Alison

Certified Tutor

I moved to Virginia about a year and a half ago after being a Californian for most of my adult life. I received a Bachelor's Degree and teaching credential in English from San Diego State University and went on to teach 7th and 8th grade language arts in a diverse public school. I then moved north to beautiful Sonoma County where I completed a Master's degree in English literature. During my time as a graduate student, I began teaching freshman composition classes and worked with small groups of beginning writers, many of whom were the first in their family to attend college. I stayed on as an adjunct instructor teaching courses that focused on expository writing, analytical reading, research, and oral communication skills. Over the course of my 15 year career, I have worked with students from a variety of backgrounds and skill levels, including many students with unique language or learning needs. I have served as an adviser and scorer/rater for numerous written assessment tests (including district and state assessments from elementary through high school, and college entrance and exit exams), and am very familiar with the type of analytical and persuasive writing prompts that students are asked to tackle for such assessments. Despite my extensive experience with argumentation and expository texts, my first love continues to be fiction and poetry, and I would jump enthusiastically at the chance to work with students in the world of literature and creative writing. I believe that students learn best when they are invested, active participants in the learning process, and my job is to listen and guide rather than lecture. I come to our tutoring sessions with a virtual "sackful" of strategies to help you work through challenging material, and by listening, observing and motivating, I can help you access the tools that will be most compatible with your learning style.