Dr. Halley Bowman is the Senior Director of Academics for Saga Education, a non-profit service organization supported in part by foundation grants and federal funding.
By Halley Bowman
In one math tutoring session I observed recently, students were asked a simple question: If you had to eat at one restaurant every meal for the next month, which would you choose? The question was intentionally silly, sparking lively debate and shared laughter.
More importantly, these students were practicing skills essential for math learning: sharing ideas, listening to others, and explaining their thinking. By starting this way, the tutor sent a clear message: students’ ideas mattered, and their voices would drive the learning.
Why Relationships Belong in Tutoring
In high-impact math tutoring sessions, students engage in more than academic content. They learn to persevere through challenging work, collaborating with peers and believing in their own ability to succeed.
Over a decade supporting tutors at Saga Education, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to high-impact tutoring for students who have been historically underserved, I’ve seen how strong relationships transform tutorials into spaces where students feel safe making mistakes, stretching their thinking, and growing as confident math learners.
Relationships are at the heart of tutoring. Tutors build this sense of belonging through simple social-emotional learning (SEL) strategies that strengthen math learning, such as warm starts that invite students to share their interests and opinions before diving into problem-solving.
Across the country, the tutors we support work with thousands of middle and high school students in small-group math tutoring sessions each year. What they observe every day aligns closely with research on social-emotional learning.
A recent Yale meta-analysis examining studies from 2008 to 2020 found that students in SEL programs gained more than four percentile points academically, with even stronger gains in longer programs. As The Hechinger Report noted, students cannot engage productively with curriculum unless they first feel safe – a sense of belonging that begins with strong relationships.
Many of the students tutors work with are rebuilding confidence after years of disrupted learning. Some have received the message through grades, test scores, or past classroom experiences that they are “not a math person,” making safety and belonging especially important.
Tutors are uniquely positioned to foster SEL in small-group settings, where relationships can grow quickly and authentically. And they don’t need elaborate programs to do it.
With intentional routines, I’ve seen that even the most novice tutors can effectively embed SEL into their sessions – both in-person and in live online tutoring. Here are three practical, low-lift ways to start.
1. Start with Connection to Support Math Learning
One simple way to start with connection is a strategy called Choose One. In this activity, tutors show students a set of images paired with a prompt, such as “Which image best represents your current mood?” or “Which image do you relate to most, and why?” Considering multiple images and sharing an opinion immediately draws students in. Tutors then give students one to two minutes to reflect, either quietly or by jotting down ideas.
Students take turns sharing their responses, noticing similarities and differences across the group. Passing is always an option, which helps maintain a respectful, low-pressure environment. I’ve seen the strategy be especially effective when tutors encourage students to ask each other questions, fostering collaboration and a sense of belonging. Finally, when tutors share their own response, they model openness and help strengthen connections within the group.This short activity builds several key SEL skills. It supports self-awareness as students name emotions and reflect on their experiences. It builds social awareness as students listen to and consider perspectives different from their own. And it strengthens relationship skills by promoting empathy, active listening, and connection.
Spending just a few minutes on connection at the start of a session can strengthen engagement for the rest of the tutorial.
2. Use Math Talk to Build Student Voice and Confidence
Just as connection opens the door to learning, conversation sustains it. In Saga’s math tutoring sessions, conversation is one of the most powerful ways I’ve seen tutors build both academic understanding and student confidence.
Conversation is central to both SEL and deep learning, and one effective way to spark it is through a Would You Rather prompt. In this activity, tutors pose a dilemma where students must choose between two options, such as “Would you rather have five $10 bills or two $25 gift cards?” or “Would you rather buy a $15 movie ticket with a $10 snack combo, or a $20 unlimited viewing pass with one free snack per visit?”
Prompts like these invite estimation, comparison, and reasoning – core math skills – while making space for discussion. There is no single correct answer. Students can choose either option as long as they explain their thinking, which elevates student voices and shifts the focus from “What’s the answer?” to “What do you think, and why?”
These dilemmas also connect math to real-world decisions around budgeting, value, and trade-offs. I’ve observed that prompts are most effective when tailored to students’ interests and cultural contexts, and visuals can help students more easily imagine their choices.
This kind of low-stakes math talk helps students see math as a tool for making decisions. It builds confidence through speaking, strengthens critical thinking by weighing options, and fosters collaboration by listening to others’ reasoning. Over time, these conversations build belonging and transform math into a shared human experience.
3. Integrate Reflection to Strengthen Math Learning and Self-Management
Conversations have the greatest impact when they lead to reflection. After students have shared ideas and reasoning, I’ve seen tutors close a session with a brief, optimistic reflection that helps students make sense of both their learning and their experience.
Simple SEL prompts like “What felt challenging today? How did you handle it?” or “What helped you stay focused?” invite students to pause and think intentionally about their process.
Reflection benefits tutors as much as it benefits students. A student might share that word problems were the hardest part of the session and that they relied on visuals in the curriculum to make sense of them. In that moment, the student names a strategy that supports their learning, and the tutor gains insight into how to better support them next time.
These reflections build self-management by encouraging students to notice strategies, set achievable goals, and regulate emotions. They also strengthen responsible decision-making as students analyze challenges and choices.
A closing reflection doesn’t need to take long. Two thoughtful minutes can help students internalize both the math and strong mindsets – and help tutors plan for what comes next.
Tutoring Works When We Support the Whole Learner
In high-impact tutoring, SEL isn’t an add-on. It’s part of relationship building, the heart of effective tutoring. When tutors create space for students to connect, speak, and reflect, they do more than support math learning; they help students build confidence in math, strengthen their empathy and resilience, and leave their sessions feeling capable, supported, and truly seen as learners.
Dr. Halley Bowman is the Senior Director of Academics at Saga Education, where she has worked in various roles since the nonprofit’s founding in 2015. She has also been a mathematics and geometry teacher in public and charter schools and a math department chair.
Halley helped design and scale Saga Education’s high-impact tutoring program from startup to a national program serving thousands of students, with proven gains in academic outcomes. She holds a EdD. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of South Carolina.
