Tutor Blogs

For the 5th year in a row, all my students have passed their NY State examinations. A few have made it to the Honor Roll, and some are receiving Academic Achievement Awards next week. I am so proud of them. This was a difficult year for some, especially with Common Core test requirement, being a late suggestion and requirement by Bloomberg's team. So many students and parents were very worried and scared. So I did my research, and bought the required books, as well as to incorporate the use of the students' books.

Each session I worked on building their competency and comprehension skills,...

The Emancipation Proclamation was an order issued, by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, to all segments of the Executive branch of the United States during the Civil War. The document proclaimed all those enslaved in Confederate territory to be forever free. The question is, did it apply to all the states holding slaves with in the Union during that time?

Biology is the study of the living being used for the welfare of the human beings. It has many branches like cytology, botany, zoology, microbiology. It has many applications like gene technology, biotechnology proteomics and biomedical engineering.

When I was young, I looked to others to provide me with the answers, but now I know that the "correct" answer is the one in which I am confident. Whatever I believe, others that I teach will believe as well. That is why it is important for an authority on any subject, or in any field, to really know his or her stuff. Less experienced people are counting on you to provide them with the right answers, and while it is important to have accurate information for your students or clients, it's just as important to teach those in your care to believe in their own right answers. The truth is that there...

I started working with special needs students in 1987. My experience has been working with these students is that you have to be patient. These students better to individuals who are relaxed and look at them as individuals. The mistake a lot of special educators is that they lump all special needs students together and don't look at them as individuals. This type of thinking leads to these students being labeled.

By labeling these students, educators are doing these students a disservice because when it comes servicing them, for example if you have an autistic student who yells constantly...

Yep, the pressures of an academic routine are behind us, but just for a few months. The deadlines that students and teachers experience during the school year can be overwhelming. The solace of the summer months is just what the doctor ordered! But wait...does that mean that students should not expose themselves to academic subjects at all during the summer months? No, no, no, they should not! It is a proven fact that children who do not practice reading, writing and math during their summer vacation loose 3-6 months of academic success from their prior year. That means students who...

The Saga Begins

You crack open your textbook.

Let's say Chapter 11 on the gases. With breathless anticipation, you are now ready to understand the mysteries of these tiny particles that inhabit the air, and you can not see.

This time your plan is to get ahead. You plan on reading the entire chapter, and learning it all. Yet, like the last semester, when faced with an entire chapter of in depth information, lots of equations, diagrams and graphs, with circles and arrows and captions below each one, you once again experience the same sinking feeling you had like the feeling you remember fifteen...

Research and theory on summarizing suggest, to effectively summarize, students must delete some information, substitute information, and keep some information. That means, delete unnecessary materials that does not help with understanding; delete redundant material; substitute terms for lists, ex. flowers for daisies, tulips, and roses. Finally, select a topic sentence or develop a topic sentence if one is not provided. Parents and teachers can also use summary frames such as these:

1. The Narrative Frame

2. The Topic-Restriction-Illustration Frame

3. The Definition Frame

4. The Argumentation...

These generalizations will help parents and teachers in teaching and learning new words.

1. Students need to see words in context several times in order to learn them.

2. Teaching new words in context increases the chances of learning the word.

3. Provide students with a picture or image with which to identify the word.

4. Teach vocabulary directly to students to increase comprehension.

5. Direct instruction of new words that are critical to learning new content enhances learning and achievement.

For parents who are trying to do any of the following:

1. Engage your child in reading

2. Increase your child's reading skills (fluency, comprehension, rhythm, expression, tempo, etc.)

3. Increase your child's language acquisition, vocabulary, grammar skills, and spelling skills

This blog post is for you!!!

There are some really unique ways to help your child become a "reader." I myself wasn't a "reader" until about the age of 10. Up to that point, though I loved books and collected books and asked for books for birthdays/holidays, I was not a reading self-starter. However, I loved being...