"As the twig is bent, the
tree inclines."
Virgil
As our name suggests, all direct professional tutoring
services One-to-One provides take place at the
student's home, school,
or local library.
Therefore, my personal services can only be provided
within my local region: Northwestern Suffolk County, NY.
Visitor to this website who require
assistance with subject matter I do not teach, or at locations, I do
not personally serve, will
appreciate the One-to-One Referral
Network; a growing group of friendly, competent,
qualified, state certified independent
tutors, for you to further
investigate.
One-to-One Home Tutoring charges a small annual
fee for each referral network listing to help defer the cost of
maintaining this website, but is otherwise unaffiliated with
these practitioners. They are listed in order of Zip
Code, then Township, for your convenience.
We welcome
all Feedback regarding our
listed referrals. I personally monitor, investigate, and
reply to any legitimate complaint.
If you appreciate the One-to-One approach
and are located beyond our service areas, you may
want to reconsider my
Tutoring On Your
Own - Home Tutoring Parental Support Program (TM).
When a One-to-One Home Tutor is to
work with you in-person to accomplish a program of
remediation,
I will usually recommend the following 5-step
approach:
- Parental Interview and
Discussion
- Meet the Student
- Test the student (if deemed
necessary)
- Evaluate the student and all test
results
- Formulate objectives for the remediation
program to achieve
- Develop a tailored remediation
plan
- Coordinate with medical and other
professional practitioners
- Implement the remediation plan using a
customized system of instruction
- Assess the progress, report, and
modify the plan as needed over
time
This rigorous methodology has proven highly successful
in achieving significant improvements in the functional
level of the under-achieving and/or disabled student,
the developmentally impaired, or for the enrichment of the
gifted and talented child.
Parental Interview:
A
good tutor, like a good doctor, gets a complete "case history"
before recommending tests or attempting to diagnosis a
problem. It is important to obtain all information
relevant to the child's academic difficulties. This
includes recording parental observations, reviewing samples of
the child's school work, past and present educational evaluations,
report cards, medical reports, and a discussion of any factors
that may have contributed to the child's failure in school.
Meet the
Student
It is important that the first
encounter between the tutor and student be a
positive one. Many youngsters are intimidated by the
idea of having a tutor so every effort is made to put the child at
ease. An "Informal Interest Inventory" is presented and
the tutor and child discuss the responses. The student is
encouraged to ask questions and express his or her feelings about
school, academics, and about being tutored.
Professional
Educational Testing and Evaluation:
Testing is not always necessary, but if
deemed important, a full battery of diagnostic reading and ability
tests will be administered to the student. This
must be done in an informal and relaxed manner, and every
effort is made to reassure the child to minimize the
pressure associated with test taking. In the case of
young students, the word "test" is avoided, since it has so
many negative connotations in the minds of children who have
suffered repeated failure. Instead, the child
is informed that the tutor is "taking a survey" and seeking
information about what the school's curriculum contains because
"different schools teach different things."
After the initial interview and testing is
completed, the tutor and parent will discuss the results.
An assessment is made, educational objectives are formulated,
and the specific course of instruction is
designed.
Coordinate with Medical and other
Professionals:
The remediation plan might include
input from the classroom teacher or other professionals, at the
discretion of the parent. Coordination with the
school curriculum can be helpful, but is not
necessary. The materials utilized by One-to-One Home Tutoring
were specifically developed to integrate seamlessly into
any system of instruction.
Customized Instruction:
The number of lessons per week is determined by
three factors:
- The severity of the student's problems in
school
- The likelihood that a parent will be able to
reinforce instruction between lessons
- Financial and time constraints
Reading, writing, spelling and comprehension skills are taught
using a diversified, yet well integrated system of
instruction. This program has been developed and
refined over twenty years in the field. Methods and
materials are drawn from a large universe of tools
and customized to best serve the particular needs of each
student.
Lessons are reinforced by means of worksheets, games, puzzles,
and original stories that children not only
CAN read, but WANT to
read.
If a child has been diagnosed as dyslexic or learning
disabled and needs a specific form of instruction, such as
a multi-sensory structured language program, those methods can be
incorporated into the lessons. One-to-One Home Tutoring
uses "The Wilson Approach", which is based upon the Orton-Gillingham
philosophy and principles.
Assessing Progress and the Plan:
Every three months, the child is re-evaluated to
determine if the course of instruction is effective
and if the plan needs to be modified in any way.
Parent and tutor talk frankly about all aspects of the tutoring
process and decide if any changes should be made. Honest
appraisals are an imperative. The "best interest of
the child" must always take precedent over the feelings of
either the tutor or the parent.
In the unlikely event that a child fails to make significant
progress after 6 months remediation, I usually urge the
parents to seek assistance elsewhere. Each child is
unique and may perform better for one teacher than for
another, even though both instructors are equally qualified
and are using appropriate methods and materials.
Since there are no contract requirement with One-to-One Home
Tutoring, parents are always free to discontinue service at any time
and for any reason. The tutor also remains free
to terminate instruction should parents fail to fulfill
their part in the remediation program.
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