NOTE:  This class REQUIRES a 3 day per week commitment in order to ensure student progress.  Please register for Tuesdays, Wednesdays, AND Thursdays at the same hour in an ongoing fashion.  This will reserve your learners' spot for ongoing tutoring.

After assessing your child's strengths and needs, and meeting with both of you for a "get to know you session", we will dive into the rules (or generalizations) that create good spellers for life.

My tutoring sessions assist students in developing a better understanding for spelling
patterns, phonemic awareness and phonics. Teaching sessions are action oriented with auditory, visual, and kinesthetic elements reinforcing one another. The approach is helpful for all spellers - those who struggle and those who do not.  And the approach definitely targets learners with the kinds of language processing problems (reading, spelling, and writing) associated with dyslexia.  

The methods I use are based on a multi-sensory approach to learning and the Orton-Gillingham Program.  It is valuable for students to learn patterns and how to phonetically sound out words rather than simply memorize a short list of words for a test.  As we all know, those memorized words are usually forgotten in no time.  In my tutoring sessions, learners will complete activities that help the spelling to "stick" and not be forgotten.

While some aspects of this program may seem simple at first, they are critical in establishing a solid foundation for proper spelling, reading, and writing. The skills will continue to build upon the previous weeks’ skills and increase in difficulty. Each week we will focus on a particular spelling pattern and a variety of activities will be incorporated.  Nonsense words that match the pattern will also be incorporated in order to practice listening for the correct sounds and utilize the rule/generalization we are focusing on.  These nonsense words prevent students from relying on words they've seen before and help them to really establish an understanding of the class content.

Sentence dictation will be utilized in order to demonstrate your child’s ability to write in context.