
back to them shortly. Take as much time as you next step, when necessary. You may also directly
need, but check-in with the student frequently, so provide definitions, rules, formulas, and strategies.
they know you’re still there.

Student selects:
I’m not sure
BIG IDEA
Chat with the student to determine how you can
help

Gather more information from the student to identify

what they’d like to accomplish in the session. Ask the
student how they want to be helped as well as what
they’re working on. This will help you determine the
session type approach with which you’ll proceed.
What if gathering context from the student still
doesn’t help me choose an approach? So long as
the student sends over schoolwork they’d like to do,
you can decide to proceed with any of the session
type approaches defined in this guide.
What if the student doesn’t have any schoolwork?
Encourage them to explore the platform or do an
activity with you. If the student indicates they aren’t
interested, let them know they can come back
whenever they need help with schoolwork and end
the session.
 Not sure what to say?
o r r i es! Try some of these scripted responses during
No w your sessions!

Let’s work together!

➔ Can you tell me about what you’ve tried so far?
➔ What do you think our next step might be?
➔ I am going to work through an example question with you similar to the one you
sent. Then, we can work on the one you sent together!
➔ Where should we start?
➔ What part would you like to work on together?
➔ Let's go through an example problem together!
➔ What do you think we should do next?
➔ What else can we try?

Daily answer
➔ Thank you for sending in your question, [Student Name]! I am working on finding
the answer now. Please allow me just a few moments to work through it :)
➔ We have used your one daily answer for today! The good news is that tomorrow
you can open another Daily Answer session. For now, we can work together!
➔ Let’s try working together on this question to find an answer!

I’m not sure

➔ What brings you to Paper today?
➔ Are you exploring Paper?
➔ Have you checked out the whiteboard tool? *draw picture*
➔ Do you have something to work on for school that you’d like to do together?
➔ Feel free to come back to Paper whenever you have something to work on for
school! We are here to help 24/7 :)
Let us know what works for you!
 Not sure what to say?
o r r i es! Try some of these scripted responses during
No w your sessions!

Brainstorm and research

➔ Do you already have an idea of how you'd like to get started with this
assignment?
➔ What do you want to talk/write/etc about?
➔ What do you find interesting about X topic?
➔ What resources can we use to find out more about X?
➔ What is a credible/relevant resource we could check out for this assignment?

Writing polish
➔ Do you see X error here? This is called ________, and we can fix it by doing
_______. Can you find these errors in your own work and correct them?
➔ Is there anything particular you'd like to work on improving together?
➔ How might we express X idea for our audience in _____ way?
➔ What other kinds of evidence could we use to support your claim?
➔ What other kinds of details can we use to illustrate this point?

Check my work
➔ Thank you for sending your work, [Student Name]! I am going to take some time
now to review what you’ve sent.
➔ Great effort on that question! Can you tell me about the steps that you took to get
there?
➔ I’d be happy to help you with working towards the correct answer. Let’s take a
look together.
➔ I’m going to use the whiteboard to show you where to take a closer look!
Let us know what works for you!
 Learning Moments: Sample Sessions
Check out session types brought to life in these Live Help tutoring sessions!

Humanities // Daily answer

After the student presents a broad request, the tutor strategically poses precise
context-gathering questions to understand the student’s learning needs and identify
their desired session outcome. The tutor begins by prompting the student to clarify
their desired topic of discussion.

Once the student specifies the event they want to discuss, the tutor offers the student
two options as to how the session can proceed. This way, the tutor gathers the
necessary information they need to be able to understand how to help the student,
while narrowing down the student’s request into a manageable task.

The tutor tells the student they need time to type out their answer to the question to
let the student know they are working on it. Then, the tutor shares the answer.
Humanities // Writing polish

The tutor lets the student know they are looking through their work.

The tutor compliments an element of the student’s work before calling out some parts of
the student’s writing that could benefit from improvement. The tutor is polite and
encouraging while recommending edits.

The tutor continues to praise the student while coaching them through some specific
fixes. The tutor skillfully uses line breaks to separate thoughts so that the student can
follow easily.
Humanities // Brainstorm and Research

The tutor lets the student know that they’d be happy to help them out before even seeing
the assignment. This helps the student to know that the tutor is there for support.

The tutor breaks down the prompt into a smaller task in order to get the student on their
feet.

The tutor probes the student to speak a little bit more about the decision they are making
about their writing. Posing an open ended question helps the student to share their ideas
comfortably that way the tutor can use what they share to help them with their
assignment.
STEM // Daily answer

The tutor gives the student a direct answer to their question.

After the student receives their one daily answer, the tutor uses collaborative
language in their question to pivot to an inquiry-based approach.

As a response to the student pushing back on collaborating, the tutor explains that
their daily answer has been given and expresses that they are excited to help them on
the next question regardless.
STEM // Check my work

The tutor lets the student know they are looking through their work.

Taking the session one problem at a time, the tutor checks the first question and
clearly marks it as correct on the whiteboard. The tutor then sends an encouraging
message so the student knows they did a great job.

Following the student’s lead, the tutor checks the second answer. The tutor affirms
the student’s attempt and shows them on the whiteboard where they can take a
closer look. The tutor reminds the student that they can work on it together.
 Daily Answer Info Icons
Feel free to send these screenshots in sessions if a student needs help understanding the expectations
of a Daily Answer session.

Humanities:

STEM:

If the student is not cooperative in this exchange, please reach out to a PM for support.

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 “I’m not sure” Session Flow
Use this flowchart to follow an “I’m not sure” session:

Activities for “I’m not sure” Sessions

When using these activities with students, please screenshot the puzzle/activity of your choice and send
the screenshot in the chat. This will help us to keep the student on the platform rather than sending
them to a different website. These are just suggestions; feel free to search up something else that is
academic adjacent but also fun and interactive!

Online Resources
Math Puzzles for all grade levels
● Numbrix would be a great option for elementary students
● Sudoku or KenKen Puzzles for middle & high school students

Mad Libs for Elementary and Middle School

Crossword Puzzles for Elementary

Crosswords for all grade levels

PAVE Resources
Writing Prompts
Spanish Activities for Collaborative Learning
French Activities for Collaborative Learning

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