MathematicsMaths9thYear 10
How to give every student a personal tutor at your school
How a school can give every student one-on-one tutoring during class, so teachers get a second pair of hands in a class of 30.
Jemel Fanfan | Founding Member at Flint
"We have rolled out Flint to our staff and students as their personal tutor. This has allowed students to gain additional support as well as provided teachers with “Additional hands” in the classroom."
Steve Buettner, Technology Integration Specialist at American Overseas School of RomeWhy this matters
In an Algebra 1 class of 30, the teacher can sit with two or three students during practice time. Hiring a tutor for every student, every day, costs more than any school budget allows. Everyone else raises a hand and waits or stops working, and the teacher finds out who was stuck when the homework comes back.
What makes tutoring work
Tutoring helps most when it happens during the school day, three or more times a week, one-on-one or in groups of four or fewer, and follows what the class is learning (National Student Support Accelerator, Stanford).
- Tutor during class, not after school
- Start from what each student already knows
- Send the students who need a person to the teacher
A teacher can't sit one-on-one with 30 students in one period. Sparky, Flint's AI tutor, works with each student in their own chat and flags the students who need the teacher.
Two students get help from the same tutor at the same time
Both students are practicing slope in the same Algebra 1 class while the teacher works with a small group. They share one activity, and each has their own chat with Sparky.
Jordan
Jordan
Slope through (2, 3) and (6, 11)? I got 4/8, so 1/2. Can you show me on a graph?
Sparky
Jordan
Rise 8, run 4. So 2.Understanding check
Jordan
2 points per minute.Saw his mistake on the graph, then got the check right
Maya
Maya
A song has 12,000 streams on day 3 and 32,000 on day 8. I got 4,000 streams a day. Can you graph it? Big labels please.Sparky
Understanding check
Maya
300 plays per day.Checked her answer on the graph, then got the check right
Sparky drew both graphs in test runs of the library activity. The students and the rest of each chat are examples we wrote for this page.
See which students need the teacher
When a student keeps getting answers wrong, says they give up, or asks for the teacher, Sparky flags the chat under Needs attention on the activity page.
Example activity page
During an Algebra 1 class's slope practice
The school and students are made up for this page. One student needs the teacher now, and six still flip rise and run.
Set up the activity for free
- Open the Algebra 1 Tutor in Flint's public library and select Try this activity. Flint is free for up to 80 users.
- Move it to a class. Every student gets their own chat with Sparky.
- To share it with every teacher, open its menu, select Publish to library, and choose School library.
To start students on this week's unit, add a line like this to Guidelines for Sparky:
Example guideline
This week the class is on slope and slope-intercept form. Start there unless the student brings a different problem.
See also Flint for math and Flint's AI tutor.
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