Guest Post Effective Online Tutoring (Nancy Barth)

Nancy Barth 
Nancy Barth Tutoring 

Last September, I received an email via my blog, Nancy Barth Tutoring.  The mother, Sam, wanted to know if I was near Chicago, as she was looking for a tutor for her daughter, Hailey.  Unfortunately, I’m all the way in California, so I didn’t think I could help her. 

I’d been thinking about trying online tutoring for a few months, so I asked Sam if she’d like to give it a whirl.  I’d give her a discount for being my guinea pig.  Ten months later, we’re still tutoring twice a week. 

We use Skype, with the side by side picture.  Ninety percent of the time, we have no difficulties with our connection.  Every now and then, it goes out.  We use the message feature of Skype to do a few simple activities while we work to re-connect.

For students with dyslexia, I use a program called The Barton Reading &Spelling System. Before our tutoring began, I sent Hailey a set of Barton tiles for the first level. Each time we finish a level, I send the next set of tiles. I put magnets on the back and had her mom buy a magnetic white board.  This way, she can show me her work.  I also suggested a set of dry erase markers, for tasks like spelling without the tiles.  We also needed storage options for the tiles. I used a tin box for some tiles, and a small baking pan for the others.  The magnets stick and this makes it easy to find the letter or letter combination we’re looking for.   I send any worksheets or stories for each lesson to Hailey’s mom so she can print them out before the lesson.  I also send a copy of the day’s lesson plan after we finish a lesson.

At the beginning, I also used an app called Sound Literacy.  This has virtual tiles that can be customized for each lesson. 

Eventually, Barton developed their own apps, which are specific to the level the student is working on.  This is even easier than using the magnetic tiles. Both Sound Literacy and the Barton app allow for tracking progress of multiple students.

Because Hailey’s mom can’t always be in the room during lessons, I started using Supertintin, which Is a video recorder.  She can see us side by side and then provide reinforcement for the concepts taught in that lesson, as needed.

You can watch a short segment of an online lesson here.

My client and I have enjoyed teaching and learning over the internet.  Her reading scores at school have improved, and she’s doing more reading for pleasure now.