Level Up Literacy: Tutoring and Advocacy Services

09/05/2025

Thanks so much for inquiring about tutoring services! At this point, I am taking a break from tutoring to stay at home with my toddler and new baby on the way.

If you are looking for tutoring in the Washington MO area, check out ShowMe Therapy Services

If you are looking for tutoring in the St. Louis area OR online tutoring via Zoom, check out The Literacy Link Reading Center (formally Dyslexia St. Louis).

I can personally attest that both of these centers offer reading services with tutors who use research based strategies including the Orton-Gillingham approach.

I’ll be around, and I look forward to providing reading instruction in the future!
- Katie

06/02/2025

🙋🏼‍♀️I’m Katie and I’m a dyslexia therapist

✅ 200 hours of graduate coursework
✅ 700 practicum hours
✅ passed a national exam
✅ a license held by a professional who has completed extensive training in multisensory structured literacy intervention

04/01/2025

A little morphology this afternoon! Student is currently working in step 3.2 of Wilson.

03/06/2025

ISTOCK.COM/DRAFTER123 It’s often assumed that 13- to 18-year-old students in classrooms across the United States are proficient readers with robust vocabularies and the ability to comprehend texts in their content area classes, but that is frequently not the case. Many of these older students do n...

03/05/2025

Skill: Reading Fluency 🗣️
Reading fluency is the ability to read sentences with appropriate rate, phrasing, and tone.

Part of every Wilson lesson includes reading DECODABLE sentences containing sight words and phonetic words with the letter pattern studied in that particular Wilson lesson. For example, the sentences in this picture are from a lesson where we studied words with short vowels and 3 letter blends.

Students read the sentence once to themselves silently. They can ask me if they are unsure of a word(s), and we can tap it or identify it as a sight word.

Then they read it out loud. The goal here is accuracy.

Next they show me how they would scoop the words into meaningful phrases. Struggling readers often pause at inappropriate times while reading or don’t pause at all.

Then they finally read the sentence out loud again modeling appropriate phrasing. Some brave students like to pick a stick to read the sentence in a funny voice 😂

They read each sentence 3+ times total. Repeated reading builds familiarity with the text, leading to smoother and more accurate reading with increased speed and appropriate phrasing.

03/02/2025

Skill: Phonological Awareness 🔡

Every Wilson lesson starts with the Sounds Quick Drill. In this activity, students can use the notes in their Student Notebook. I point to a magnet tile, and the student identifies the letter name, the keyword, and the sound. I do this for up to 10 tiles at the beginning of every lesson.

I point to i.
Student: "i itch /i/."

Later in the spelling portion of the lesson, we do "Quick Drill in Reverse" where I say a sound, the student repeats, and then points to the letter(s) that say the sound.

"Say /k/"
"/k/"
"Point to what says /k/"
The student points to c, k, and ck. For advanced students, we discuss the rules for when each spelling option is used (for example, ck is usually used at the end of 1 syllable closed words such as "sock").

The quick drill promotes phonological awareness, or the ability to recognize and manipulate the individual sounds in English. Accuracy with sounds is a crucial first step for being able to read.

Please follow along as I share some of the activities I have implemented recently in tutoring!

For more information about the Wilson Reading System visit Wilsonlanguage.com

12/05/2024

"The curricula caused significant harm to generations of students by emphasizing techniques like cueing, which ask students to “guess” words based on context... evidence-based reading programs should be centered on systematic, explicit phonics instruction alongside developing children’s vocabulary and comprehension abilities."

Read more.

11/15/2024

Thanks for stumbling upon my little page! An update for people looking to start reading services with me:

I am now working as a reading specialist at ShowMe Therapy Services in downtown Washington MO! It’s a great opportunity and I’m so thankful to use a little “classroom” space at the clinic.

My hours are limited since I’m staying home with my 1 year old during the day. I have a waitlist for reading services at this time. Please use this link if you would like to be added onto the waitlist and we will be in contact with you as soon as I have an opening.

Showmespeech.com/contact

Thanks so much for your interest in tutoring!
- Katie

10/01/2024

New digs at ShowMe Therapy Services!

09/05/2024

Check out this video about the Science of Reading. This teacher is using Fundations, which is the K-3 Curriculum from Wilson.