FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Read this explanation from Dr.  Holly Lane, Director of the University of Florida Literacy Institute, about Scarborough's Reading Rope:

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"In Scarborough’s rope metaphor, the Language Comprehension and Word Recognition strands are developing simultaneously. At first, the strands are separate, but they soon get woven together. It's not a sequential process. It happens simultaneously.

Language Comprehension, or how we make sense of language, is made up of five critical elements:

- background knowledge includes knowing facts or understanding concepts about the world around us;

- vocabulary includes knowing the meanings of many words, but also understanding how precise word meanings work and how the meanings of various words are linked;

- language structures include the various elements that make up language, such as syntax, semantics, and pragmatics;

- verbal reasoning includes the capacity to make inferences and understand nuances of language, such as metaphors; and

- literacy knowledge includes knowledge of texts, including knowing about various genres and understanding basic concepts about print.

Word Recognition is composed of three critical elements:

- phonological awareness, or the ability to manipulate the sound units of spoken language, such as syllables or phonemes;

- decoding, or the ability to use the knowledge of letter-sound correspondences to sound out words; and

- sight recognition, or the quick, effortless identification of familiar words.

Over time, as they develop, Language Comprehension processes become increasingly strategic, or purposeful. With practice, Word Recognition skills become increasingly automatic, which frees up the reader’s cognitive resources for comprehension.

Each of these elements is necessary for proficient reading, but none alone is sufficient. When all the strands are woven together neatly, the rope becomes strong. The tightly woven rope represents skilled reading."

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Many families seek me out because their children's decoding skills are so labored that reading comprehension suffers.  In this case, our sessions would focus on the lower strands of the reading rope.  Based on your child's needs, however, our sessions can be focused on any strand(s) of the reading rope.

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I am a homeschool parent.  How does your tutoring fit into the curriculum I'm currently using?

The National Reading Panel Report (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [NICHD], 2000) summarized several decades of scientific research that clearly shows effective reading instruction addresses five critical areas:

• Phonemic awareness

• Phonics

• Fluency

• Vocabulary

• Comprehension

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When meeting with a child for one or two hours a week, there is no way to adequately cover all of these areas.  Our tutoring sessions will be specialized to one or two areas.  It is important that your child have quality reading  instruction beyond the tutoring sessions provided by me.

Are group sessions available?