Our Literacy Tutoring Sessions
Reading Instruction
We offer personalized reading instruction for students in grades K–5, rooted in the Science of Reading elements and taught by experienced, certified educators. Our teachers hold advanced degrees in special education and reading instruction, and bring over 20 years of experience to every session.
There are five key concepts at the core of effective reading instruction. Our supplemental literacy instruction sessions include practice in each of these important areas: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension.
Phonemic Awareness: Students practice manipulating the sounds of language using exercise at the beginning of each tutoring session. A multi-sensory approach is used so that students have concrete representations of each phoneme or sound. (Kilpatrick - Equipped for Reading Success and UFLI Foundations).
Phonics: Students engage in phonics activities and word work to build words, mark their sounds, and practice spelling rules. Activities are multi-sensory based so that students practice hearing the sounds, manipulating letter tiles, writing on white boards and other surfaces. During this portion of our sessions, students practice both decoding and encoding of real words and nonsense words. (Fundations - Wilson Reading and UFLI Foundations).
Fluency: Literacy sessions at our center include integration of word level fluency and reading fluency using real world articles, short stories and books appropriate for each child’s level. Fluency activities help build self-confidence and help improve prosody at each student's level. (Grade Level ORF Passages).
Vocabulary: Students work with us to enhance and deepen their vocabulary through a variety of activities. Explicit vocabulary instruction is planned along with the development of contextual strategies to help improve skills in recognizing words and also their meanings. (Vocabulary Workshop).
Comprehension: We support reading comprehension development through explicit teaching of text structure and vocabulary within prepared examples. We work with students to recognize different text structures, make connections to background knowledge and apply comprehension strategies. Students are taught strategies and practice them during each session. (Readworks, Grade Level books and passages).
Written Language Support
Our supplemental writing instruction includes personalized tutoring sessions designed to help support written language development from the early stage through the fluent writing stage. Each child is informally assessed and goals are created in the area of written language. These goals exist on a continuum from pencil grip and letter formation goals through goals related to written subject area reports.
Students receive writing instruction at their developmental level and also in conjunction with their grade level curriculum. Our process-oriented approach to writing helps students break down writing tasks into manageable chunks in order to boost confidence and improve skills. Some examples of tools we create and personalize for each child include: pencil grips, specialized handwriting paper, personalized writing journals, personalized graphic organizers, topic tubs - for personalized writing topics, personalized constructed response activities and personalized report writing templates.
Our goal is to meet your child right where they are and help them grow into confident, skilled readers and writers. Every child is unique, and the plans we create reflect their individual strengths and needs.
