Tutoring with thinkSRSD: What Finally Worked for Me

I love writing and wanted to teach structured writing in my tutoring sessions. Parents were asking for it too.  I’d  heard that thinkSRSD follows naturally after EBLI, so I took the training, and gave it a try. 

But tutoring with thinkSRSD?  I’m not going to lie — it was hard. 

Once a week sessions and no open-and-go materials…the planning and logistics made my heart race and my breathing stop.

Here’s what finally worked and why I now love tutoring with thinkSRSD.

The Problem: thinkSRSD Is Powerful — But Tricky to Use in Tutoring

thinkSRSD was designed for schools. In the classroom, students write every day. Teachers have time to guide them through each step of the writing process.

But tutoring? That’s usually one session a week — not nearly enough time to teach writing from scratch and go through a full writing cycle.

Another problem? In schools, students write about content they’ve been learning all week — in science, social studies, or ELA. But in tutoring, we don’t have that built-in background knowledge. We also don’t have a library of curated sources ready to go.

There’s no open-and-go curriculum for writing tutors. I had to invent everything:

• Think of a topic
• Find just the right sources (not too short, not too long)
• Create a prompt that actually lent itself to a strong paragraph

And even after all that… I had no roadmap. No exemplars. Nothing to model. No idea what “good” looked like for that particular topic and age.

My materials were scattered. Sometimes I printed graphic organizers from the thinkSRSD website, sometimes I made my own. But they got lost, crumpled, or forgotten between sessions.

It was stressful. And unsustainable. But parents want help with their child’s writing.

My Solution: Build the Resource I Needed But Couldn’t Find

After a year of trial and error with a second grade student, I finally realized: if I wanted a solution, I’d have to build it myself.

Now that he’s in third grade, I created Collaborative Writing with SRSD Strategies – Grade 3 — a resource designed specifically for tutoring, not the classroom.

Here’s what’s inside:

• ✅ 5 writing sets on third grade-friendly topics
• 📚 Each set includes a prompt, 2–3 curated sources, and 3 leveled exemplars (plus one below-level model)
• 🧠 A student-friendly scoring + goal-setting sheet
• ✍️ Sentence stems and bookmarks to scaffold writing
• 🔁 All built around the thinkSRSD process (POW + TIDE), adapted for tutoring

💬 “This was the thing I needed to stop reinventing the wheel every session.”

It’s available now on TpT: 👉 Download Collaborative Writing with thinkSRSD: Grade 3

What My Tutoring Workflow Looks Like Now

Once I’ve given the pre-assessment and taught POW + TIDE, our tutoring sessions follow a repeatable, stress-free flow  — thanks to my own resource, Collaborative Writing with thinkSRSD: Grade 3

Each of us uses a spiral notebook — one for me, one for the student — and we follow the process laid out in my resource, Collaborative Writing with thinkSRSD: Grade 3.

At the start of each new writing cycle, I choose one of the pre-selected topics from the resource, complete with the prompt, source texts, and leveled exemplars. No scrambling or last-minute Googling — just open, teach, and start the writing process.

Lesson 1: Plan

• We start by writing a Self Regulation Plan (SRP):
  
  • Self-talk (“I’ve got this!”)
  • Tools (POW + TIDE)
  • Goals for the session
    
• Next, we move into the P in POWeR:
  
  • Read the texts (I usually read aloud to save time)
  • Write a gist sentence at the top of the page
  • Break apart the prompt using a “Do | What?” chart
  • Brainstorm ideas

✅ We check off the “P” in POWeR and celebrate progress!

Lesson 2: Organize

• Review the 3-Ps and prompt from last time
• On a new page, write POWeR at the top
• Draw a TIDE chart in our notebook
• Use “caveman talk” to jot ideas into the planner
• Pull in evidence from the text and abbreviate in our notes

✅ At the end, we check off “O” in POWeR — another win.

Lesson 3: Write

• Review our TIDE organizer
• On a new page: TIDE on the left, POWeR on the right
• Begin drafting the paragraph collaboratively
• Check off T, I, D, and E as we finish each section
• If the student is ready, I release them to write independently

✅ We check off “W” in POWeR and celebrate our writing.

Lesson 4: Edit & Reflect

• Student reads their draft aloud
• We fix spelling (they still need help), punctuation, and capitalization together
• We check off the “e” in POWeR
• Then we score the piece and an exemplar at the same level
• Optionally, revise a lower exemplar
• We name what we did well, set new goals, and get excited for the next write

The Results: Confidence, Structure, Real Progress

The best part about using my own resource in my tutoring flow? It’s working.

I’m no longer stressed about “What are we writing about this week?”

I have pre-selected topics, curated sources, and exemplars that act as roadmaps. They show me what’s possible — but if a student surprises me with a new idea, we go with it. And if they still need hand-holding? I’ve got a plan.

A fifth-grade student told me last week:

“I like this. It’s easy.”
He was talking about writing from his TIDE planner.

My third-grade student just wrote his first full draft on his own. He was quiet for 40 minutes. Writing and checking off his TIDE planner. He’s starting to internalize the structure and use his authentic voice.

The exemplars have even more uses than I expected. I can:

• Use them to reteach the TIDE structure (backmapping and color coding)
• Highlight rich sentence features (subordination, sentence combining, vivid details)
• Show students real examples of strong writing at their level

And the notebooks? Total win. Students love flipping back through to see their growth.

Final Thoughts: Why I Love Tutoring Writing Now

I never thought I’d say this — but I’m starting to like teaching structured writing in response to texts even more than teaching reading, spelling, and simple opinion writing like “my favorite season.” (Don’t worry — I still love EBLI.)

There’s something incredibly satisfying about helping students internalize structure, gain confidence, and express complex ideas in writing. And when you make writing the focal point of tutoring, you’re reinforcing all the foundational literacy skills at once.

✅ Wondering what kind of writing support your child needs?
Start with this post: What Do Parents Mean When They Say “My Child Needs Help In Writing”?

💬 Curious why thinkSRSD pairs so well with EBLI?
Read: Why Do Parents Think thinkSRSD Pairs Well With EBLI

Want to Use What I Made?

If you’re a tutor or homeschooling parent who loves the thinkSRSD method but struggles to implement it outside the classroom, this product was made for you — because I made it for myself first and it’s a lifesaver.

Grab the Grade 3 Pack here on TpT
Grade 4 and 5 coming soon!

Read More Of My Tips And Thoughts On Spelling and Writing:

• Child Struggling With Spelling: How A Parent Can Help
• What Do Parents Mean By “My Child Needs Help In Writing”?
• Why Do Parents Think thinkSRSD Pairs Well With EBLI
• How To Create EBLI Spelling Lists With Your Child
• How I Overcame EBLI Confusion With These 5 Subtle Changes