TUTORING SERVICES
Spelling Tutoring
I provide 3 services: (1) weekly group lessons [for advanced spellers and beginners], (2) weekly 1-on-1 coaching for spellers with a demonstrated record of achievement & exceptional promise, and (3) one-time consultation sessions to devise study plans & discuss how to best prepare for the Bee. A combination of group and 1-on-1 sessions is also available for promising spellers with budgetary constraints. To request more information, please email me.
My pedagogical method: We ensure that spellers have an extremely solid foundation in Latin and Greek roots, and we cover languages of origin systematically, spending most of the time on Greek, Latin, French, Italian, German, & Spanish using my books Words of Wisdom: Keys to Success in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, 5th ed., Sesquipedalia!: A Rigorous Vocabulary Guide, Regional Bee Ready!, and A Few Final Words of Wisdom as textbooks. We also work on vocabulary, particularly on how to logically induce definitions using Greek & Latin roots.
For 1-on-1 lessons, the curriculum is customized based on the speller's areas of strength and weakness and what the speller wants to focus on. For group lessons, the curriculum is standardized and covers a set list of languages and topics which I want to make sure spellers know how to address.
I assign homework (usually exercises to review specific skills or supplemental searches for spellers to conduct to find new words) and will almost always supplement WoW quizzing with quizzing from non-WoW word lists that I have created personally.
After every lesson, I send an email with a list of missed words and stems and points to review. My expectation is that spellers and their families will maintain a document containing a missed words list and that they will learn these missed words.
Depending on my availability, more ad hoc tutoring arrangements (e.g., twice-monthly, once-monthly one-on-one lessons) may also be a possibility.
