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Remote Tutoring Resources

Digital Platform Guides for Tutors, Teachers and Learners
June 2021
Audience
Adults
Staff
Topic
Remote Teaching
ESL
GED
One-to-One Tutoring
Technology
Volunteer Management

Are you using Zoom, Google Meet or WhatsApp to teach or tutor learners online? Are you a teacher trainer or program coordinator leading webinars for volunteers? The following resources will help tutors, teachers, and learners navigate the features and functions of these digital platforms on computers or mobile devices. The step-by-step checklists outline how to join and schedule meetings, send invites, join breakout rooms, share screens, and more. The in-depth webinar guides detail best practices, in-meeting controls and settings, and host responsibilities. 

Please feel free to adapt these resources for your use while maintaining the Literacy Minnesota branding. If you have feedback about these resources, please email Andy Francis at afrancis@literacymn.org. 

Remote Tutoring Resource Checklists, Video Guides and Email Templates

  • Google Meet User Guide - This guide helps users become familiar with the most common features and functions of Google Meet on a computer.
  • WhatsApp Tutoring Checklist - This checklist helps tutors navigate the WhatsApp platform when tutoring learners one-on-one. The following instructions address features available to tutors and learners using WhatsApp on an iPhone or Android device.
  • Zoom Tutoring Checklist - This checklist helps tutors navigate the Zoom platform as hosts on a computer. If you or your student uses Zoom on a smartphone, please see "Zoom Tutoring Checklist for iPhone or Android."
  • Zoom Tutoring Checklist for iPhone or Android - This checklist helps tutors navigate the Zoom platform as hosts on an iPhone or Android device. 
  • More Zoom Features for Tutoring - This guide explains new updates to Zoom like Remote Control, allowing users to control each others' screens.

Multilingual Zoom start-up guides for learners:

  • Webinar Best Practices - This short guide will help you prepare for a successful webinar/meeting experience.
  • Zoom Tutoring Checklist for Hosts - This checklist helps tutors navigate the Zoom platform using Zoom on a computer. 
  • Zoom Host Checklist - This checklist provides trainers and hosts with step-by-step instructions for leading a Zoom webinar. 
  • Zoom Role Responsibilities - This guide gives an in-depth overview of the meeting privileges available to webinar hosts and co-hosts.
  • Zoom Technical Support Language - This guide provides technical support language for common in-meeting problems. Hosts and co-hosts can copy and paste the prepared instructions into the chat box to assist participants quickly. 

Find a variety of remote tutoring materials, including lesson plans, stories, take-home paper packets, etc., from Minnesota programs. Thank you to all of our amazing partners who were willing to share their program's resources!

  • Amy Van Steenwyk- Cedar Riverside Adult Education: These are slides of stories from Readworks with pictures added. I've used them to teach a beginning/high beginning ESL class (CASAS 180-210). I use Readworks stories with the whole class and Readworks as a distance learning platform with a few students who have the digital literacy skills and English skills to navigate that site. I've used mostly kindergarten-level stories, as well as a few first-grade stories. I have simplified the text at times or changed it slightly to be less kid-centered. The photos are mainly from photosforclass.com and creativecommons.org and are not licensed for commercial use. Find Amy's resources here.
  • English Learning Center (ELC): Find student workbooks for English learners in five different levels: pre-literacy to low advanced. The workbooks can be printed and mailed to learners, and tutors can walk through the lessons over the phone or on a video call. Please note that these resources were created quickly, so tutors may want to add pictures to supplement the lessons. Find ELC's resources here.
  • Morgyn's ESL Studio: These short video lessons work with Literacy Minnesota's Pre-Beginning Curriculum (download the curriculum here). They can be watched together by students and tutors or assigned as "homework" for students to watch before a tutoring lesson. They also serve as great models for what a successful tutoring session could look like. Find Morgyn's videos here. 
  • Osseo Area Schools Adult Education: Find reading packets for ABE levels A-C and EL levels A-C. Each packet contains 8-9 stories and directions for working through the packets with learners over the phone. Find Osseo's packets here. 
  • BC Reads: Adult Literacy Fundamental English Readers and Course Packets: Not a Minnesota program, but a great resource for online teachers and tutors from our neighbor to the North! Find open-source textbook readers and accompanying course packets explicitly written for adults. The six levels of readers range from low beginner to the equivalent of grade 9 in the K-12 system. Use the readers and course packets online, or download them as PDFs. Find BC Reads open-source textbooks and course packets here.