FAQs

 

Are you familiar with local school curricula?

I do not work within a specific curriculum, but my hope is to help provide students with a foundation in reading and writing that can span different curricula, subjects, teachers’ expectations, and serve them well through the years.

Do you Cover specific topics such as grammar, sentence structure, and reading comprehension?

My approach covers all of these topics, but I prefer separating my tutoring work into three basic elements that support each other.

  • Reading

    • Teaching how to closely analyze the tools of language and structure

  • Writing

    • Teaching methods for getting words on paper in as unfiltered a manner as possible

    • Developing the skills for shaping words-on-paper, incorporating different tools of language and structure that the writers we read have used

  • Taste/Voice

    • Encouraging students to investigate what captures their imagination, and what does not, and why

I don’t follow specific textual material, rather I prefer to follow the writing workshop model. This method is most often used to teach creative writing, though it also works for academic writing. I have been attending writing workshops since middle school, and though they have all differed in some way, they share a common structure:

  • Read work by writers who use language and/or structure in a way that is particular to them

  • Investigate how the writing works, and what in particular produces excitement or discomfort

  • Find ways to encourage writing freely, as well as writing with particular tools in mind

Are there particular materials that you use or follow?

While I won’t be assigning homework on the more technical aspects of writing, I will give students writing exercises that build upon the foundations of reading and writing that we will be collectively laying. In addition, I will be able to assist with their assigned homework from school.

Do you assign students homework?

I work with students on both Common App and supplemental essays. I devise guided free-writes and other writing exercises for students as a method to develop potential essay topics. These exercises help student describe their memories and experiences in specific and sensory detail, while also allowing them to delve more deeply into their own interests.

do you work with high school students on their college essays? If so, what is your approach?

I am currently available to tutor at mutually convenient times on certain afternoons, evenings and weekends.

What is your General Availability?

My rate is $75 an hour.

What is your hourly rate?

I generally work with students at their homes but I am happy to meet with them at the library or another location that is conducive to tutoring.

do you meet with students at their homes?