Literacy
Structured, evidence-based reading and writing instruction grounded in the Science of Reading, from a preschooler's first sounds to your high school senior's college application essay.
How you'll see progress
Parents receive a written summary after every session; I make both qualitative observations and track measurable assessment data. Students old enough to make sense of their own data see it too. Reviewing your own progress builds the metacognitive and self-reflection habits that executive function depends on.
Grounded in the Science of Reading
My structured literacy support is informed by the Science of Reading, a large body of research spanning over 50 years on how our brains learn to read. These skills primarily target grades preschool through third grade. English is a morphophonemic language; that means to translate written words to sound, you need an understanding of phonics, phonemic awareness, and morphology. Today, most schools include phonics and phonemic awareness instruction, but neglect morphology, which does work on both sides (word recognition and language comprehension) of reading: it supports decoding and spelling, and it keeps paying off in comprehension long after decoding is automatic.
Together, these skills promote orthographic mapping: the process by which the brain permanently stores words for instant, effortless recognition. Teaching morphology and etymology through Structured Word Inquiry extends that mapping to the words English supposedly gets wrong: the silent g in sign stops looking arbitrary once a student meets signal and signature. So-called “irregular” spellings become explainable instead of exceptions to memorize.
Instruction includes multi-sensory, hands-on literacy activities, including letter formation introduced in a developmentally appropriate manner to help students with fine motor differences. Students practice decoding words both in and out of context through structured, sequential practice similar to the Orton-Gillingham method.
Neurodiversity-informed
Multi-sensory methods are especially effective for students with dyslexia and other language-processing differences. We usually take in language through what we hear and see. By adding a third pathway — kinesthetic (movement) and tactile (touch) activities — students access new neural pathways to language distinct from the weaker audio- and visual-to-language routes seen in dyslexic brains.
Why early matters
of fourth graders reached NAEP Proficient in reading in 2024, down from 37% in 2017, and the lowest share since 2005.
9 in 10 children still reading poorly at the end of first grade were still behind in fourth grade.
Bridging word-recognition and meaning
Recognizing words and understanding language are often described as two stages, the first finishing before the second begins. The Active View of Reading describes a set of bridging processes that belong to both at once, including reading fluency, vocabulary, and morphological awareness among them. Morphology is a bridging process, which is why I continue to teach it once students can decode.
Comprehension instruction covers vocabulary, background knowledge, and holding meaning across a full text. Students practice making inferences, filling in what an author implies rather than states outright, and connecting new material to experiences and knowledge from their own lives.
Executive function strategies for reading include breaking long or dense passages into manageable pieces and annotation strategies to keep track of important details. Students no longer depend on their own capacity for attention to keep track of long texts.
The same grammar, sentence-structure, and comprehension strategies I teach tend to carry over directly to the English and Reading sections of standardized tests, even though I don't teach dedicated test-taking tactics.
Vocabulary through word structure
Morphology does double duty here: the same study of roots, prefixes, and suffixes that supports spelling also lets students infer the meaning of words they've never seen before, which matters far more for comprehension than memorizing vocabulary lists.
Reading across every kind of text
Reading instruction built on one type of passage produces one kind of reader. I draw on a wide range of material, including contemporary issues and topics a student is already curious about, so students practice reading across subjects and formats: argument, reporting, technical writing, fiction. They learn to identify who wrote a text, who it was written for, and what the author wanted from that audience. Those are the same questions behind scientific literacy, and they transfer to anything a student reads. When the material connects to something students already care about, reaching the end gets easier, and they understand how these concepts will be relevant to their lives.
Text Demands
Text Composition
- Vocabulary choice
- Sentence structure
- Text structure & features
Text Content
- Implied background knowledge
The Activity
Purpose
- Acquisition & application of knowledge
Activities
- Varied levels of understanding
Reader Characteristics
Language Comprehension & Knowledge
- Word meaning
- Sentence meaning
- Text structure knowledge
- Background knowledge
Cognitive Capacities
- Attention, memory
Motivation
- Purpose, attitudes, & interests
Transform emergent writers into confident communicators
Sentence-Level Scaffolds
Writing instruction starts in Kindergarten with scaffolds for sentence composition, initiating the earliest foundations of transforming thoughts into written words. As students build vocabulary and spelling, the scaffolds are progressively removed.
Why start this early
When handwriting and spelling take most of a young writer's effort, little is left for deciding what to say, and children write shorter, plainer sentences than they are capable of thinking. Scaffolding the transcription is what makes real composition possible before those skills mature.
Composition Foundations
As they progress through elementary and middle school, students are expected to plan their writing before they start. Executive function support here is critical to making structured paragraphs and essays feel less daunting.
What we work on
- Simple, repeatable strategies for essay writing
- Varying sentence structure for flow
- Correcting syntax, grammar, and spelling while drafting
- Sentence-expansion activities that develop richer, more detailed sentences step by step
I model each strategy first. Then students practice with support that gets withdrawn a step at a time. This mirrors Self-Regulated Strategy Development, the writing framework with strong evidence behind it. The research is clear that being taught a strategy changes little on its own. The gains come from the scaffolding and its gradual removal.
Argument & Narrative Writing
In middle and high school, students build specific strategies for analyzing text, crafting robust theses, and supporting their arguments with evidence. They also gain practice with narrative-style writing: an essential component of the college application process often neglected in high school classrooms. I support writing other types of text as well, including expository, analytical, and fiction.
Ready to talk about your student's literacy goals?
Book a free consultation and we'll figure out where to start.