How To Hold an Effective PAL Session

The Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL) Program is a free form of academic support at Clemson University.
These sessions are led by students who received an A in the course. Follow these step-by-step instructions
to hold an effective PAL session.

1. Opening Activity
a. When the students join spend time getting to know each of them
b. Brain Dump:
i. Give one student an expo marker
ii. Have the student write something on the board they remember from class
iii. Have the student pass the marker to someone else in the session
iv. Repeat the previous two steps until each of the students have written something on the
white board (it is okay if there are overlaps)

2. Main Activity
a. Pass the Problem:
i. Break the session into different groups (roughly 3 students per group)
ii. Give each group a problem to work on
iii. Have each group pass the problem on to the next group when they are done and so on
iv. Continue this until all the groups have seen each problem
v. Compare answers as a one big group

3. Closing Activity
a. 3-2-1:
i. Have the students share
1. 3 things they learned
2. 2 things they are still confused about
3. 1 question they want to ask during class

Notes
PAL sessions are meant to be flexible and reflect what the leader and students prefer. Having an
introduction, main, and closing activity is encouraged, but exactly what those sections look like is up to
the leader.