Connect, Discuss, Reflect: 3 SEL Moves Enrich Math Tutoring

SEL routines – In math tutoring, the difference can be as small as how the session begins: a quick connection prompt, a low-stakes “math talk” choice, and a closing reflection that helps students manage emotions and strategies. Dr. Halley Bowman, Senior Director of Academics

In one math tutoring session, the first question wasn’t about numbers at all. Students were asked: if you had to eat at one restaurant every meal for the next month, which would you choose?

It was intentionally silly. The room filled with debate and laughter—then, without forcing it, the tutor nudged students into something harder than it sounded. They shared ideas. They listened. They explained their thinking.

For Dr. Halley Bowman, Senior Director of Academics for Saga Education, that moment carried a message about math tutoring that goes beyond curriculum: students’ voices could drive the learning.

Bowman. a Senior Director of Academics at Saga Education—a nonprofit service organization supported in part by foundation grants and federal funding—has spent more than a decade supporting tutors through the program. What she has consistently seen, she says, is that relationships don’t sit on the side of tutoring. They hold it up.

High-impact tutoring sessions, Bowman argues, ask students to do more than work through problems. They learn to persevere through challenging material, collaborate with peers, and believe they can succeed. For many students, that belief is fragile.

“Some have received the message through grades. test scores. or past classroom experiences that they are ‘not a math person. ’” Bowman says in describing the students Saga Education tutors work with. When confidence has been chipped away. safety and belonging become the foundation—because without them. students won’t risk making mistakes or pushing their thinking.

That is where the tutoring relationship matters most. Tutors can build belonging quickly and authentically in small-group settings. Bowman says. using social-emotional learning strategies that strengthen math learning rather than interrupt it. And she emphasizes something that makes the approach feel practical: these moves don’t require elaborate programs.

Across the country. tutors Saga Education supports work with thousands of middle and high school students in small-group math tutoring sessions each year. Bowman points to research aligning with what those tutors observe daily. 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, Bowman adds, students cannot engage productively with curriculum unless they first feel safe—a sense of belonging that begins with strong relationships.

From that shared understanding, Bowman offers three routines that tutors can begin immediately, in-person or in live online tutoring. Each is designed to lower the emotional barrier to participation while building the habits students need to learn math.

First: start with connection to support math learning. Bowman describes 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?”

Students look at multiple options and share an opinion right away. The point isn’t correctness—it’s entry. Tutors then give students one to two minutes to reflect, either quietly or by jotting down ideas.

After that, students take turns sharing their responses, noticing similarities and differences across the group. Bowman says passing is always an option, helping keep the environment respectful and low-pressure.

She also emphasizes what can make the routine feel more human: tutors encourage students to ask each other questions. That turn—students directing curiosity toward one another—builds collaboration and belonging. When tutors share their own response too, they model openness and strengthen connections inside the group.

Bowman ties this to core SEL skills: self-awareness as students name emotions and reflect on experiences; social awareness as students listen to and consider perspectives different from their own; and relationship skills through empathy. active listening. and connection. Even a few minutes at the start of a session. she says. can make the rest of the tutorial easier for students to enter.

Second: use math talk to build student voice and confidence. Once connection opens the door, Bowman says conversation sustains learning.

In Saga Education’s tutoring sessions, she describes conversation as one of the most powerful ways tutors help students build both academic understanding and confidence. Her recommendation is to use prompts that invite estimation, comparison, and reasoning while giving students a place to speak.

A “Would You Rather” prompt does that. Tutors pose a dilemma where students 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?”.

There’s no single correct answer—students can choose either option as long as they explain their thinking. That shifts the focus from “What’s the answer?” to “What do you think, and why?” Bowman says.

She adds that these dilemmas connect math to real-world decisions about budgeting, value, and trade-offs. Bowman also notes that prompts are most effective when tailored to students’ interests and cultural contexts, and that visuals help students imagine their choices.

In practice, she says, 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 through listening to others’ reasoning. Over time, those conversations can reshape math from a solitary task into something shared.

Third: integrate reflection to strengthen math learning and self-management. Bowman says conversation creates the momentum—but reflection is where it can settle into habits.

After students share ideas and reasoning. tutors can close the session with a brief. optimistic reflection that helps students make sense of both their learning and their experience. Bowman suggests simple prompts like “What felt challenging today?. How did you handle it?” or “What helped you stay focused?”.

Reflection isn’t only for students. Bowman describes how it benefits tutors too. A student might say that word problems were the hardest part of the session and that they relied on visuals in the curriculum to understand them. In naming that strategy. the student isn’t just recounting what happened—she says the student is also giving the tutor insight into how to better support them next time.

These reflections, Bowman says, build self-management by helping students notice strategies, set achievable goals, and regulate emotions. They also strengthen responsible decision-making as students analyze challenges and choices.

Bowman stresses that a closing reflection doesn’t have to take long. Two thoughtful minutes, she says, can help students internalize both the math and the mindset they need to handle it—and it helps tutors plan for what comes next.

The story Bowman tells isn’t about adding “soft skills” to math. It’s about how tutoring works when the whole learner is taken seriously.

In high-impact tutoring, SEL isn’t an add-on, she argues. It’s part of relationship building—at the heart of effective tutoring. When tutors create space for students to connect, speak, and reflect, Bowman says, students don’t just learn math. They build confidence. They strengthen empathy and resilience. And they leave 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.

Bowman 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 an EdD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of South Carolina.

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