Varsity Tutors can help you connect with a skilled reading tutor for your child. Whether you have a child who is just learning the sounds of letters or you have an older student who needs help with their reading comprehension or fluency skills, providing professional academic support for your student to help them work on building their reading skills can make an impact in all areas of their educational journey.
Reading is the one subject upon which all other subjects have their foundation. If your child can not read at or above their current grade level they may struggle in science, social studies, math, and English. Many students who are struggling in these other academic subjects are doing so because they are not able to read the information and comprehend it at the level they need to in order to succeed in that class. Science and social studies rely heavily on having students read textbooks to convey information. If your child has difficulty reading quickly, struggles with reading comprehension, or has difficulty going back to find information from a passage it can make it almost impossible for them to integrate the information and do well on tests or assignments. When you help your child work to improve this one area, it can cause a cascade effect and make it easier for them to understand and make gains in other subject areas.
Continue below to learn more about what reading tutoring covers, how it can help prepare your child for an upcoming test, how working with a private instructor is different from being in a classroom, and how Varsity Tutors can help you get your child connected with a private reading tutor quickly.
What skills can reading tutors help my child learn?
Learning to read goes far beyond memorizing vocabulary and learning to pronounce words correctly, although that is certainly a part of it. Each grade level has benchmarks and standards determined by the state. Regardless of where you live, some core expectations remain consistent from one part of the country to another.
Early readers are typically focused on learning phonemic awareness and fluency. Phonemic awareness is the recognition of the various sounds individual and combined letters can make. Fluency is the ability to decode text and read with speed, accuracy, and appropriate inflection. These are the building blocks of all other reading skills. Other skills your child may work on with a private instructor include general language skill and reading comprehension.
Language skills include things like antonyms, synonyms, homophones, adjectives, adverbs, plurals, suffixes and prefixes, morphological endings, and conjunctions. Your child's instructor may help your child understand how pairs of words or concepts are similar or different or work on refining their ability to compare and contrast. This can also include understanding proverbs, similes, metaphors, and various types of figurative language.
Reading comprehension is a broad term that covers multiple skills that must work together to allow a reader to decode implied and expressed meaning, make predictions, restate information, identify the main idea and subordinate ideas, locate supporting information, use specific information to answer questions, organize information, read informational texts, understand verbal analogies, and use basic reference materials.
Lessons with a private instructor can help your child work on improving any of the skills involved in becoming an effective reader regardless of their grade level.
Can reading tutoring help my child prepare for a test?
Not only can reading tutors help your child work on preparing for specific subject area tests that rely on reading comprehension, but they can also help your child work to prepare for exams that test various reading skills. Most states have standardized examinations for students in grades three through ten that evaluate a child's competency in grade level appropriate reading skills. If your child is facing one of these exams, working with a private instructor can help them maximize their test preparation efforts.
Private schools, magnet schools, and independent schools have a variety of tests from which to choose when evaluating a student's academic level such as the ISEE, SSAT, HSPT. College admissions exams for undergraduate and graduate studies such as the SAT, ACT, GRE, GMAT, and LSAT also have individual components that evaluate a candidate's reading comprehension. Regardless of the type of test your child will be taking, if it involves utilizing their reading comprehension skills studying with a private instructor can help your child work on developing the skills evaluated by their upcoming exam.
Working with a personal instructor can help make the process of preparing for an upcoming exam less stressful. With the additional practice and real-time feedback on their progress, children may gain confidence in their abilities more quickly and begin to feel less fearful of the exam experience. Their instructor can not only work with them on specific skills that will be evaluated on the exam, but they may also work with them to develop testing skills and strategies. These strategies include time management techniques, which can help children stay focused and on task during their testing window.
How is reading tutoring different from being in a class?
For many students, it isn't that they lack the ability to learn to read effectively; it is simply that they lack the interest to do so. Whether this is because of uninspired content or a difference between their learning style and their teacher's instructional style varies from child to child. Working with a private instructor can address either of these factors.
In a classroom setting, a teacher must cover the curriculum approved by the school in accordance with state regulations. As mentioned previously, there are different benchmarks for each grade level. Teachers must do their best to ensure the skills evaluated by those benchmarks are covered each year. This is typically done in a highly regulated way with very little room for deviation. Unfortunately, what this means for your child is that if they're not at the level of the rest of their class, they may fall further behind as others move ahead with the new lessons.
When your child works with a personal reading tutor, the entire focus is on the needs of your child. Their instructor can take the time to get to know them personally, their learning style, personal interests, academic needs, and academic weaknesses. With this information, your child's instructor can create a custom learning plan that can target the skills and concepts your child needs starting from their reading level rather than their grade level.
By designing lessons around where your child's reading level is as opposed to their grade level, instructors can target missing or underdeveloped skills rather than grade level benchmarks. If your child is missing skills that were covered in previous years, it is crucial for them to go back and master that skill before trying to integrate new grade level skills that rely on the assumption that past skills were previously mastered.
Your child's instructor may also help them find age-appropriate reading selections that help your child build a love of reading. Finding material your child finds enjoyable to use as they practice their reading skills can make a tremendous difference in how engaged they become in the learning process. The more time a child spends reading, the better they become in all areas of reading comprehension. You can help your child develop their reading skills by providing them with reading material that is age appropriate and slightly above their current reading level.
How can I connect with Reading tutors for my child?
Varsity Tutors understands how important it is to you to help provide your child with the right academic support, which is why we make it easy to connect with skilled Reading tutors. We can help you connect with skilled private instructors who can meet with your child in person or in a secure online learning environment.
Regardless of which format you choose, your child will receive the same benefits of personalized instruction. When your child meets with their instructor in a virtual learning environment, they are still able to see and hear their teacher just as if they were sitting across the table from them in a local library.
The main difference between in-person and virtual instruction is in scheduling flexibility. When your child works with a private reading instructor online, it may be easier to find a time that is convenient for your schedule. It also removes the need to arrange for additional transportation to and from the reading lessons, as your child can connect with their instructor from wherever they are, as long as they have their electronic device and a stable internet connection.
Contact Varsity Tutors today for professional support in finding a skilled private reading tutor for your child. There are many options available, and our online platforms and learning tools can make learning fun and convenient. Giving your child the academic support they need shouldn't be difficult or stressful. Save yourself hours of research and contact Varsity Tutors today to be connected to talented private reading instructors quickly and easily.
