Deborah K.
Wellesley Hills, MA
Highly Successful Tutor with Multi-sensory, Strategic Approach
Honors College, Ohio State University
English Phi Beta KappaBoston University Graduate School of Management - High Honors
MBAAbout Deborah
For 7 years I have been tutoring students in English Language Arts and mathematics.
Initially I taught children with autism, helping them catch up academically. My interest grew from preparing after-school lessons for tutors to my son with autism over an 8-year period.
My practice has now broadened well beyond autism,
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Travels within 5 miles of Wellesley Hills, MA 02481Approved subjects are in bold.
Approved subjects
In most cases, tutors gain approval in a subject by passing a proficiency exam. For some subject areas, like music and art, tutors submit written requests to demonstrate their proficiency to potential students. If a tutor is interested but not yet approved in a subject, the subject will appear in non-bold font. Tutors need to be approved in a subject prior to beginning lessons.
ACT English
ACT English tests a student’s knowledge of the standards of English, both the mechanics, e.g., sentence structure and grammar, as well as rhetoric, e.g., style and organization. The student answers the questions in the context of both fictional and non-fictional reading passages.
As a high school student I took ACT English as part of the college application process. In the ACT and the other standardized tests, I performed extremely well. As a result, I was admitted to the highly-selective Honors College of Ohio State University, and pursued a demanding course of study in 500- and 600-level courses in my major, English and American literature, as well as in a wide variety of liberal arts courses including the social sciences, philosophy and art.
My strong essay writing was a key factor in my earning a final overall GPA of 3.65 and becoming a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
I don’t just have a talent for test taking. I feel I have a gift for helping students face tests with knowledge and confidence and demonstrate their very best performance.
For the ACT English, I will work to hone the student’s skills in both mechanics as well as the more challenging area of rhetoric.
As a tutor I employ a highly effective multi-sensory, conceptual approach. With my test-prep students, I will:
** Customize lessons to their needs and to the expectations of their parents;
** Rely on clear, engaging and memorable PC-generated visuals to supplement prep book materials;
** Teach underlying concepts and strategic approaches for development of "sense" as well as skills;
** Use the everyday to teach the abstract; and
** Use various methods to overcome learning hurdles.
Having worked in a variety of professions, I find tutoring students and watching them succeed has been the most rewarding job of all.
Algebra 1
I continue to be amazed at how often I use algebra to solve everyday math problems. What seems tricky becomes clear as I express the components as an equation.
As a tutor, I want to teach students not just algebraic operation, but how to use it to solve word problems, ones that reflect math they will encounter in their daily lives.
Though I rely on texts for lesson content, I find I can convey the subject matter more clearly and engagingly by creating my own materials. I keep formats simple and often enhance pages with meaningful clip art images.
Most importantly, I customize content and presentation to meet the needs and interests of my students on an ongoing basis.
Art History
Appreciation of art started early for me. I was lucky that my parents frequented an art museum whose mission was to teach patrons about artists, their subjects and their techniques.
In college I spent a full year in art courses that began with cave painting and ended with contemporary art and architecture.
Later, I took upper-level courses in Medieval and Renaissance art, 19th century European painting, and 19th century American art.
My strongest skills in these courses were connoisseurship (being able to identify an unknown reproduction by its artist and to date it within 10 years) and to compare and contrast works of art in terms of subject matter, and the artists’ use of light, space, color, brushstroke, etc.
My knowledge has been greatly enhanced over the years by visiting art museums and buildings of architectural interest in the U.S. and many countries in Europe.
I bring to a student the knowledge and passion that I have for the visual arts.
Since my education has been both broad and in-depth, I am able to teach art history and appreciation as a survey course as well as a concentrated study.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
For the past six years, I have successfully tutored students with autism.
Initially I received certification in Rapid Prompting Method training, a multi-sensory technique used to teach students with ASD.
Since certification, I have expanded my offerings to include programs, materials, visuals and manipulatives that are particularly engaging and memorable.
I teach English language arts (phonemic awareness, phonetic decoding, reading comprehension, spelling, vocabulary and grammar) and math (numeric sense and operation, measurement, geometry, algebra, data analysis) with an emphasis on underlying concepts, as well as logical thinking, often termed "thinking skills.".
I pride myself in teaching students with autism not to learn by rote, but to do so logically and strategically.
These individuals are stronger students as a result.
Elementary (K-6th)
I use a multi-sensory, strategic approach to teach elementary subjects including phonemic awareness, phonetic decoding, vocabulary, spelling, reading comprehension, and the five strands of math: numeric operation and sense, pre-algebra, geometry, measurement, and statistics, as well as logic, often termed "thinking skills."
I also enjoy teaching elementary geography, history, science and art appreciation.
I rely on curriculum used in Massachusetts public schools, MCAS standardized tests and What Your (Kindergartner, First Grader...Sixth Grader) Should Know series, as well as many other excellent Internet and textbook resources for content.
I specialize in teaching abstract concepts using everyday examples, mnemonics and visuals; showing the relationship between what the student already knows and needs to learn; and offering a mix of easy and more challenging material -- all the while providing a positive attitude about the student's potential and performance.
I consider myself a lifelong learner. If I stumble on something new, I seek out a full understanding of it. If my student encounters a hurdle, I try a variety of methods, customized to that student, to enable him/her to overcome that obstacle.
I have worked with very disabled students and yet have had amazing success in teaching them material they would learn if they had access to a mainstream elementary classroom.
Nevertheless I continue to have a keen interest in helping mainstream students overcome hurdles in a particular subject or in assisting interested students in pursuing excellence and/or enrichment.
Elementary Math
My son entered our well-respected middle school to discover that he lacked basic math understanding and skills. When he was an elementary student, I recall overhearing unusual terms such as “string math” and “landmark math” in homework discussions between him and his dad. These new models were supposed to teach him numeric sense. For whatever reason, they didn’t.
Fortunately for my older son, I found math programs that were straightforward, taught underlying concepts, used manipulatives, and provided lots of practice. Though he is autistic, he was able to learn all four arithmetic operations, fractions and decimals, measurement and basic geometry.
Now when I tutor in elementary math, I teach underlying concepts and strategies in concrete ways. Students get lots of practice with both operations as well as word problems that reflect math they encounter in their daily lives.
Though I rely on programs and texts for lesson content, I find I can convey the subject matter more clearly and engagingly by creating my own materials. I keep formats simple, and often enhance pages with meaningful clip art images.
Most importantly, I customize content and presentation to meet the needs and interests of my students on an on-going basis..
English
English is a broad subject. Typically referred to as English Language Arts (ELA), it comprises all skills relating to reading and writing. I have successfully tutored in ELA for over 6 years.
My reading instruction encompasses phonemic awareness, phonetic decoding, fluency development, basic and higher-level reading comprehension and vocabulary building.
My writing instruction includes strategies for organization, the topic sentence, support, and conclusion, as well as editing to correct rhetoric (e.g., word choice) and mechanics (e.g., sentence structure, spelling, grammar, punctuation).
For both reading and writing, I rely on Internet educational sites, Hooked on Phonics, Scholastic-published teachers’ manuals, and other excellent sources. All my lessons are customized to students’ needs and interests.
I ask that you read my qualifications under the classifications of grammar, phonics, reading, spelling, vocabulary, and writing on this WyzAnt web site to get a full picture of how I help students become proficient in English Language Arts.
Grammar
I credit my late mother, a high school Business English teacher, with my strong grasp of grammar, and the writing skills that developed from it.
My effective writing as an English major in college and as a business student in graduate school earned me top grades and honors. Later, I depended on my knowledge of grammar and usage in various professional positions, producing clear, succinct and influential reports for many dozens of clients.
Now I bring my knowledge and my passion for clear written expression to my students.
As a tutor, I rely on various Internet sites and teachers’ manuals to determine lesson content for students of various grade levels.
I have discovered that most sources for grammar instruction and activities, however, lack visual appeal. As a result, I create my own materials using simple formats and clip art, and ensuring they meet the needs and interests of my students.
Literature
My love of literature started when I first learned to read at age 6 and continues to this day. I am an avid reader of literary fiction, both contemporary works and the classics, as well as historical fiction, biography, history and philosphy.
As a member of the highly selective Honors College at my undergraduate university, I majored in English literature.
Since as an Honors student I was entitled to a waiver of prerequisites, I took only upper-level literature courses. These included courses in medieval, Renaissance, 18th, 19th and 20th century literature, as well as studies of Chaucer, Milton and Shakespeare.
I was an A student and considered by my professors to have strong analytical and writing skills.
As a mother I have been able to share my avid interest in literature with my sons. As a result, I am familiar with many authors who write for elementary and middle school students.
As a tutor I can select appropriate works for study or read school-required books along with students.
I help students gain a thorough sense of the book’s meaning: its themes, its conflicts and resolutions, the development of its characters, the narrator's perspective, and the way its settings, descriptions and dialogue enhance the story’s significance.
I also help students write clear, persuasive essays to show their knowledge of these story elements.
In this way students learn to appreciate literature as they study it, to write about it in insightful ways, and they may well embark on a lifetime of reading for pleasure and meaning.
Phonics
I have successfully taught reading using phonics for over 6 years.
For beginners and for readers struggling with decoding, I use a multi-pronged approach:
1.) identification of upper- and lower-case letters;
2.) matching letter with sound using visual and auditory mnemonics;
3.) teaching phonemic awareness within words; and
4.) using fundamental spelling for reinforcement.
I also use the Dolch list for teaching the most common words which are irregularly spelled.
If the student has continued trouble with decoding, I can employ methods from LindamoodBell's Seeing Stars to promote symbol imagery.
As decoding improves, I create phonetically-controlled sentences and short passages. As the student progresses further, I rely on a wide variety of sources for grade-appropriate reading material.
Regardless of age or reading level, I customize all lessons to my students' needs and interests.
Reading
In my estimation, there are 5 key components to reading education: phonemic awareness, phonetic decoding, reading comprehension, vocabulary building and fluency development. These components are the building blocks of my reading instruction.
I believe reading education needs to be systematic and its components inter-related:
**Phonetic decoding skills should be applied to high-interest words, sentences and stories with an emphasis on basic comprehension early on.
**Vocabulary and fluency are added to the mix as soon as possible to maximize comprehension of longer, more difficult reading material.
Using these principles I have successfully taught reading for over 6 years.
For beginners and those really struggling with decoding I use a multi-pronged approach, simultaneously teaching letter identification, letter sounds, phonemic awareness within words, and fundamental spelling for reinforcement.
The Complete Phonics Handbook by Didax is a go-to reference for decoding material. For students with continued decoding difficulties, I employ methods from LindamoodBell's Seeing Stars to promote symbol imagery. I use Hooked on Phonics Pre-K to Grade 2, not for its instruction, but for its early-reading material, and from the get-go I create simple tests of comprehension.
As decoding improves, I build vocabulary of phonetically similar words, testing for comprehension with visuals and creating short, phonetically-controlled sentences for the purposes of practice. As the student progresses, I rely on grade-appropriate reading material from a wide variety of sources, including Internet educational sites, leveled books, and past MCAS reading passages.
I develop fluency skills in students early on, modeling how to read meaningful “chunks” of words smoothly to better grasp their significance.
Thus, in my tutoring, vocabulary and fluency combine to enhance comprehending reading material of greater length and difficulty.
Simple “WH” questions give way to higher-ordered ones relating to main idea, and later inference, prediction, evaluation, etc.
The student, ultimately, becomes highly proficient in all areas of reading, and, with a sense of mastery, may well seek out reading for enjoyment and personal knowledge. Isn't that hope of every parent and teacher?
SAT Reading
SAT Reading tests a student’s ability to answer what are called higher-ordered comprehension questions after reading text. These question areas include main idea, inference, tone, and understanding the meaning of words and expressions in their context.
As a high school student I took SAT Reading as part of the college application process. In the SAT Reading and the other standardized tests, I performed extremely well.
As a result, I was admitted to the highly-selective Honors College of Ohio State University, and pursued a demanding course of study in 500- and 600-level courses in my major, English and American literature, as well as in a wide variety of liberal arts and sciences courses including the social sciences, the hard sciences, philosophy and art.
My ability to comprehend reading material at the higher-ordered level was a key factor in my earning a final overall GPA of 3.65 and becoming a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
I don’t just have a talent for test taking. I feel I have a gift for helping students face tests with knowledge and confidence and demonstrate their very best performance.
For the SAT Reading, I will work to hone the student’s skills in all areas of higher-ordered comprehension areas. Truly, learning these skills is not nearly as hard as someone might expect.
As a tutor I employ a highly effective multi-sensory, strategic approach. With my test-prep students, I will:
** Customize lessons to their needs and to the expectations of their parents;
** Rely on clear, engaging and memorable PC-generated visuals to supplement prep book materials;
** Teach underlying concepts and strategic approaches for development of "sense" as well as skills;
** Use the everyday to teach the abstract; and
** Use various methods to overcome learning hurdles.
Having worked in a variety of professions, I find tutoring students and watching them succeed has been the most rewarding job of all.
SAT Writing
The timed SAT Writing tests your writing skills in two ways.
The easier area of testing is SAT Grammar. After reading a fictional or non-fictional passage, the student is asked questions relating to grammar and usage, as well as to sentence structure, organization and style.
In SAT Essay, a student is given a topic and an assignment for writing an essay. These days many students learn to write essays using graphic organizers in school. In a real sense, the best approach to writing an SAT essay is to use an organizing structure.
As a high school student I took not the SAT but another standardized writing test as part of the college application process. In the writing and the other areas of standardized testing, I performed extremely well.
As a result, I was admitted to the highly-selective Honors College of Ohio State University, and pursued a demanding course of study in 500- and 600-level courses in my major, English and American literature, as well as in a wide variety of liberal arts and sciences courses including the social sciences, the hard sciences, philosophy and art.
My ability to write timed essays reflecting tight structure, logical step-by-step thinking, and excellent standards of English mechanics and rhetoric was a key factor in my earning a final overall GPA of 3.65 and becoming a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
I don’t just have a talent for test taking. I feel I have a gift for helping students face tests with knowledge and confidence and demonstrate their very best performance. For the SAT Writing, I will work to hone the student’s skills in all areas of English standards and essay writing.
As a tutor I employ a highly effective multi-sensory, conceptual approach. With my test-prep students, I will:
** Customize lessons to their needs and to the expectations of their parents;
** Rely on clear, engaging and memorable PC-generated visuals to supplement prep book materials;
** Teach underlying concepts for development of "sense";
** Teach well-respected test-taking strategies to ensure the student shows what s/he knows;
** Use various methods to overcome learning hurdles.
Having worked in a variety of professions, I find tutoring students and watching them succeed has been the most rewarding job of all.
Special Needs
For over eight years I have tutored students with special needs, including autism, ADD, low cognitive function little or no verbalization, slow auditory processing, weak executive functioning, and dyslexia.
Typically I tutor to help students catch up academically in subjects that require many skills such as English language arts and math.
As a tutor I employ a highly effective multi-sensory, primarily conceptual approach.
I rely on clear, engaging and memorable PC-generated visuals to supplement any academic materials.
I teach underlying concepts and strategic approaches for development of "sense" as well as skills.
I use the everyday to teach the abstract.
I am creative in reworking material in order to overcome learning hurdles.
I draw from well-respected practices such as Applied Behavioral Analysis and Rapid Prompting Method for elements that address a student's individualized needs, especially for those students who have autism, low cognitive function and/or little or no verbalization.
I also rely on many resources for special needs students including educational Internet sites, programs, textbooks and workbooks.
Most importantly, I customize lessons to meet the unique needs and interests of my students and the expectations of their parents.
Spelling
Despite the popularity of texting with its abbreviations, correct spelling is crucial for success in school and on the job.
Just as I have been very successful in teaching reading using a phonetic approach, I find the same is true for spelling.
I actually teach beginning readers the fundamentals of spelling as they link letters and sounds together, and identify beginning, medial and ending sounds in spoken words. If students can hear that bat, not cat, starts with the bbb sound, then they can see that b-a-t, not c-a-t, must spell bat.
Regardless of grade level, my typical spelling lesson comprises words that are phonetically related. For younger students the words would be simple, e.g., words ending in/ck/. For older students they would be more challenging, e.g., words containing /oo/ and its various sounds.
Then there are the tricky words; I work on those too. They include homophones (see and sea; raise and rays), double letters, silent letters, and similar-sounding endings (el and le).
I find most sources for spelling activities lack imagination and student appeal. Typically, I create my own materials using mnemonics, simple formats and meaningful clip art images, and ensuring they meet the needs and interests of my students.
Statistics
Believe it or not, data analysis is taught in Massachusetts beginning in preschool!
In accordance with Massachusetts curriculum, our school district’s pre-K students participate in an apple-tasting survey and then graph and discuss the results.
Statistics are taught to elementary students to help them describe their data (percentage, mean, median, mode, range).
Later on, they learn about sampling (random, systematic, stratified, bias), how to determine the spread of data (variance, standard deviation), the association of data (correlation and regression, including slope and y-intercept) and the significance of the data (Chi square, t-tests and analysis of variance).
These and other basic statistical measures help students organize numerical information, understand and describe it, and make informed decisions using it.
As a tutor, I teach students not just textbook statistics, but how to describe and evaluate data they encounter in their daily lives.
Though I rely on the Internet and teachers’ manuals for basic lesson content, I find I can convey the subject matter more clearly and engagingly by creating my own materials. I keep formats simple, and often enhance pages with meaningful clip art images.
Most importantly, I customize content and presentation to meet the needs and interests of my students.
Vocabulary
Building vocabulary is essential to strong reading comprehension and engaging, persuasive writing.
There are lots of programs for teachers in mainstream classrooms; often they entail gradual learning of vocabulary as it is encountered in text.
I find as a tutor that, if students have fallen behind in vocabulary, they need intensive instruction in related words with meaning in a simple context.
The key words here are related and meaning in a simple context.
For early readers or somewhat older students still struggling with decoding, I use the following approach:
1.) Show words that are phonetically related, e.g., words containing /st/.
2.) Supply images that depict meaning in context, e.g., for “last” an image of people waiting in a line to buy movie tickets, and
3.) Provide reinforcement through discussion of the word within the image.
4.) Check learning in the next lesson with: decoding, search-and-find of images, phonetically-controlled sentences or short passages, and comprehension questions.
For older students who need more challenging vocabulary, I use an approach that I modified from a terrific book, Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. In this method, I use the following method:
1.) Supply synonyms of simple words often used in conversation, e.g., for “little” I might choose “minute,” “slight,” “petite,”
“diminutive” and “paltry.”
2.) Discuss sentences that show the connotative differences among these words.
3.) Ask students to write original sentences to show understanding.
This method can be used in other word relationships, e.g., opposites, degree (whisper, mumble, shout, screech), common aspects (boat, hull, beam, bow, stern, port, starboard), etc.
I find teaching words in relationship and their meanings in simple context can quickly build vocabulary that is nuanced and easily accessible to students as they read and write.
Writing
Strong writing skills help students express their thoughts in clear, persuasive ways. Despite the popularity of talking and texting by phone, solid written communication is still essential to success in school and on the job.
My effective writing as an English major in college and as a marketing research and strategies student in business school earned me top grades and honors. Later, I relied on and enhanced my skills in various professional positions, producing clear, succinct and influential reports for many dozens of clients.
I believe good writing begins with pre-writing strategies. For students, one highly useful step is to show main and supporting ideas on a graphic organizer. Writing students should be encouraged to stretch beyond top-of-mind thoughts even in this earliest stage, by brainstorming, examples, and modeling.
Next steps for writing even a simple essay are learning to:
1. Produce a topic sentence that orients and engages the reader
2. Generate clear, concise middle sentences or paragraphs that provide satisfactory support, including, if needed, clarifying examples.
3. Write a final sentence that brings the reader full circle, creating a strong link between introduction and conclusion.
One habit that has always held me in good stead, even when writing emails, is to re-read my draft and make any needed edits. Good editing, especially for student writers, includes both changes in rhetoric (e.g., organization, style, word choice) as well as corrections in mechanics (e.g., sentence structure, grammar, punctuation).
In designing lessons for writing, I will use a variety of sources, including Internet educational sites and Scholastic-published teachers’ manuals.
I customize all lessons to the needs and interests of my students, and the expectations of their parents. I strongly believe that students learn best in a challenging but supportive environment. That is the environment I create as a tutor.
Other Wellesley Hills, MA Tutors
Deborah K.
Wellesley Hills, MA
Highly Successful Tutor with Multi-sensory, Strategic Approach