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Maximize Your ACT Reading Score-Certified Teacher/Experienced ACT Tutor (1-On-1)

Completed by 1 learner
Ages 14-18
Live 1-on-1 Lessons
The focus is reading for comprehension, mapping the passage, following the main-idea thread through the text, identifying what the question is really asking, using clues in the passage to find the right answer, and avoiding ACT traps.
Average rating:
5.0
Number of reviews:
(18 reviews)

Live video meetings
Meets 2x per week (teacher suggestion)
Meets on demand
55 min

What's included

Meets on Demand
schedule meetings as needed
55 mins
per session
Teacher support
Mastery Evaluation
2-4 hours per week. Homework will include passages from previous ACT tests (from The Official ACT Prep Guide 2024-2025) and questions from The Critical Reader: Complete Guide to ACT Reading by Erica Meltzer. Assessment takes place via ACT practice tests, which are available in The Official ACT Prep Guide 2024-2025.
Assessment
ACT Practice Tests from The Official ACT Prep Guide 2024-2025. I'll provide feedback.

Class Experience

US Grade 9 - 12
I am kind, patient, creative, flexible, and empathetic. I am also hilarious, and my (spurious) data shows that students who laugh at my jokes score 10-72% better on the test. (I made that up, but I'm usually very honest.) 

I've worked with many students with ADHD, ASD, dyslexia, processing disorders, and other learning differences. While I don't teach students to decode words in these sessions, I do work on reading comprehension strategies that students need for the test and for college reading in general. Students report using my strategies when reading textbooks and other material with great success. 

Because it's best to use official test questions to prepare, I highly recommend that students purchase The Official ACT Prep Guide 2024-2025 for use in sessions and for homework. 

In one-on-one ACT Reading sessions, we typically cover the following: 

Close reading strategies--mapping the passage, what to write down when you read, how to follow the thread of the main idea through a passage by tracking pronouns, synonyms, repeated ideas (different from SAT sessions because the passages are longer), figurative language, comparisons, superlatives, "time" words, and more. 

Strategies for reading the question carefully--paying attention to the how vs. why, how to avoid skipping important words, the difference between main idea and main purpose, the difference between literal answers and inferences. 

Selecting the best answer--predicting the answer, finding a match, identifying and eliminating trap answers, using process of elimination, knowing when to guess and move on.

Pacing--although the goal is scoring as many points as possible, students want to answer all the questions. We'll work on which questions eat up too much time and should be answered last if time remains. 

Instruction consists of teacher-made instructional material including slide presentations and questions from The Official ACT Prep Guide. 

In order to see a score increase, it's essential that students not only attend sessions but also complete homework, take practice tests, and, if necessary, study vocabulary outside of sessions. I offer Vocabulady's SAT Vocab Game Night classes on Outschool to help with this. They're fun and effective. I recommend Level A for the ACT. 

Because the sessions are one-on-one, we'll cover whichever reading questions the practice test identifies as priorities (taking into account how frequently the question type appears on the test). We'll also discuss how to read the different types of passages, what kind of notes to take, and how to avoid trap answers.

Additionally, I highly recommend that students purchase this book for homework practice: The Critical Reader: The Complete Guide to ACT Reading by Erica L. Meltzer. It has a lot of practice for each question type.

Learning Goals

Identify the clues that tell you what a word means in its context and apply strategies for selecting the correct answers.
Identify main ideas in a passage using details, old/new idea structure, and transition words.

Other Details

Learning Needs
Students with accommodations for extended testing time will learn how to use the extra time to maximize their success.
Parental Guidance
The scary part is test day, but the best anxiety prevention is excellent preparation.
Pre-Requisites
Please take an ACT practice test before our first session. (If you've taken an official test, and you have the questions and answers from the test, that works, too.)
Supply List
I highly recommend the following books to use in our sessions and for homework:  (Amazon links--I'm not endorsing Amazon. It's just a convenient way to share.)

The Critical Reader: The Complete Guide to ACT Reading: https://a.co/d/de3b5VU

The Official ACT Prep Guide: https://a.co/d/4Kr2ByS

Please have a notebook and something to write with.
Language of Instruction
English (Level: B2+)
External Resources
In addition to the Outschool classroom, this class uses:

Meet the teacher

Joined October, 2024
5.0
18reviews
Profile
Teacher expertise and credentials
Pennsylvania Teaching Certificate in Foreign Language
Master's Degree in Education from Misericordia University
Bachelor's Degree in Foreign Language from Marywood University
After teaching high school French and Spanish for 25 years, I semi-retired and began a second career as a test-prep and academic tutor. I specialize in the reading and writing section of the SAT and ACT. I have studied the reading, English, and science questions very carefully, and my strategies have helped many students raise their composite scores, sometimes by ~3-5 points. (Results depend on student effort and other factors, but students who practice my strategies generally see an increase on these three sections.)

Reviews


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