Teaching · For Tutors

Project-Based Tutoring Planner

Run a project one session at a time: a real question, a milestone every session and most of the minutes spent with the student researching, building and revising.

Start a planWhat you get
$12one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $12

Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Tutoring business kit, $69 for 97 items.

Plans

Each session plan keeps the project, its stage and a timed session. Duplicate a plan to start the next session of the same project.

Loading the project session form. If nothing appears, turn on JavaScript.

What you get

Teaching · For Tutors$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
A session plan inside a project: the driving question, the product and its audience, the stage and the success criteria; a timeline that adds up against the session and shows the student project time; seven checks marked ready, not yet or not needed; and a run sheet with clock times to print.
Who it is for
Tutors and homeschool teachers running a project with one student or a small group, grades 3 to 12.
Format
Browser tool with a saved record per project session. Prints a run sheet with clock times, the full project session, every project session in a table or a blank form; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); exports and imports a file.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Tutoring business kit ($69) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The For Tutors space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions about access, an order or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Write the driving question and the product.
  2. Pick the stage and the milestone.
  3. Lay out the segments.
  4. Mark the checks.
  5. Print the run sheet; duplicate it for the next session.

Start a plan

Projects that stay on track session by session

A project in five stages, one session at a time1LaunchA driving question the studentcares about and cannot answer2ResearchRead, measure or ask; eachsource noted with what it3BuildMake the product in pieces,one milestone per session4Feedback and reviseCheck the draft against thecriteria, then fix one thing5ShareShow it to a real audience:the family, a class or a clubA project in five stages, one session at a time1LaunchA driving question the student caresabout and cannot answer yet2ResearchRead, measure or ask; each source notedwith what it showed3BuildMake the product in pieces, onemilestone per session4Feedback and reviseCheck the draft against the criteria,then fix one thing5ShareShow it to a real audience: the family,a class or a club
Each session plan sits at one stage. The planner keeps the minutes on the student building, researching and revising.

What the research supports

Projects work when the teaching inside them is explicit. A large classroom trial of project-based units in second grade found gains in social studies and informational reading, with lessons that combined real goals and direct skill teaching. Projects with little guidance tend to leave novices behind.

The milestone habit

Long projects drift. Ending every session with something finished and visible, and writing the next milestone down, keeps a project moving even when sessions are a week apart.

Sources

  1. Duke, N. K., Halvorsen, A.-L., Strachan, S. L., Kim, J., and Konstantopoulos, S. (2021). Putting PjBL to the test: the impact of project-based learning on second graders' social studies and literacy learning and motivation in low-SES school settings. American Educational Research Journal, 58(1), 160-200.
  2. Larmer, J., Mergendoller, J., and Boss, S. (2015). Setting the Standard for Project Based Learning. ASCD.
  3. Kirschner, P. A., Sweller, J., and Clark, R. E. (2006). Why minimal guidance during instruction does not work. Educational Psychologist, 41(2), 75-86.
  4. Krajcik, J. S., and Blumenfeld, P. C. (2006). Project-based learning. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences (pp. 317-334). Cambridge University Press.

The worked examples are made up. The 70 percent and 15-minute flags are planning rules of thumb. Nothing you type is sent to Caveat. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.