English & Reading Tutoring
Whether reading for pleasure, researching for a paper, following the news, or learning something new, reading is an essential skill both in and out of school. Great reading comprehension begins as early as pre-K and grows with time.
I offer tutoring in reading comprehension or writing for students having trouble in one area, as well as comprehensive English/language arts tutoring, which incorporates both subjects.
Strong reading skills require strong analytical skills, which most people fully develop in college. Deep analysis is a continually-developing skill, so it's important to cultivate it through lots of reading and writing. And any kind of reading helps! Whether your student is reading literary novels, comics, news articles, video game reviews, science fiction stories, poetry, or anything else, they are gaining exposure to new vocabulary, voices, story structures, and ideas. The more varied their reading material, the more comprehension skills they'll acquire.
Reading Comprehension at Grade Level
Elementary Reading
Grade school is when young children develop essential reading skills and absorb vocabulary daily. Emphasis is on recognizing words and understanding grammar to gain high-level comprehension. Staying on grade level as early as possible establishes a strong foundation for future academic success. This is a great time to begin English tutoring.
Middle School Reading
In sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, kids build on verbal ability and deepen their comprehension and strategic reading skills. This is where they learn to differentiate between summary and detail while expanding their vocabulary. Middle school is when the seeds of analytical thinking are planted, and this is the age of most of the students I tutor in reading.
High School Reading
High school English is when analytical skills bloom. Students in ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade develop progressively more advanced comprehension and the ability to analyze passages, including understanding metaphors and symbolic language. Teenagers should also continue to grow their vocabulary, which will help with standardized test-taking and overall English skills. If a high school student is struggling in reading, it is probably causing challenges in other subjects. When I tutor reading students at this age, I take a more comprehensive approach to English/Language Arts.
My Tutoring Approach
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Vocabulary
A limited vocabulary is one of the biggest obstacles to prolific reading. When you hit a string of unfamiliar words, it gets harder to understand what you're reading, and looking each word up interrupts your flow. Fortunately, it's also an easy hurdle to overcome. I train all of my English/Language Arts students in language-building strategies. Even advanced readers can learn new, more challenging words. I've worked with many students to build their vocabulary skills, especially to prep for tests like the SAT, ACT, and ISEE. I've even put my strategies to work as I studied for the GRE, where I scored in the 94th percentile of the verbal reasoning portion.
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Retention & Summary
Beyond building a more comprehensive lexicon, kids can benefit from practicing reading retention and summary skills, leading to more analytical agility as they age. Most major newspapers write for a middle school reading level, so they are widely accessible. This makes good reading material for retention and summary practice. When I work with students on reading skills, I often have them read an article or alternate reading aloud, then use the headline as a guide to help them summarize the critical points of the article. We also work together on notetaking, which they will need throughout their academic career. Parents can help with this simply by asking kids what they read that day and what they remember from it.
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Comprehension & Analysis
After mastering the fundamentals, I work with students (Grade 6 and above) on deepening their understanding of what they read. Retaining information and summarizing it is essential to become a strong reader, but excellent readers make connections beyond what's written on the page. I help teens with strategic reading, advanced notetaking and research, and, eventually, higher-level thinking, such as finding deeper meaning in literature through metaphor and symbolism. When I help build strong reading comprehension, students feel more confident approaching dense textbooks and tests like the SAT. It also equips them with valuable professional skills.
I offer online tutoring and in-person tutoring in NYC.
With more reading happening on screens these days, online tutoring can help students practice staying focused in a world of distractions. My teaching style is highly collaborative and there are options to share screens and build vocab databases using technology. Sitting side-by-side is especially helpful when working with beginner readers because we can sound out words together and use strategies like following along with a finger to stay in line with long passages of text. Ultimately, all these strategies are meant to build reading comprehension so that students can work independently and eventually know them intuitively. There are advantages to virtual tutoring and advantages to in-person tutoring, and I’ll leverage the best each option has to offer when helping your student become more excited about reading.
