Smart Cookie Tutoring CA

If you are looking for private or individual tutoring during the summer for your child, please email me. I will not have a regular schedule this season due to family commitments.

I specialize in reading and language arts, and primary math skills up to the level of Geometry.

I am not currently teaching classes in school schedule but I hope to be able to in the future.

Thanks!
Jane Houck

This has been a challenging school year filling in learning gaps with students who were isolated by COVID-19. Systematic phonics lessons are intensive and meaningful, guiding many students closer to grade level within a whole language arts program. Time-tested "Words Their Way" and fabulous books by Jan Brett are my tools of choice. Hands-on, beautiful, and effective.

For decades, Lucy Calkins has determined how millions of children learn to read. This is worth reading...
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/22/us/reading-teaching-curriculum-phonics.html?smid=url-share

For decades, legislators have tried to find the "correct" way to tell teachers how to teach reading. Ignoring research and evidence, they continue to search for the best reading curriculum. (HINT: Reading success is a results of effective teachers.)

The article in the New York Times about a passionate reading professor, examines the flaws and the benefits of Lucy Calkins' 40-year career. If you have paid attention to reading programs, you might have noticed how these curriculums jump between whole language, guided reading, balanced reading, the joy of reading, and with or without phonics.

This professor of teachers and publishing giant draws criticism on not paying enough attention to phonics, not following the science on reading, and not addressing learning delays and dyslexia. Dr Calkins gives a proper nod to phonics, but it is not her passion.

Reading the article, I detected the 'East Coast angst' and (dare I says it) snobbery about the best practices and their own opinions.

The most EFFECTIVE Reading Program is taught by a highly qualified teacher who understands what all her students' needs are. Know your students. Formative assessments. Have multiple resources. Know more about reading than legislators who fund curriculum purchases.

Also, in defense of all teachers 40 and 50 years ago, dyslexia, minimal brain disfunction, and special education as a whole was a young idea. We have learned to so much about autism and attention deficit syndromes. Lucy Calkins stayed in her lane. She followed her passions, and did not the meet the needs and challenges of her peers.

Meanwhile, I teach phonics, and guided reading. Critical thinking and the enjoyment of reading come along in good time. Lots of parents don't have the training to teach phonics as an integral part of a balanced language arts program. Knowing how the sounds work together in English is a tough task because of the way the rules of "sounding out" are so different in different words!

Letter recognition comes first, then discernment of sounds to match the letter, but once that letter is put into a word it becomes a MORPHEME: a vowel or consonant that will CHANGE the meaning of a word with a change in letters.

Morphemes carrying meaning and this leads to word recognition and eventually sight-reading. I encourage my students to find the vowel, then the syllable, to determine the word. Sounding out from the beginning of a word is a short-lived success. Please have children read for meaning and not the awkward, unrecognizable segments that come out as they struggle.

Jane Houck
Teacher

Please contact Jane Houck [email protected].
I will contact you ASAP

Do you need help with creating a balanced Language Arts program for your children?
Reading, Writing, Phonics, Vocabulary
Guided Reading at appropriate developmental levels

If you need help teaching specific subjects, I understand the California content standards for Kindergarten through 10th grade.

If you need support with implementing a home school or shelter-in-place program for your children, I have the experience to help design a schedule for you that meets the needs of your situation.