Tutoring · The Alcorn Method
Your coursework, one step at a time. Then it becomes your portfolio.
One-on-one tutoring for adults in technical courses: programming, networking, security labs, spreadsheets. We do not hand you answers. We hand you a sheet that starts where you are, builds the work in small steps with the exact output you should see at each one, and assumes you remember nothing from last week. When the assignment is done and graded, we turn it into a GitHub repository you can show an employer.
First learner
“You need to do something like this and distribute it. Put my face on it.”
Danita Alcorn. Air Force veteran who graduated college at 16, then started over after a stroke: this fall she is finishing the first semester of her cybersecurity degree. Finishing the semester on sheets built for her, requesting her own accommodations, and the method that came out of it carries her name.
Published with written consent. More stories.
How it works
- Step 1IntakeYour course, your textbook, what you like (so the practice examples are about something you care about), and what you choose to tell us about how you learn.
- Step 2SubmitThe assignment, plus a photo of your code or the error on your screen.
- Step 3DraftWe write the sheet and a private coach guide, and run every example so the 'You should see' boxes are true.
- Step 4ReviewA mentor reads every sheet before it goes out. The diagnosis is human: last term a learner was sure her math was wrong. Her math was right; her main function never called it.
- Step 5DeliverThe sheet comes to you. The answer key goes to a study partner you choose, so you work without it in front of you.
- Step 6PortfolioWhen an assignment is finished and graded, we help you commit it to a GitHub repository with a README in your words. By the end of the course you have a portfolio, not a folder of screenshots.
We never deliver an assignment's answer. Practice examples live in a different subject, the real task is built with blanks you fill in, and answer keys go to your study partner. Every sheet is written so an instructor could read it without wincing.
The method
Three rules, in the order they matter.
- 1
Start here. Every sheet opens where the learner actually is, not where the syllabus assumes they are. The first step is one they can already do.
- 2
You should see. No step is complete without a described result. The exact output, the exact error, the exact thing on the screen. The learner checks themselves, in the moment, without waiting for anyone.
- 3
Check. A final list of what the grader is actually grading, plus a short section naming the mistakes everyone makes. The answer key lives with a study partner, not the learner.
Named for the first learner it was built with, and open for any tutor to use. It now runs every HtW tutoring engagement, from a sixth grader's science test to a psychologist's licensing exam. The Python sheet shows it in full. Underneath the three rules, every sheet carries these ten habits:
Rule 1
Start here, every time
Tool open, file named, file found. Two or three checks before any code, so the first ten minutes are never lost to setup.
Rule 2
Rules up front
The few hard constraints for the task, stated once, in a box, before anything else.
Rule 3
Words you need
Four to eight terms in plain language with a concrete picture. An accumulator is a jar.
Rule 4
Your example first
Part 1 practices on a subject the learner cares about, in a different domain from the real task. Part 2 is the real task, built in the same stages.
Rule 5
Build and see
Each step adds a few lines, then a 'You should see' box with the exact output. The screen checks the work, not memory.
Rule 6
One change per step
Fill-in blanks in place. Never two programs to hold in the head at once.
Rule 7
Checkboxes everywhere
Interrupted? The sheet shows where you stopped.
Rule 8
Your errors, your words
The red text the learner actually got: what you see, what it means, what to do.
Rule 9
Final check before you submit
A short list with one physical check, like counting output lines with a finger.
Rule 10
Nothing assumed
Every sheet works for someone who remembers nothing from last week. No 'you already know this'.
Who it is for, and who pays
Learners
Adults in a gateway technical course: veterans, neurodiverse learners, returning students, first-generation students, career changers. One course, one semester, as many sheets as the course needs. Accessible does not mean easier; it means the material stops demanding the one thing a person cannot give it.
Sponsors
A gift covers a learner's week: drafted sheets, mentor review, and the portfolio commit at the end. Sponsor one learner or a seat for whoever is next on the list.
Colleges and programs
Retention in gateway courses, per seat, per semester. Veteran-serving organizations and workforce boards can fund members in school. Mentors come from our own ACCESS Granted apprentices, who log paid hours reviewing sheets.