Middle School Tutoring Options

Helping Students Remember is a hands-on memory training program for children and adolescents. Our academic coaches follow the curriculum from Milton J. Dehn's "Helping Students Remember." The lessons are targeted to help each student maximize the potential of their memory.  Memory is an essential neurodevelopment component that is the key to long-term mastery of information. Memory involves getting information into the brain, connecting information to current knowledge, negotiating the information, and retrieving it at the appropriate time.

Learning is an active process that requires executive functioning skills, which are frequently elusive to students. In Learning How to Learn, students acquire knowledge about their brain and the memory process of acquiring and retaining information. Students practice useful drills and strategies to help them succeed in school, start thinking outside of the box, and stop procrastinating. This tutoring is ideal for students whose grades do not always reflect their effort, or who need more guidance on staying organized, preparing for tests, learning how to study, improving long-term memory, and helping with maintaining momentum and a positive attitude in a fast-paced and rigorous academic environment. Our academic coaches follow use the book “Learning How to Learn” by Barbara Oakley, Ph.D., and Terrance Sejnowski, Ph.D. for these lessons.

Orton-Gillingham tutoring is an individualized, multi-sensory approach to teaching reading designed for dyslexic learners. This approach uses structured literacy to teach your child by first mastering the smallest sounds and then introducing new, more complex sounds. During their first two sessions, your child will take a pre-assessment to determine their current reading level and to provide the tutor with the information they need to design an individualized study plan. After that, each session will consist of a combination of hands-on, visual, and auditory activities that will give your child the tools they need to find success and enjoyment in reading. We typically suggest starting with ten sessions, although the number of sessions suggested for the best outcome will be determined based on the testing.

The Getting into Grammar tutoring program is designed for students who want to enhance their writing skills by learning and understanding the basic building blocks of grammar. Students examine the eight parts of speech and how they function in a sentence. Students learn sentence types, sentence structures, and sentence patterns and then use words, phrases, and clauses to build increasingly complex sentences.

Our academic coaches teach students how to enhance their writing skills, better organize paragraphs and essays, and improve editing skills. During these tutoring sessions, students examine the elements of a five-paragraph essay and practice writing both the parts and the whole. We also provide students a template to make just about any writing assignment easier to tackle. Along the way, students will examine sticky grammar problems that weaken writing and learn to develop their voice to strengthen these problems.

Understanding and using fractions is a missing piece in so many students’ successful experiences. When tutoring students in fractions, we discuss all the meanings of fractions and practice using and recognizing the vocabulary. Then students learn about how the basic operations work and why. We also cover all the ways fractions are used to help describe many different mathematical objects and ideas. Fractions are a marvelous advancement for the human race; let’s all benefit from them and make friends. After working with our academic coaches, your student will no longer dread the fraction.

Algebra marks the culmination of elementary math and the turning point for all future math classes. Most of the careers today or on the horizon will require algebraic skills. To be ready for algebra, students need to be proficient in numerical facts, computational skills, and confident with number sense. Algebra is the beginning of abstract mathematical concepts and can be the beginning of math frustrations and fears. Don’t let this happen. Finding math fun and essential can be the magical ingredients to open many doors to future opportunities.

Algebra marks the culmination of elementary math and the turning point for all future math classes. Most of the careers today or on the horizon will require algebraic skills. To be ready for algebra, students need to be proficient in numerical facts, computational skills, and confident with number sense. Algebra is the beginning of abstract mathematical concepts and can be the beginning of math frustrations and fears. Don’t let this happen. Finding math fun and essential can be the magical ingredients to open many doors to future opportunities.

So what is Geometry? It is math applied to pictures: points, lines, angles, surfaces, and solids. Success in geometry requires a firm understanding of math vocabulary, decoding skills to understand not only words but pictures, and using spatial and logical skills applied to problems. Although math is cumulative, this may be the first math course that depends on this triad of expertise. Our geometry tutoring prepares you for what is ahead.