Services
Successfully helping struggling students, online and within the Ottawa area, with specialized tutoring and assessments.
Services
Successfully helping struggling students, online and within the Ottawa area, with specialized tutoring and assessments.
OUR SERVICES
Unlocking the door to confident reading and spelling.
So many students slip through the cracks because they are not taught according to how they learn. Many students need a very different approach to learning.
We offer tutoring for all ages in the Ottawa area. Both children and adults can benefit from our reading intervention programs. If you are in another location, please see our Online Tutoring Section.
We provide appropriate reading and spelling remediation in a caring and supportive environment. We tailor our lessons to meet the student’s own pace, and continually assess for mastery of the material to ensure the continued success of the student.
A screener and one of our qualified tutors come to your house to meet you and your child and to conduct a short free screening with the student. This allows us to determine the best path forward for the student.
We use a variety of programs depending on the student’s needs. The primary program we use is the Orton-Gillingham-based program called The Barton Reading & Spelling System. These programs have been proven effective by independent scientific research*, and are recommended by leading experts as well as the International Dyslexia Association.
The tutor works with the student at least two times per week. This can be done at a variety of locations, including your home.
*It is important to ensure that any reading program you consider is proven effective by scientific, independent, replicated reading research.
✔ Professional, live, online tutoring in your home
✔ Help from qualified tutors, regardless of your location
Small-Group Writing Workshops
This programming is for students who are able to read and spell with at least moderate proficiency, and has been proven effective for students of all ages and levels of ability, including those with learning differences.
Our writing workshop is based on The Institute for Excellence in Writing’s program called “Teaching Writing: Structure and Style.”
The Institute for Excellence in Writing is an organization that helps student to become confident and competent communicators and thinkers. It uses the four language arts—listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
All students will focus on reading comprehension, learning paragraph structure, building vocabulary, and engaging in critical thinking. Students will also learn stylistic techniques to make their writing more interesting including various parts of speech.
NEW: NOW OFFERING IN ONLINE FORMAT
What will be different compared to our in-person workshops?
We will still have once-a-week live instruction and group practice component of the workshops, except that we will be doing this via the same format that we use for our online tutoring.
The biggest difference is that when it comes time for independent practice, the students will complete the remainder of their writing assignment as homework over the course of the upcoming week (don’t worry, we’ll be sure to email you the task so that you know what they are working on that week!).
We’ll be available via email to answer any questions that may come up in between sessions. We will also email you any pages that you would want to be able to access throughout the course.
Levels:
Beginner (first-time attendees)
✔ Unit 1: Creating an Outline
✔ Unit 2: Writing from Notes
✔ Unit 3: Retelling a Narrative Story
Beginner-Intermediate (second-time attendees)
✔ Unit 4: Summarizing a Reference
✔ Unit 5: Writing from Pictures
Intermediate-Advanced (third-time attendees)
✔ Unit 6: Summarizing Multiple References
✔ Unit7: Inventive Writing
Advanced
If your child has completed Units 1 through 7 with us, please contact us for advanced options.
For our past or present Open Door students who are working on reading and spelling, this is for students who have reached about halfway into Level 4 of the Barton Reading & Spelling System (or beyond). This is because this program does not focus on the basics of reading and spelling, but rather takes things a step further and focuses on writing. It is very accommodating for those with learning disabilities and will be adapted for those of various ages and writing abilities.
Next Online Session:
Fall 2020 Dates:
Saturdays: Sep. 19 to Nov. 14, 2020
(note: no session October 10)
Spring 2021 Dates:
Registration dates released January 2021
Times:
Beginner:
° 10 am – 11 am
Beginner-Intermediate:
° 11:15 am – 12: 15 pm
Location:
Online
Cost:
° $296 (that’s $37 per session)
How Do Our Assessments Work?
1. We have an initial phone interview to review you or your child’s full history (from pre-natal to the present).
2. We review all prior testing reports, educational records, and writing samples.
3. The screening appointments are scheduled.
4. The results are tallied and analyzed, and a full report is written. This report includes the testing results, explanations, and an action plan including accommodations and remediation.
5. The results meeting is scheduled and we go through your report with you, answering any questions you have.
✔ Phonological or Language-Based Memory
✔ Rapid Automatic Naming
✔ Phonics Skills
✔ Decoding (real and nonsense words)
✔ Oral Reading Fluency (single words and paragraphs)
✔ Spelling
Gray Oral Reading Test
- reading fluency
- reading rate
- reading accuracy
Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing
- phonological awareness
- phonological memory
- rapid naming
Word Identification and Spelling Test
- spelling
- decoding
- word identification
- sound-symbol knowledge
Assessments
- Dyslexia screening
- Phonological awareness
- Reading rate, accuracy, and fluency
- Word identification, decoding, and spelling
Consulting
- Customized learning plans
- IEP application solutions
One-on-One Student Remediation
Early Intervention Screening
Early Intervention Program
Information Presentations
Learning Strategy Sessions
Many student have difficulties with organization, study skills, preparing for tests or assignments, and coming up with strategies to help them succeed in school. These sessions are a great option to help you or your child improve these areas with targeted, one-on-one, individually tailored Learning Strategy Sessions. These sessions are available year-round, and are a summer favourite for our families!
Process:
Here are the steps included with the cost of our Learning Strategy Packages:
1. Initial 45-minute phone call with parent/guardian or older student to discuss learning strategy needs and to select areas of focus.
2. In-home Learning Strategy Sessions (3 or 4 sessions). Time can be taken during sessions for coaching parents on the new strategies.
3. During the final appointment, we will help the student identify how to generalize their learning strategies to other activities, whether academic or extracurricular.
4. Final follow-up phone call late in the Fall to see if student is having success with strategies, and to make suggestions accordingly.
5. Additional follow-up sessions available for a fee.
Packages:
3-session + 2 phone calls package
Includes choice of 2 of the 8 areas of focus listed above.
With 45-minute sessions: $145.00
With 60-minute sessions: $165.00
4-session + 2 phone calls package
Includes choice of 3 of the 8 areas of focus listed above.
With 45-minute sessions: $190.00
With 60-minute sessions: $220.00
Strategy Categories:
Time Management Focuses
• Tracking and recording: using lists, calendars, etc. to help students track and plan what they need to do.
• Procrastination: strategies to help identify procrastination along with why, motivations, and how to resolve.
• Working efficiently: strategies to help student make the best use of time when working on their academic tasks.
• Organization: strategies to help students organize their physical/digital space
Study Strategies Focuses
• Study routines: strategies to help identify when to start studying for their tests and how best to distribute studying times.
• Studying, how to: specific strategies to help students prepare study materials for different question formats.
• In-test strategies: strategies to help students manage their time during a test including creating an in-test-routine.
• Note-taking for a purpose: note-taking strategies for students to use to make it easier to study from their notes.