1:1 Reading Intervention: Helping Struggling Readers Succeed (Literacy Expert)

This is a 1:1 reading intervention tutoring class developed specifically for struggling readers. I'm experienced in working with primary/elementary students aged 6-12 years.

Assessment and Action Planning:
Using a Structured Literacy approach, I will initially assess a student's phonemic awareness, letter sound knowledge, reading fluency and comprehension. As this is a comprehensive assessment, this is split across two 25-minute sessions (can be booked back-to-back depending on scheduling availability, please message me to enquire about timings). After these sessions, I will evaluate the results and develop a personal action plan and lessons that will be implemented in the following sessions with the student. Depending on student needs, these lessons will involve explicit teaching of new letter sounds and/or comprehension and fluency strategies. Each session, I will be formatively assessing their progress and adjusting the lessons to meet their arising learning needs.

Lesson Structure:
My lessons generally follow a structure of: Review, Teach (I do, we do), Practice, and Apply (you do), using the Liz Kane Literacy scope and sequence. I use a combination of engaging digital and physical resources, also working with what the learner has available to them in their own study space. As students move beyond the need for Structured Literacy and become fluent readers, the lesson structure can change to focus more heavily on reading comprehension and text response. It is highly recommended that the optional homework is completed outside of the tutoring session times to accelerate student progress. Ideally, the student and I would meet 1:1, two times a week. It can also work as a weekly session, although progress may not be as accelerated.

What is Structured Literacy?
Our brains are hardwired to learn how to talk but not how to read! Structured Literacy is an evidence-based approach to teaching the science of reading English. It is fun, engaging and produces excellent results. Teaching is very systematic and follows a clear teaching sequence that cumulates over time to develop fluent readers. Children learn letter sounds and spelling patterns to help them understand the English alphabetic code. There are 44 sounds in the English language but approximately 250 ways of representing those sounds. Structured Literacy is aligned with the Orton-Gillingham teaching approach.
In practice, this looks like:
- Explicit, sequential lessons​ of phonemes and heart (sight) words
- Cumulative practice and ongoing review ​
- A high level of student-teacher interaction​
- Carefully selected examples and support material​
- Prompt, corrective feedback

Please reach out if the available times are unsuitable - I have some flexibility in my schedule and will try my best to make it work for us both.

UPDATE: I will be taking leave from May 5 until June 10, 2025. Please look at my self-paced courses at that time as I will be able to give feedback during those courses but cannot guarantee time to offer Zoom lessons. Otherwise, I look forward to continuing the 1:1 tutoring classes I offer after June 10th. Thank you!