Ask for a hint ladder, not an answer key

Decades of intelligent tutoring research point at the same design: step-level help, escalating gradually, keeps the learner doing the work; systems built this way approach human tutoring in effectiveness (VanLehn, 2011). AI makes the expensive part cheap: for any problem you can generate a ladder of hints, from a nudge to a near-solution, and hand out only as much as each student needs. (This mirrors the progressive-hint-ladder skill in Gareth Manning's education-agent-skills library.)

In practice

For this problem, write a 4-rung hint ladder:
1. A question that redirects attention, giving nothing away.
2. A reminder of the relevant concept, no method.
3. The first step of the method, not the rest.
4. A worked step with the final answer still missing.
Each rung one or two sentences.

• Print ladders on card, folded so students reveal one rung at a time, and note which rung they needed. That's assessment data.
• Use them yourself while circulating: rung 1 aloud before rung 2, instead of the full rescue we all default to.