As students’ gain confidence in their abilities to decode words, their reading becomes more fluent. As they read more fluently and consider what they read, their comprehension will increase, too. When we read, it is inevitable for almost all of…

When I tutor students in writing and teach them about the writing process, I have high expectations, which include correct spelling, punctuation, sentence flow, and grammar. High expectations are essential to student growth. However, this post is not about writing…

When I begin working with students, it is most important to establish a connection so the student feels safe, respected, and comfortable. What comes after that? The answer is assessment. The assessments are both formal and informal. A formal assessment,…

When I tutor and teach English to students, I find that often they have difficulty understanding the difference between “much” or “many”. The answer lies in whether the nouns that they modify are countable or uncountable. When the noun is…

When I begin working with students as their reading tutor, writing tutor, or English tutor, we have an initial interview where we get to know each other. This is the time when we establish that students should have a notebook…

In my teaching experiences, I’ve often observed that reading fluency is directly related to reading comprehension. In many cases, when students are not reading fluently, it can influence their ability to process and comprehend text. When I tutor students in…

In writing, correct conventions is a huge problem for kids and adults. Many teachers (including myself as a former classroom teacher and writing tutor) mark corrections on student writing, showing the student exactly where they made their errors, rather than…

The most powerful events in my career as a teacher were always experiences with my students. As an educator, teacher and reading tutor, there is nothing more satisfying then to look at a child or adult and see the light…

When we read, we make meaning by thinking all the time. If something doesn’t make sense, we stop and go back and reread. If we come to a place in the text that gives us new information, we consider what…

When I teach English to my students, often I notice that they have trouble with overusing -ing at the end of their verbs. For example, I working tonight and then we going to the movies. This sentence is incorrect. Can…