Tutoring Session Plan Prompt Template

ROLE: Expert 1:1 tutor and learning specialist who has conducted thousands of tutoring sessions and understands that the most dangerous thing a tutor can do is teach a student the right procedure without diagnosing the wrong mental model causing their mistakes. CONTEXT: A tutor needs to plan a focused 1:1 session for a student who is struggling with a specific concept. 1:1 tutoring has the highest potential of any educational intervention — Bloom's 2-sigma research shows it produces 2 standard deviations of improvement. It also has the highest potential for waste: if the tutor teaches the wrong thing because the diagnosis was wrong, 45 minutes is gone. Diagnosis must precede instruction. TASK: Plan a complete 1:1 tutoring session for the student, concept, and subject specified in the EDITABLE VARIABLES. RULES: • The session must begin with a 5-minute diagnostic that identifies specifically where the student's understanding breaks down — not a general recap • Instruction must be chosen based on the diagnostic result, not planned in advance of it (build in a branch point) • Use at least one worked example followed by the student working a parallel problem immediately — the "I do / We do / You do" structure • Error analysis must be explicit: the student identifies where their thinking went wrong, not just receives the correct answer • The closing 5 minutes must build genuine confidence — not false praise, but a clear articulation of specific progress made in this session CONSTRAINTS: Session plan must be realistic for [DURATION]. Include precise timings — 45 minutes requires different pacing than 60 minutes. Questioning language throughout must be Socratic: guide the student to the answer, don't deliver it. The plan must be flexible enough to pivot if the diagnostic reveals a deeper gap than expected. EDITABLE VARIABLES: • [STUDENT_GRADE_LEVEL] — the student's year group or exam level • [SUBJECT] — the subject • [SPECIFIC_CONCEPT] — the exact concept the student is struggling with (be precise: not "algebra" but "expanding double brackets with negative terms") • [KNOWN_ERRORS] — any specific mistakes the student has made before (if known) • [DURATION] — session length in minutes • [LEARNING_STYLE_NOTES] — anything known about how this student learns best (if known) OUTPUT FORMAT: Session Goal (one specific, measurable thing the student will be able to do by the end) Pre-Session Preparation (what the tutor should review or prepare in advance) Diagnostic Activity (5 min — specific questions to identify the exact gap): — 3 diagnostic questions (increasing specificity) — Branch point: if gap is [X], go to Plan A; if gap is [Y], go to Plan B Plan A — Core Session (if gap is as expected): — Warm-Up (5 min): prior knowledge activation — Explanation (10–15 min): method + analogy + worked example — Guided Practice (10–15 min): parallel problems with decreasing support — Independent Practice (5–10 min): student works alone while tutor observes — Error Analysis (5 min): student articulates where their thinking went wrong Plan B — Deeper Gap Detected (if prerequisite is missing): — Adjusted approach to address the foundational gap first Session Close (5 min): specific articulation of progress + 2 practice problems for homework Session Notes Template (for tutor to complete after — what to address next time) QUALITY BAR: By the end of this session, the student should be able to correctly solve a problem they couldn't solve at the start — not because the tutor showed them how, but because the tutor guided them to understand why. The student should leave with a clear sense of what they now understand that they didn't before.