Instructional reference

How English Tutors Track What to Teach Next

How English Tutors Track What To Teach Next. Build the exercise for your student level.

By Jan Brzostowski. Published 2026-05-24. Updated 2026-10-22.

Direct answer

Direct answer: Track five short facts after every lesson: the current goal, one thing the learner did alone for the first time, the most costly gap, one item due for delayed recall, and the next real event they face. Choose the next lesson by asking which of those five has changed.

Summary

Five comparable lines after each lesson are enough to choose the next focus with confidence.

The 1:1 Teaching Bottleneck

Long lesson notes are written and never reread before the next session.
Notes record what was covered, not what the learner can now do, so planning restarts from the syllabus.
Several gaps compete, and the loudest recent error wins over the one that costs the learner most at work.
Upcoming events such as a review meeting are mentioned in passing and forgotten.

A Structured One-to-One Workflow

Use a fixed five-line template so notes are comparable from lesson to lesson.
Write the independent success in the learner's words, quoting what they actually said or wrote.
Rank gaps by consequence: what goes wrong for the learner outside the lesson if this stays.
Pick one recall item per lesson from earlier work, not from the lesson just finished.
Put the next real event at the top; if it is close, it overrides the other lines.

Evidence and Data Flow

The tutor reviews the suggested next lesson against the latest five-line note.
Edooqoo keeps teacher notes, homework results and lesson history on a student timeline, and the Prep view shows the next suggested lesson the tutor can accept or change.
Notes can be captured quickly and classified in the background, so the tutor does not need a strict format to save them.

When this approach works

You teach the same learners repeatedly and plan between lessons.
You can spend two minutes after a lesson writing five lines.
Your learners have goals with dates or consequences.

When this approach is not enough

The learner has no defined goal yet; set one before tracking against it.
You need a formal progress report for a sponsor, which needs more structure.
Lessons follow a mandatory course plan with no room to change focus.

Concrete Tutor Decision

Before planning, read the last two five-line notes side by side and choose the line that changed most; that line is the next lesson focus.

Adult 1:1 Worked Example

Constructed example. A finance learner's notes show the same costly gap for three lessons: explaining a delay without sounding defensive. This week the "next event" line says "quarter close call in 10 days". The tutor makes the call the next lesson and puts the delay explanation inside it.

Sources and methodology references

Black and Wiliam: Assessment and Classroom Learning (1998)

FAQ

Why only five lines?

Short notes get reread; long notes rarely do.

Should I track every error?

No. Track the gap with the highest cost for the learner and one recall item.

How do I rank gaps?

Ask what goes wrong for the learner at work or in life if the gap stays.

What if nothing changed between lessons?

Change the task type or difficulty, because the current approach is not producing new evidence.

Can learners write the notes?

They can add the next event and their own view; the tutor still writes the evidence lines.

Edooqoo: How English Tutors Track What To Teach Next: Tutor Playbook. How English Tutors Track What To Teach Next. Build the exercise for your student level. Every AI output is reviewed and edited by the teacher before a student ever sees it.