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Expert reading instruction and college essay reviews
Malea B.

5.0 (286 ratings)

1,190 hours tutoring

Your first lesson is backed by our Good Fit Guarantee
Hourly Rate: $60
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Response time: 6 minutes

About Malea

Bio

I currently have two reading spots and ten college application review spots open. I love reviewing application essays and tutoring all aspects of reading.

For college applications, you want to stand out, but many students unintentionally sabotage themselves. My clients have been accepted at a wide variety of schools, including NYU, Vanderbilt, Midwestern, Northern Arizona University, USC, and others.

As an ELA tutor, I create lessons specific to the student and specialize in helping...

I currently have two reading spots and ten college application review spots open. I love reviewing application essays and tutoring all aspects of reading.

For college applications, you want to stand out, but many students unintentionally sabotage themselves. My clients have been accepted at a wide variety of schools, including NYU, Vanderbilt, Midwestern, Northern Arizona University, USC, and others.

As an ELA tutor, I create lessons specific to the student and specialize in helping those 9 and up who missed fundamental skills or who have difficulties with reading and writing in the absence of diagnosed learning differences.

I also offer online test proctoring.

Read more

Education

Portland State University
BS Arts and Letters
Sarah Lawrence College
Masters

Policies

  • Hourly Rate: $60
  • Rate details: Group lessons, homeschoolers, and classes: Please inquire.
  • Lesson cancellation: 24 hours notice required

  • Background check passed on 12/5/2013

  • Your first lesson is backed by our Good Fit Guarantee

Schedule

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Approved Subjects

College Counseling

College Counseling

Crafting a strong college application is tough and requires a careful approach to help your student stand out from the crowd. Your essay is a significant aspect of your application and can truly help you to stand out from the crowd. At present, I also work in the admissions department for a prestigious graduate program and read over 1,000 applications per admissions cycle. I currently offer only essay review for existing drafts--you submit your draft as an attachment to a message on Wyzant or send me a Google Docs link with editing permissions enabled. I will review your essay within 48 hours (usually within 24 hours) and return it to you with suggestions, comments, questions, and a thorough analysis. This is billed as one hour at $60. A follow up review, after revisions have been made is billed at 3/4 of an hour (or $45). I offer as many follow up reviews as needed and requested. Please note, I am not currently teaching application essay writing--I only work with clients who have a draft ready for review. Past students have gained admission to a wide array of schools, including, but not limited to: * Villanova (undergraduate) * NYU (undergraduate) * University of Arizona (graduate) * Midwestern (graduate) I gained admission to my first choice graduate program, Sarah Lawrence College, through careful attention to every detail of the application process, including my essay. Sarah Lawrence College hosts one of the country's most rigorous graduate writing programs. My acceptance letter was a testament to the hard work I put into the application process. I also specialize in helping students who did not get accepted and want to reapply. We will analyze your original application, assess options to strengthen your new application, and go from there. I only offer a handful of spots per year for this service. Please message to learn more.
Creative Writing

Creative Writing

I hold an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College where I studied creative writing with a focus on poetry. I am experienced at teaching poetry and fiction writing to all ages from early elementary through the collegiate level. This includes teaching in the classroom, one-on-one, and to small groups, such as homeschooling co-ops. I have published several poems and coached others to publication, as well. I'd love to help you in your creative writing journey!
ESL/ESOL

ESL/ESOL

While teaching at Long Island Business Institute in Queens, NY, over 80% of my students qualified as ESL/ESOL. Most spoke Mandarin or Spanish, but other languages were represented as well. I also have worked with Russian and Ukrainian students. I work with ESL students primarily in pronunciation and conversational skills. I am able to work with students one-on-one or in small groups. Past students seeking conversational tutoring have requested help with, among other things: * basic greetings * common social customs in the USA * business English * transactional skills (how to return an item at a store, how to talk a bank teller, how to request directions, etc.) * job interview practice for ESL speakers My rate for conversation and pronunciation practice is $35 per hour.
Essay Writing

Essay Writing

Whether you need help writing an essay for an academic class, a college or graduate school application, or for any other purpose, I am here to provide guidance. I hold an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and have helped many students refine their essays, including helping students to brainstorm, outline, draft, and finalize their essays. My students have ranged from elementary aged through adulthood and have had varying needs. I'm available to help you from beginning to end or to review final drafts before submission. My college application essay students have been accepted at a wide variety of schools, including Ivy League.
Interview Prep

Interview Prep

Whether you are interviewing for a job or to support a school application, you are bound to be nervous. I am here to help! We will work together to determine your interview style, to prepare for specific interview scenarios, and to make sure you are ready. I will meet you where you are, whether this is your first interview ever or if you have had numerous interviews in the past but need to polish your skills or whatever the case may be. I have coached numerous clients to success for professional interviews, as well as for collegiate application interviews. I am able to offer guidance on how to dress, body language, and more. We can work on specific topics related to your interview or we can practice more broad interview basics -- it's up to you and what you need. I have helped multiple clients interview successfully for jobs and my college applicants have successfully interviewed for both undergraduate and graduate schools. I have been on the hiring side for positions in healthcare and customer service positions, as well as other industries, and I have worked in admissions for a top ranked healthcare graduate program. Let's chat!
Literature

Literature

Literature is a window into other worlds and experiences. Through a good book, a student will gain insight not only into the mindset of the author, characters, and setting, but will also be transformed as a reader. I seek to help my students understand their texts at all levels, from the most basic understanding of plot, setting, and characters to deeper aspects of symbolism, implied meanings, and more. I also specialize in textual analysis for the purposes of writing literature-based analytical essays. Even if I have read a book before, I always read it again, following my student's reading schedule in order to have the material fresh in my mind, and thus give focused attention to my student as he or she grapples with the book. I read widely, and devour books. A small sampling of the texts I tutor includes: * poetry (especially Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, William Carlos Williams) * The Catcher in the Rye * The Lord of the Flies * Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath * To Kill a Mockingbird * Black Boy * Shakespeare's plays * The Odyssey and The Iliad * the work of Sophocles, Aristotle, and Plato * the works of Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson * the works of Amy Tan * the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald * the works of Sandra Cisneros * the works of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg * Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston * The Giver by Lois Lowry * Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton * The Yellow Wallpaper by Elizabeth Perkins Gilman * and many, many more I am able to help both with reading and understanding literally, but also with writing analytical essays about literature.
Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook

Let's face it, Microsoft Outlook can be frustrating! I use it every day in my healthcare-related day job and have found ways to smooth out the frustrating aspects, organize my emails and meetings, and to make it work for me. I can either teach you how to use Outlook more efficiently, or after a chat about your needs, I can simply set it up to better suite your needs with a follow up session to review the set up. I would love to help you organize categories, manage meetings, and more through Outlook. Let's chat about it!
Reading

Reading

I currently have TWO spaces available for reading students. For reading tutoring, I currently only accept students 9 years old and up. An initial 30 minute assessment is free. Students must be able to meet a minimum of two times per week for an hour at a time and commit to practicing skills between sessions. I have over 25 years of experience teaching all aspects of reading, including comprehension, to students of all ages and backgrounds. However, I truly love to help kids around 9 and up (as well as adults) to improve their reading. Maybe they missed important reading instruction at school or the methods taught just didn't work. Maybe there's a learning difference getting in the way. Maybe there's something else going on. Whatever the reason, I'm here to help by first assessing the situation, followed by creating a plan, and then by adjusting as we go. My students have achieved several grade levels of improvement, have gone from hating to read to loving it, and have gained confidence along the way. While I do incorporate some traditional methods to teach reading skills, most of my approach is customized to each student's needs. We might work on phonics skills using sentences mixing real words with gibberish words. We might read a passage that's upside down. We might practice tongue twisters. We might work on reading a passage with all of the spaces removed. The approach will be catered to you or your child and will change over time as skills improve. I regularly seek out or create new tools and approaches to reading instruction and my students regularly experience improvements in their skills.

Examples of Expertise

Malea has provided examples of their subject expertise by answering 4 questions submitted by students on Wyzant’s Ask an Expert.

See all of Malea ’s answers ›
Malea B.'s Photo

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Ratings and Reviews

Rating

5.0 (286 ratings)
5 star
(276)
4 star
(8)
3 star
(1)
2 star
(1)
1 star
(0)

Reviews

Excellent Reading Tutor!!

Malea worked with our 12/13yr old son who had serious reading issues including problems with phonics. We had tried everything before finding her and what a difference her tutoring has made! Our son was challenged sounding out words, and at his advanced age, finding a phonics program that wasn't just for younger kids was impossible. Malea was able to develop a program as time progressed based on his specific problem areas she identified each lesson. She used a wide range of resources she knew about and searched diligently for new resources to help him. Not only did his phonics improve, his reading out loud skills improved and he grew more and more confident each week. Other areas she helped him with were reading comprehension, test taking skills, and organizational skills. After every lesson she gave us excellent feedback and tips that we could try to help him between lessons. Malea's care for her students is very apparent and it pays off each and every lesson.

Laura, 47 lessons with Malea

Malea is an amazing tutor.

“Malea is an amazing tutor. My daughter is currently working on her college essay and needed feedback on how she can better improve her final draft, and Malea delivered. She was very thorough with where paragraphs could be refined, and put all her effort into helping with specific areas that my daughter wanted to change. Just after one session, we were able to see a great impact on the quality of the essay. Thank you, Malea!”

ISHFAQ, 1 lesson with Malea

A+

Malea helped me edit an important essay. She was timely with communication, was very friendly, and delivered great results quickly. I would be happy to recommend her to someone else.

Michael, 1 lesson with Malea

Good editor

She looked at an essay I wrote for a fellowship application and improved it greatly. She was very communicative about the whole process and very nice. Thank you Malea.

Sean, 1 lesson with Malea

Very helpful lesson in Career Development

My lesson with Malea was very helpful! Malea provided me with a lot of information and advice that I'll use for upcoming (and further) job interviews. She is very knowledgeable in term what and how preferable answer to questions during job interview, what words better describe your professionalism. Thank you once again! BR, Elena

Elena, 1 lesson with Malea

Wonderful!

Malea is working very well with our daughter. Our daughter is making wonderful progress with her. Malea is able to motivate our daughter to work hard and is finding a love for learning and reading! I am very impressed with all she has done in a short amount of time.

Laura, 20 lessons with Malea
Hourly Rate: $60
Response time: 6 minutes
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