CLASSICAL START TUTORING: Help for Struggling Readers
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My greatest joy is serving students who are struggling or failing in reading because reading is not just a subject in school, it is the academic equivalent to breathing. My goal is to give students a passion, joy, and confidence that elevates them to their highest potential.
Each first session is a free assessment and consultation From there I create a customized plan that starts with building up the foundation of language arts skills of spelling, phonics, vocabulary and literal comprehension. I teach children to read from spelling, not memorizing word lists. I also avoid limited vocabulary readers in favor of classic or well-written books that will inspire and engage them to continue reading. Cursive penmanship and grammar are built-in to the lessons over time if needed.
Students of all reading levels will generally improve their reading skills by one grade level after eight to twelve sessions.
The initial and ongoing assessments are free, part of the customization I do to provide targeted intervention. It includes phonemic awareness, spelling, literal comprehension, and deeper comprehension.
Reading Lessons
55 minutes 2x/week
$440 monthly
- Free Reading assessment and consultation
- Zoom Conferencing lessons
- Intensive phonics, including spelling, writing & grammar
- Multi-sensory, direct instruction in intensive phonics using Spell to Write and Read curriculum
- Interactive online activities and writing activities
- Cursive penmanship if requested
- Living books - no sight word lists to memorize or boring limited vocabulary readers
- Grammar and writing lessons as time allows
Writing Lessons
55 minutes/2X Weekly
$440 montly
- Begins with grammar and writing assessment
- Traditional grammar and sentence diagramming
- Addresses what and how to write for note-taking, summaries, research reports, essays, stories, and literary critiques.
- Extensive help along with practice with models for various writing forms
- Development of stylistic techniques
- Revision checklists
- Private one-on-one Zoom lessons​
Reading Lessons
55 minutes weekly
$220 monthly
- Free Reading assessment and consultation
- Zoom Conferencing
-
Intensive Phonics, including spelling, writing & grammar
-
Cursive penmanship, if requested
-
Interactive online activities and writing activities
- Literal Comprehension & Deeper Comprehension lessons strategies and skills based on assessment
- Living books, no sight word lists to memorize or boring limited vocabulary readers
"My son is currently taking writing lessons from Mrs. Franklin. He has good language arts skills, but the reason I enrolled him in writing lessons is that I subscribe to one of Charlotte Mason's philosophies - Every child deserves training in the best, most rigorous education at an early age. The first time that we had a phone conversation, she asked me, "What are your goals for your child? What would you like to see accomplished?"
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Every few weeks Susan would touch base with me to see if we are proceeding in the direction that's commensurate with the goals we have set for our child, or if anything needed tweaking. From a parent's viewpoint, Susan is very objective, focused, and initiative-driven. She focuses on the objectives we have discussed for our child. Based on the end goals, she takes her own initiative to purchase necessary materials online, in order to implement her lessons accordingly.
I would like to mention here, that, for those of you who are apprehensive about taking online lessons, it was indeed a revelation for me to see how writing lessons could be so seamlessly conducted online.
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From a child's perspective, Susan is caring, patient, and result-oriented. She knows how to go about eliciting responses from the child, based on the child's caliber and exposure. At the end of each lesson, she will ask my son, "What did you learn today?" or something to that effect.
The quintessence of our association is that we are lucky to have found her, and my son is delighted to learn from her."
-DG
"We initially sought out Mrs. Franklin's help for one of our struggling readers. She was one of the only tutors we found who used the Spell to Write and Read (SWR) curriculum. We didn't just want any help, we wanted the best. Over a short time, Mrs. Franklin successfully advanced our daughter's reading and comprehension skills. Since then, we have put three more of our children through SWR tutoring with Mrs. Franklin. She engages the children well, they advance in their skill level quickly, and they always say they never want to stop tutoring with her! We appreciate Mrs. Franklin's attention to detail, and we are very thankful to have found her as a tutor. We highly recommend Susan Franklin as a tutor; she will successfully guide your child to become a confident reader.":)The Ullrich Family
