
Shannon: Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
...all students can learn. We just need to find the right ways to teach them. Not every student learns in the same way, so it is up to teachers and tutors to help students discover how they learn best. It is often hard to find this out in a classroom of 25 or more students, but with a tutor, students can often find out how they can become lifelong learners and enrich their lives in...
Education & Certification
Colorado State University - Bachelors, English
Grand Canyon University - Masters, Elementary Education

Elease: Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
Hello, My name is Elease. I am a 24 year old student. I am going to school to obtain my Bachelor's in Human Resources Management. I have always enjoyed math subjects, especially algebra. I love to encourage and help others. ... Tell Me and I forget, Teach me and I remember, Involve me and I learn.... Complete an analysis of the student. Determine what they would like to get out of our sessions. Also, find their...
Education & Certification
Metropolitan State University - Current Undergrad, Human Resources Management

Anna: Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
...the knowledge, experience and ability to develop systematic approaches which will work; across the elementary/middle school academic subjects of: English Language Arts/Literacy, mathematics, behavior (social/emotional learning), science, and social studies. Additionally, I have a great deal of experience tutoring in writing for: high school/college level courses, essays and for test preparation. I have a highly flexible schedule and am available to meet the needs of your student across the internet, or right here in the...
Education & Certification
University of Rochester - Bachelors, English literature/public health
University of Rochester - Masters, Education - general/special

Sejal: Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
...students to adult learners. The best part of tutoring for me is when a student truly begins to enjoy a subject that they initially found difficult. I love when students recognize their own progress and begin to feel very comfortable with things that were once very intimidating. I tutor many subjects from Reading and Math to Spanish and Geography and Environmental Science. I enjoy explaining complex ideas in a clear and easy to understand manner,...
Education & Certification
Tufts University - Bachelor of Science, Environmental Studies and Geology
Columbia University in the City of New York - Masters, Public Administration

Alissa: Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
...for a nonprofit organization that trains young adults who have committed a year of their lives to service in the community to provide critical interventions (tutoring, after-school programming, class assistance) in the most under-resourced public schools. I love to tutor because I believe that education can be the key to opportunities that change the course of a student's future - it's why I have traveled the world to work with and teach the neediest students,...
Education & Certification
Pepperdine University - Bachelors, Creative Writing
University of Chicago - Masters, Philosophy of Language and Ethics

Ada: Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
...help contribute to the emotional and cognitive growth. I bring management experience, the understanding of children, creativity, enthusiasm and patience. My promise is to present subject material in logical steps promoting Common Core curriculum through motivation and a variety of teaching strategies. My personal interests include movies and television shows. I like to play online games such as Disney Tsum-Tsum or group games such as Pictionary, Uno, Clue, and Speed. I like to watch funny...
Education & Certification
University of Phoenix - Bachelor of Science, Business Management
University of Phoenix - Master of Science, Education

Laurie: Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
...working to teach clients new skills and improve their lives. My most fulfilling moments are when a student is finally able to independently complete a task they weren't able to before. This comes through in my tutoring. I utilize BST (behavior skills training) and a variety of best teaching practices from the field of ABA to help my students quickly master subjects to fluency. I am positive, I am patient, and I am skilled at...
Education & Certification
University of Florida - Bachelors, Psychology
Florida Institute of Technology - Current Grad Student, ABA

Dorinda: Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
I have many years of teaching experiences along with administration- leadership roles. As team leader, I was able to develop curriculum and implement procedures. I believe in team work and organizational flexibility according to student needs and goals. I seek professional challenges and personal growth. I look forward to our meeting and exchange ideas.
Education & Certification
Indiana University-Purdue University-Fort Wayne - Bachelor of Science, Elementary Education

Alyssa: Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
...it is important to really get to know my student so that I can better teach them. I try to learn their interest and hobbies so that I can use them during a lesson. I like to try to make a personal connection with each of my students and really tailor what they are learning to them so that they are able to relate to the material. I believe that students learn best by doing...
Education & Certification
West Chester University of Pennsylvania - Bachelors, Early Childhood and Special Education
State Certified Teacher

Zalika: Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
...learn." As a tutor, I do not teach for today or tomorrow, but rather, for the long-term. Thus, I always try to involve my students, so that they can actually learn. As every single student is different, I believe that my approach has to be tailored to that specific student to help them blossom and retain the information for years to come. Also, as a tutor, I have grown to love the experience of teaching...
Education & Certification
Duke University - Bachelors, Psychology

Danielle: Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
...Arts, with a major in Educational Studies. I am a certified teacher, and have been teaching/ tutoring for the last six years. I tutor a variety of subjects including Elementary Math, Life Sciences, Physical Science, Essay Editing, Grammar and Mechanics, Literature, Phonics, Reading, Writing, Study Skills and Organization. I most enjoy tutoring math, phonics, and reading. I struggled in primary school with math and it gives me great joy to help eliminate that struggle in...
Education & Certification
Emory University - Bachelor in Arts, Education

Chloe: Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
...in their abilities during the course of our sessions. Many of their improvements were 50 points over the improvements of other tutored students in the region. During my time at Williams College, I studied Arabic, International Relations, and Film. I also traveled to Europe and the Middle East as part of my studies. In addition, I am a freelance writer, and my work has appeared in the Huffington Post, The Atlantic, and USA Today. I've...
Education & Certification
Williams College - Bachelor in Arts, Arabic Studies, Religion

Jude: Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
...my BA from the University of New Mexico with concentrations in critical theory and poetry, and a minor in History. I worked as an English and Language tutor in university, and have since then traveled through Europe and CanadaI've also tutored and taught in Warsaw, Poland, and Toronto! I have worked with learners anywhere from K-undergraduate levels. I really love teaching and helping students focus on the ways they learn best. For me, I've found...
Education & Certification
University of New Mexico-Main Campus - Bachelors, English

Alicia: Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
I recently returned from Paris where I attended law school and worked in a large law firm. My work has involved extensive French translation, and I have tutored many people learning English as a second language. I also used to be a French tutor at the high school level. Currently, I work as an independent consultant in international development, which gives me a fairly open and flexible schedule.
Education & Certification
Emerson College - Bachelor of Science, Journalism
American University - Juris Doctor, law

Samantha: Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
As a college student studying to be an elementary school teacher, I have learned how to engage students in their learning by making them active participants. I believe that students learn by doing and a teacher is there to encourage and guide the students through each step of the way!... I believe that learning can be a complex process, and students need to be an active participant. The role of a teacher is to encourage and...
Education & Certification
Rowan University - Current Undergrad, Elementary Education; History; American Studies

Karen : Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
...was 16 and have been teaching for 4 years. I am originally from Chicago and completed my bachelor degree at Michigan State University. I majored in Education and minored in ESL and English. I also have a specialization in urban education and have completed almost half of my masters degree through MSU. I love working with students and helping them achieve more then they thought they could. I love tutoring students in reading because I...
Education & Certification
Michigan State University - Bachelor in Arts, Education

Makenzie : Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
...students for a year and I love it. My students and I usually meet 1-3 times a week and they have all made significant positive changes in test scores and overall understanding of a variety of subjects. I am patient, encouraging, and friendly. I understand that each individual learns differently and I tailor my lessons to each student.My hobbies are exploring downtown Phoenix, playing sports, making art, and listening to music. I have a cocker...
Education & Certification
Hillsdale College - Bachelor in Arts, Art & English

Cindy: Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
...knowledgeable and patient, I utilize a student's strengths and unique learning style to create individualized lessons and materials. Tutoring allows me to help students of differing abilities achieve their academic goals. Whether a student requires assistance in writing a 5 page essay or help with homework and organization, I am your tutor! My favorite subjects to tutor are reading and writing and I thoroughly enjoy both. I love writing my thoughts on paper and have...
Education & Certification
Northern Arizona University - Bachelors, Special & Elementary Education

Nicolette: Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
...This is my first year teaching fourth grade. In 2013-2015 I taught second grade. I also have experience in grades K-5. I attended The University of Alabama where I earned a degree in elementary education. I have also been taking master classes in school counseling at George Mason University. I believe all students can learn and achieve anything they put their minds to, and I am here to help them achieve those goals.... My teaching philosophy...
Education & Certification
The University of Alabama - Bachelors, Elementary Education

Jessica: Phonics tutor
Certified Phonics Tutor
I have a B.S. in Education and Animal Science/Biotechnology with a Master of Education. I have been working with children since I was a downhill ski instructor in Minnesota during high school. I believe in multiple teaching styles because each student learns differently and requires various tools to be successful in the classroom. All students have the potential to be great, and its my job to help them to reach their goals!
Education & Certification
University of Minnesota - Bachelor of Science, Education and Animal Science/Biotechnology
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities - Masters in Education, Education
State Certified Teacher
Why Choose Varsity Tutors for Phonics Tutoring
Dedicated Private Phonics Tutoring Online
If your student is taking a phonics class, they may not be getting all that they could be out of that learning opportunity. Tutoring can solve this problem.
Consider reaching out to Varsity Tutors to set your student up with a phonics tutor who can help them grow. We help learners find private instructors who are uniquely equipped to help them reach for their goals. This involves locating educators who have proven subject matter expertise, strong communication skills, and the ability to create personalized learning plans. We'd love to find a tutor who can help your student improve in phonics.
Proven Phonics Help For All Levels
Phonics tutoring is the perfect companion for the work your student has done in the classroom, regardless of their current skill level. When your student meets with a private phonics instructor, their needs will be the top priority.
Their educator can create a customized lesson plan that covers initial consonant blends, letter and sound recognition, and H digraphs among other topics. Your student will be able to work at their own pace and stop to ask for additional assistance as they need it. The work they do through tutoring can help them make more efficient progress towards their reading goals.
Improve Grades and Test Scores In Phonics
If you'd like for your student to start receiving better grades and test scores, phonics tutoring can be a strong step in the right direction. Studies have shown that tutoring can improve these important metrics of academic success in 8 out of 10 students.
The benefits of private instruction are found through the dedicated attention your student receives from their tutor. They can get the chance to spend as much or as little time as they need on the phonics topics they've found most challenging thus far. It can be extremely difficult to find this kind of academic assistance through other learning opportunities.
How much does a phonics tutor cost?
The cost of meeting with a phonics tutor is dependent upon what you'd like your student's learning plan to look like. Some of the factors that can affect the price you pay include how often you'd like study sessions to occur and how long you'd like them to be.
Additionally, working with a more experienced instructor may cost differently than working with someone who's newer. Varsity Tutors is happy to provide you with pricing information that's more relevant to your student's goals. To get that information, get in touch with us. We'll tell you more about your options and make specific recommendations to get your student started quickly.
How does online phonics tutoring work?
Thanks to modern technology, online tutoring has become very similar to in-person study sessions. When your student meets with their instructor, they'll do so on our Live Learning Platform.
The platform is full of helpful tools that will make your student feel as though they're in the same room as their instructor. These include integrated video chat, a virtual whiteboard, and a shared document editor. Additionally, each study session that your student has with their tutor will be recorded. You'll gain access to these recordings so that you and your student can review them together as often as you want.
Are phonics tutors worth it?
Phonics is a foundational subject, which is very important for young students to understand. Doing so will set the groundwork needed to accomplish reading tasks successfully for years to come.
A phonics tutor can help your student overcome the struggles they've had in this subject area. With personalized attention, your student can quickly begin building confidence in their reading skillset. Get in touch with Varsity Tutors when you're ready for your student to get started with a tutor. We look forward to working with you both.
How can a tutor help your student master Phonics?
For young students, phonics is a great foundation for literacy, reading, and writing; concerned parents can reach out to Varsity Tutors to connect with a phonics tutor who can work individually with students to help them get everything they can out of phonics tutoring sessions.
Phonics is one way a student learns to use words properly - they'll probably start learning these concepts as early as kindergarten. Written language can feel like codes to a youth who struggles, and some parents try to help lessen the stress by starting the search for a "phonics tutor near me." We understand how important it is for your student to learn things like the different relationships between letters and words. Finding a phonics tutor with help from Varsity Tutors gives your student more opportunities to practice and learn.
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If you think the young student in your life may be falling behind their peers, Varsity Tutors can set you up with a knowledgeable phonics tutor in as little as 24 hours. For many parents, phonics can be a difficult thing to try to teach to their children. Worse, some phonics problems stress general rules at the expense of accuracy, like pronouncing the "k" at the beginning of the word "knit" because your student hasn't been introduced to silent letters yet.
What all of that means is that you may not be able to help your student if they need help with their phonics studies. Thankfully, we can connect you to one of many certified phonics tutors who not only understands the basics of phonics but also knows how to effectively share that information with a young child. Read on for more information about how we might be able to help you.
What topics can my student study with the help of phonics tutors?
Phonics is actually a pretty involved subject covering a variety of topics, including consonants and short vowel sounds, consonant digraphs and blends, vowel patterns, syllable patterns, and affixes. Here is a quick refresher on what each of these concepts are:
1. Consonants and Short Vowel Sounds
This is the most basic concept in phonics. Consonants are speech sounds produced with a total or partial closing of the vocal tract, such as the letters "t," "d," and "f" in the English alphabet. They are contrasted by vowels such as "a" and "e" that do not require speakers to close their vocal tract to produce their corresponding sounds. These sounds are called "phonemes."
2. Consonant Digraphs and Blends
You're almost certainly familiar with digraphs, though you might not call them that. A digraph may be defined as a combination of letters that produces a sound that isn't signified by any letter in a language's alphabet. For example, the "sh" at the beginning of words like "shark" and "ship" is a unique sound that no individual letter produces. Some digraphs are also "leftover" from an earlier point in a language's history when there were distinct pronunciations that no longer exist. For example, the digraph "ph" produces an "f" sound in words like phone, but it would be incorrect to spell it "fone."
3. Long Vowels
Long vowels are longer than their shorter counterparts, though they are denoted by the same letters in English. The concept is typically taught as a vowel saying its own name, such as the "a" in "may" or the "i" in "mine."
4. Syllable Patterns
Syllables are the phonological building blocks of language, and phonics instruction generally involves identifying and counting them. A vowel sound usually serves as the "nucleus" or core of a syllable, with optional consonant sounds on its beginning or end.
5. Affixes
An affix is the addition of particular letters to a base word that changes its meaning in a predictable manner. For example, adding an "s" to most nouns in English makes it plural. Both prefixes and suffixes may be considered affixes.
What are the benefits of working with phonics tutors?
Your student's classroom teacher is likely to teach phonics from kindergarten to second grade, but the volume of children in the class prevent any one student from getting the kind of individualized attention that may be necessary for it to sink in. Furthermore, younger children may be too nervous to ask for help in front of their friends even if they realize they need it. This can prove problematic, as students are expected to be able to read and write basic words by the conclusion of second grade.
Working with a professional phonics tutor can help solve both of these problems above. Your student can work with a knowledgeable phonics expert in a one-on-one learning environment where they don't need to worry about anyone making fun of them because they are learning a little more slowly than everyone else. In fact, your child may establish a personal rapport with their instructor that makes it easier for them to ask for help as necessary.
Any questions your student asks can also be answered quickly, ensuring that they receive clarification before a minor misunderstanding gains momentum. Furthermore, their completed assignments can be returned with feedback expediently, allowing them to correct any mistakes while the material remains fresh in their mind.
Studying with a private phonics tutor also allows your student to study at their preferred pace. If they already understand how to read and phonics bores them to tears, their instructor can aggressively introduce new concepts to make their study sessions more engaging. If they're having a hard time distinguishing between short and long vowel sounds, their instructor can slow down and provide additional examples until they are ready to move onto the next thing.
Phonics tutoring sessions can also be designed around your student's preferred learning style to optimize their study efficiency. If your son or daughter is a visual learner, their instructor can incorporate charts, tables, and other visual aids to help them understand what sounds each letter can make. If they are more of a kinesthetic student, they might play with magnetic letters to develop a better understanding of the concepts taught in phonics. If your student is more auditory by nature, their instructor might utilize a lecture and discussion format with plenty of oral repetition to help key concepts stick in their head.
Since young children rarely want to sit down and study the way older students might, your student's instructor may also use games to make studying phonics more fun. There are a lot of educational video games that can help a student understand the principles of phonics, and your child's instructor can recommend a good one. Alternatively, they might invent a game using something as simple as flashcards to make studying more engaging.
Your child's tutor can also help you find resources to help you effectively reinforce the instruction your student receives in school and during phonics tutoring sessions. You can also receive regular progress reports to help you understand where your student is progressing and any areas of opportunity that could benefit from a little more work.
Why should my student study phonics?
As many as 87 percent of all English words can be successfully sounded out to some degree with phonics, allowing students to sound out a lot of potentially unfamiliar words. Working with phonics can also help young students identify linguistic patterns, potentially allowing them to achieve fluency more quickly. An approach called "synthetic phonics" also introduces students to writing through segmentation. Phonics may also help young children with spelling, though there are a lot of exceptions since many English sounds can be spelled in more than one way.
Perhaps most importantly, phonics is part of the English Common Core standards that students take standardized tests on throughout their academic lives. If your student is apprehensive about taking a test, their instructor can shoe them test-taking strategies for them to fall back on if they feel stuck. They may also demonstrate mindfulness techniques such as meditation if they are experiencing test anxiety.
What makes Varsity Tutors such a powerful educational resource?
If you were going to try and find your own private instructor for your student, you would need to make sure that they understand phonics, a subject that most adults haven't thought about in years. You would also need to make sure that they know how to work with young children, as working with a four-year old bears little similarity to helping a teenager prepare for something like the SAT. Finally, you would need to make sure your schedules are compatible. As a busy parent, do you really have time for all of that?
Probably not, which is why we specialize in taking the hassle out of private instruction. We maintain a database of thousands of independent tutors, helping us find you somebody who meets all of your phonics tutoring needs quickly and efficiently. We also offer an exclusive Live Learning Platform that allows your child to receive face-to-face instruction online, so you don't need to worry about cleaning up the house because the instructor is coming over or driving your student anywhere. Powerful features such as video chat functionality and a virtual whiteboard ensure that your student's study sessions are just as effective as meeting up in person would be, so you're not compromising efficacy for convenience either.
You are also in complete control over when study sessions take place, allowing your young student to continue pursuing any extracurricular activities they enjoy while also working on their phonics skills. For instance, there never needs to be a session on a Sunday if you prefer to devote the day to family time.
Educational consultants are currently standing by to help you in any way they can, so what are you waiting for? Contact Varsity Tutors using the information provided below today to help your student start working with knowledgeable phonics tutors who can help them reach for their academic potential!