Welcome!
I help older, struggling students develop efficient word reading, fluency, spelling and writing skills so they can succeed in school and life!
Certified Orton-Gillingham Tutors
Certified OG tutors have completed a supervised practicum, as well as extensive classroom learning. For my initial training, we completed 50 classroom hours and a 100-hour supervised practicum. That means that I planned and submitted 100 one-hour lessons and delivered them to real students. I was observed 10 times and given feedback by my instructor. A teacher who has completed a rigorous program like that has had lots of practice, encountered and solved many challenges, and known many different kinds of students. “OG trained” and “OG certified” tutors might have similar-looking lessons, and they may even use the same materials. But a certified Orton-Gillingham tutor is worth finding because of the flexibility and depth of experience that comes with the practice and supervision required to be certified in Orton-Gillingham.
When your child works with a certified Orton-Gillingham tutor, the tutor develops customized lesson plans for their specific needs, so they can make progress fast!
Systematic instruction in spelling
For some students, even those with dyslexia, reading is not the problem! These are often students with excellent vocabularies and great reasoning ability who are able to reason their way through tricky word challenges.
But then you try to read their writing and find that the “good enough” knowledge of phonics that makes them adequate readers really does support their spelling. Orton-Gillingham can still be the right answer for these students. By explicitly teaching English spelling patterns, one at a time or in small groups, OG tutors can help students master the tricky spellings that seem so unpredictable.
Writing Instruction
Students with dyslexia may struggle with writing as well as writing, for several reasons.
1. Dysgraphia is a specific learning disability that impacts writing and spelling. It often co-occurs in people with dyslexia.
2. Dyslexia directly impacts spelling. When they can’t spell well, students may avoid writing, choose shorter words, or write very slowly as they spell out each word. Dyslexic students often get less practice writing than their peers.
3. Compared to their classmates, students with dyslexia often need more intensive instruction over a longer period of time to become good readers. That often means less time spent on other parts of literacy, like reading and discussing stories or writing. So they might have missed out on some writing instruction their classmates got.
Explicit morphology instruction
You know how people say “English doesn’t make sense?” Usually, what’s missing is knowledge about history and morphology. English is a language built from (often stolen) bits of other languages.
By learning about morphemes (the meaningful parts of words – prefixes, root words and suffixes) students learn to decode, comprehend and spell polysyllabic words. This skill goes from important to absolutely essential for middle and high school reading comprehension.
Evidence-based strategies for comprehension
Students learn strategies for understanding text like asking and answering questions and predicting what will happen next. These strategies enrich overall reading comprehension, but they are also vital skills for school work! Teachers frequently ask students to write or discuss their reading, and to provide evidence from the text.
Online reading tutoring means our students come from all over the U.S. and Canada
You might consider online reading tutoring if your family travels frequently or if your child has a busy schedule outside of school. You can schedule with an online tutor when it is convenient for you, and there’s no driving your child to lessons!
There are lots of considerations when choosing a literacy tutor for your child. If you’re still deciding, check out this blog post for some questions to ask when comparing options for reading and writing tutoring.
Schedule a phone call today to see if writing and reading tutoring online is a good fit for your child. We offer Orton-Gillingham certified tutors who have experience with students at a wide range of ages and with diverse learning needs.