About Tutoring

Tutoring Frequency
Three 55-minute professional tutoring sessions per week are recommended; however two sessions per week will yield results.

Students must attend at least 100 minutes of tutoring per week in order for the instruction to be effective. You see, our instruction actually changes the brain. Consistent tutoring of sufficient length and frequency is required to build new neural pathways that will make your child an efficient reader/speller over time.

If resources allow, we recommend three sessions per week. When the frequency of tutoring is increased, our experience has been that students make almost double the rate of progress, saving time and money in the long run.

Programs are individualized according to ongoing progress monitoring. In-depth parent conferences are held every six months.

Hands-On, Multisensory, Interactive
Our one-on-one online tutoring is hands-on and highly interactive, so your child will be continuously involved and responding, which maximizes attention and allows for constant opportunity to “do” and “say.” Hooking up the hands-on learning to the appropriate “language” is key to your child’s improvement. Active rather than passive learning will accelerate progress.

Diagnostic
Our individualized tutoring is highly diagnostic in nature. If your child should be confused or need extra practice, it is quickly apparent to the tutor exactly where the student “got stuck,” what to do to solve the problem, and when it is prudent to continue moving forward in the curriculum. This is not true in a small group situation, where it is difficult to pin-point exactly where learning broke down for each child, and come back with a solution that fits the needs of every student in the group.

Mastery Learning
One-on-one also means that we can teach thoroughly and efficiently, adjusting the pace to move as quickly as possible through the curriculum, yet provide sufficient practice to insure mastery of the material. This is quite a huge advantage, as compared to a small group situation where your child can progress only as fast as the slowest student in the group. Teaching to mastery insures there are no gaps, creating a strong foundation that will result in faster future progress. It builds confidence and empowers the learner.

Systematic
Our programs build knowledge and skills in a systematic way, meaning that we don’t ask students to do what they are not ready to do. Every time we teach something new, we are confident the student has the pre-skills in place to be successful. The new learning is based on the previous learning. We never ask students to do what they can’t do. Our students experience success during every tutoring session.

Explicit
We directly teach students what they need to know. We don’t assume they already know something, or that they will “pick it up” through observation or inference. We understand that our students are smart. If we tell them how the language works, they will learn and use that knowledge. Because skills and concepts are carefully sequenced, the student is able to grow his understanding of how our system of reading and writing works, rather than solely rely on rote memory. When there is something a student needs to memorize, such as a spelling rule, we make sure we consistently review the rule until it transfers from short-term memory to long-term memory. Thus our students make permanent and lasting progress.

One-on-One Tutors Become Mentors
Last, but definitely not least, one-on-one tutoring gives your child the gift of mentoring. Our tutors not only share their teaching expertise, but they build bonds and relationships that support your child through his learning and celebrate his successes. We know this, and we hire with this in mind. Our tutors are not only highly skilled, but they’re wonderful, nice people who like kids. They know the work they do is transformational.

Ongoing Assessments
Your child’s progress is continually monitored by not only his tutor, but also a Case Manager who provides another pair of well-trained and experienced eyes. In addition, we administer standardized testing that compares your child’s reading skills to other students the same age (nationally normed), and periodically meet with you to review your child’s progress. Here is a summary of the data we collect:

• Diagnostic Nature
  The diagnostic nature of our instruction allows us to continuously observe student progress and make any needed adjustments in the student’s individual program.
• DIBELS NEXT
  We regularly sample your child’s reading progress using DIBELS NEXT. DIBELS stands for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills. They are a set of short one-minute fluency measures designed to monitor the development of early literacy and early reading skills. There are seven measures designed to indicate progress in the five critical reading areas: phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, fluency with connected text, reading comprehension, and vocabulary.
• Pre and Post Barton Tests
  We administer brief reading and spelling pre and post tests to demonstrate mastery of the skills and concepts that have been taught as your child progresses through the Barton curriculum/levels.
• Gray Oral Reading Test (GORT)
  This individual standardized reading test yields scores for reading accuracy, reading rate, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. It is helpful in order to a) compare a student’s reading skill level to that of other students the same age nationwide; b) determine the strengths and weaknesses in a student’s profile so as to choose and “tweak” the correct intervention; c) evaluate a student’s progress in reading over time.