Coaching Tips & Best Practices

Our training, UPchieve 101 is full of great tips

Check out this 7-min video or review this summary offering strategies for effective coaching: build rapport, understand tasks, assess student knowledge with probing questions, simplify concepts, encourage students, and give specific praise.

• Why this might be necessary: Students have taken the hard step to ask for help by requesting UPchieve, but that doesn’t mean they’re not facing common barriers to engagement like not believing in themselves, being afraid of being judged, or simply not understanding the value of some assignments!

• What to do:

  • Start with easy questions to build confidence

  • Ask a fun question unrelated to the work

  • Provide positive, specific action-oriented praise for any participation.

  • Staying positive even when responding to errors so they don’t give up.

• Examples of what to say:

  • Let’s start with some additions: what is 4+5 from inside the parentheses?

  • Nice work remembering that formula!

  • So far so good! After each step they complete correctly.

  • Kevin, it makes me happy to see your effort!

  • Want more examples? Feel free to complete our 5 minute trainings on Giving Effective Praise and Responding to Student Errors!

Coaches tell us all the time that their biggest challenge on UPchieve is keeping students motivated throughout their sessions. These interactive training modules will help you learn proven strategies to become a better coach. We created this training as part of a pilot with the PLUS project at Carnegie Mellon University.

• GIVING EFFECTIVE PRAISE: Praise is a key tool in boosting student confidence, but it has to be meaningful. This interactive training shares scenarios that could really happen on UPchieve and gives you the tools to deal with them effectively. Take the training now!

• RESPONDING TO STUDENT ERRORS: Student errors happen every day. Responding to them gives you a chance to engage students more deeply or to demotivate them. Make sure you’re using the most effective strategies. Take the training today!

• LEARNING WHAT STUDENTS KNOW: Before you start tutoring, it’s critical to get an understanding of what students know already. Learn strategies you can apply in your next session to do this most effectively. Learn more now!

Please be extra welcoming and patient with new students. Some may just be exploring the platform and might not have any academic questions yet.

Examples of what to say:

• Hi (student name). My name is (your name). It’s great to meet you!

• Feel free to upload an image to the whiteboard. It’ll help me understand what you’re working on.

• We can use the chat, the whiteboard, and voice chat to work together.

• No worries if you don’t have any homework right now. Let me know if you have any questions about the platform.

• UPchieve is available 24/7, so you can come back anytime with questions!

When picking up a request, you can see a student’s session count, grade, their goal for the session, how well they understand and how they feel about the topic by clicking About the session at the top of the chat.

Here’s an example of what you might see:

• ONVERSATION BLOCKERS : Ever feel like a student really isn't involved in a session or getting back to you quickly enough? There are many tactics that have been developed by psychologists and trained negotiators that we can learn to improve our text communications with students. This training focuses on Conversation Blockers, a set of common mistakes that tutors can make that lead to less productive sessions. Refining your messages in small ways can make all the difference! Check out the recording and presentation! Host: Steven Menking, Forum Math and Business Tutor

• INCREASE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT : Getting students excited about schoolwork is tough. In this training we’ll explore how you, as a virtual coach, can leverage questions and feedback to help students create connections and build independence. Let’s kick student engagement to the next level! Check out the recording! Host: Bharathi Kurtz, High School Math Teacher and UPchieve Research Fellow

• GROWTH MINDSET : How do you as a tutor and the students you are helping achieve as much growth as possible? Putting key principles into play in your own life will allow you to transfer them more effectively to your students. This training emphasizes the Growth Mindset, how to develop it for yourself, and how to pass it along to students. Getting back to the basics and understanding why they function will help you move past platitudes to deep and enriching development! Check out the recording! Host: Steven Menking, Forum Math and Business Tutor

• OVERCOME BARRIERS TO LEARNING : Student learning is about more than just content. Learn about the social and emotional barriers your students might be facing and how to work through them. Focusing on the social emotional side of learning will not only help with your session, but will give your students skills to help them continue to succeed. Check out the recording! Host: Bharathi Kurtz, High School Math Teacher and UPchieve Research Fellow

• MAXIMIZE STUDENT LEARNING 💪🏽 In the best tutoring sessions, students do most of the work. Learn how to shift the responsibility from you to the students you work with with small changes to your sessions. You’ll get practical examples of strategies like asking questions, giving feedback, and modeling examples. Check out the recording! Host: Bharathi Kurtz, High School Math Teacher and UPchieve Research Fellow

Check out our training material for sample problems, topics, and resources to discuss with your student

• Why this happens: Access to quality education isn’t equally distributed among students. Inequitable access to resources leaves many students with gaps in foundational knowledge. Students are coming to UPchieve and requesting your help because they are struggling with a concept or tackling a new frontier–like applying to college.

• What to do:

  • Share the reason you'll need to review a concept to achieve their goal. This will help them be a bit more patient as you review the concept.

  • Balance expectations: Express that it may take longer to solve their problem or finish their task, but that you believe they can still accomplish it!

  • Review foundational concepts. Check out our review material for help with this! 

  • Help accomplish their goal

  • Celebrate any success, learning is a journey. Remember, have high expectations for what your students can accomplish, and they’ll follow your lead!

• Examples of what to say:

  • Ah, okay so to answer this problem we’ll need to know how to multiply exponents. Let’s review that quickly and then get back to the assignment.

What to do:

• Stay calm

• Ask the student for a few minutes to look at the assignment/task

• Check UPchieve's resources. We have materials for different subjects that can help you quickly get up to speed.

  

• Do a quick Google search. Websites like Khan Academy often have excellent content.

• If you’re really unsure, simply encourage them to make another request.

  Bonus points if you share links to reputable sites that explain the topic. This way, the student can still get help while waiting for another coach

• Examples of what to say:

  • Please give me a few minutes to think about this.

  • So sorry but it’s been a long time since I’ve … please make another request to pair with a coach who can help you. You can check out <link> while you wait for a coach.

• What to do:

  • If you’re able to help, go for it!

  • If not, simply let the student know to request a session in the right subject.

  • If the subject is not available on our platform, suggest checking out reputable sites such as Khan Academy.

• Examples of what to say:

  • Hm…I’m not certified in <topic> but I can try to help.

  • Sorry I don’t know that <topic> feel free to make a request under <right topic> to get connected with a coach who knows this topic!

  • <Topic> isn't available on the platform, so I suggest checking out this website <link>

Feel free to complete our 5-minute training on effectively responding to student errors.

• What to do:

  • Do it, but if the answer is incorrect, don’t provide the right answers. Help them learn how to get to the right answer.

• Examples of what to say:

  • #1 is correct, good effort on #2. Can you share with me your first step for that problem?

College Personal Statement

• The personal statement is perhaps the most mystical part of the college application process. Students often approach it with a lot of questions and anxiety: How do I pick the right topic? What am I supposed to say? What do they really want from me? College essay specialist, Catherine Andre led a workshop to discuss how to answer these questions and more. She walked through a sample personal statement brainstorming session and answers common questions about how to approach the personal statement and the college application process overall. Check out the recording and presentation! Host: Catherine Andre, Forum College Counselor

• Check out our plug and play work worksheets and templates to drop into your virtual classroom!

Strengthening Essays

Check out our plug and play resources in our Session Helper website. From ready-to-go outline templates to quick responses to the most common questions, we've got you covered!

• Many high school students in Advance Placement history classes will need help with a specific type of essay: Document-Based Question or DBQ. [Examples]

• Key Features of a DBQ:

  • Students are presented with 7 documents offering various perspectives on a historical development or process.

  • Students assess these written, quantitative, or visual materials as historical evidence.

  • Students develop an argument supported by an analysis of historical evidence.

  • The document-based question focuses on topics from 1754 to 1980.

• Structure of a DBQ Essay:

  • Introduction: Includes a thesis statement that directly answers the prompt.

  • Body Paragraphs: Analyze the provided documents, group them by themes or arguments, and use evidence from the documents to support the thesis.

  • Outside Evidence: Often requires incorporating additional knowledge beyond the documents to strengthen the essay.

  • Conclusion: Restates the thesis and summarizes the argument.

• Grading Criteria: DBQs are typically scored using a rubric that evaluates…

  • Thesis and argument development.

  • Use of documents to support the argument.

  • Historical analysis and reasoning.

  • Contextualization and use of outside information.

Check out this workshop for tutors who can solve any trigonometry problem but have never been trained in the strategies most commonly used by test prep math coaches. Seasoned test prep educator Sara Rahman will walk UPchieve volunteers through a general approach to coaching SAT and ACT math, sharing her go-to tools and resources for teaching essential content as well as best practices for creating an effective tutoring session with limited time. Check out the recording and presentation! Host: Sara Rahman, Forum SAT, ACT, ISEE Tutor

• If a student isn’t responding, they may be having connection issues. Many students also have limited internet access, unreliable devices, or may be new and nervous about using the platform.

• Don’t wait more than 10 minutes for a response. If you’ve reached out a few times and still haven’t heard back, feel free to end the session and help other students.

  • Examples of what to say:

    • Hi Mark, are you able to see this message? If so, let me know if you need more time to think or write notes.

    • Seems like we might be having trouble connecting, so I’m going to end the session. Feel free to make another request!

• The student can request a new session anytime they’re ready.

Please only pick up sessions if you have 30 minutes to help the student. However, if you need to leave unexpectedly:

• What to do:

  • Apologize and let the student know you have to go

  • Encourage them to make another request

• Examples of what to say:

  • Something came up and I have to leave. Sorry about this. You can request another coach to help you.

• What to do:

  • Be direct and firm

  • Cite that this is against UPchieve policy, which aims to foster learning and academic integrity.

  • Encourage the student to engage in problem-solving and understanding the concepts.

  • Let UPchieve know through the post-session feedback form

• Examples of what to say:

  • I can't complete the homework for you. I'm here to help you understand the concepts and guide you through the steps

  • UPchieve doesn’t allow us to provide answers but I can help you solve it step-by-step and explain the process so you can learn.

• Ideally, students should post their questions on the whiteboard, document editor, or chat. If they can't, you can click on safe external links like a Google Doc.

• Please keep the conversation on the UPchieve platform since we can't monitor external sites or address safety concerns there, ensuring a secure and supportive environment for all.

• Access documents set to "view only" without requesting permission to view, as sharing your email address isn't allowed. If the student has trouble allowing general access to the document, suggest they follow the instructions below:

  • On your computer, go to Google Drive.

  • Select the file you want to share > Share

    

  • Under ‘General access’ select ‘Anyone with a link’

  • Select ‘Viewer’

  • Copy the link

  • Click ‘Done’

It should look like this:

We suggest refraining from using this resource in this way. Many teachers now run student essays through AI that will be able to tell if AI was used in writing the response, this will result in the student receiving a failing grade...or worse. Additionally, providing written answers instead of using questions to help the student develop their writing won't help the student in the long run.

Instead please use one of the resources on our platform to help the student develop as a writer!

• Essay Planning review guide and Essay Feedback review guide. These are great resources for helping students in the planning, drafting, revision, and editing stages of writing.

• The Essay Session Helper will provide guidance on how to respond to the most common help requests.

• You can ask your student to assess their own work by copying & pasting our student revision checklist into the document editor

UPchieve provides support for learner variability, including color blindness, speech-to-text, translations, and dy

slexia. Check out this doc for more info.