Pam’s Orton Gillingham
Charlotte Reading Tutors
- Leading Orton Gillingham Tutors since 2005
- Online Virtual Tutors or Face-to-Face Tutors
- Award Winning Tutors from the International Dyslexia Association
- Kindergarten-High School
Summer Camp Programs for Pre-K & K-12 Open for Registration!
Pre-K Summer Camp
Pre-K Summer Camp
Weekly June – July, 2023
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- 30-minute sessions
- One-on-one with a tutor
- Waiting room for parents
- Learn more
K-12 Summer Camp
K-12 Summer Camp
Weekly June – August, 2023
- One-on-one tutoring
- Virtual and in-person tutoring
- Orton Gillingham Tutoring
- Math tutoring available for grades 1-5
- Learn more
The Answer to Reading struggles is Orton Gillingham and the Structured Literacy Approach. Pam is here to help!
Ask Yourself These Questions
- How well does my child know their letter sounds?
- Can my child decode and sound-out unknown words?
- How well does my child read nonsense words?
- How well does my child identify vowel sounds in the middle of words?
- Is my child on track with learning their sight words?
- Is my child an accurate reader or do they guess at words, skip the small common sight words while reading, but still comprehend the paragraph?
- Is my child progressing as well as the majority of his/her classmates?
- Does my child struggle with reading comprehension or vocabulary?
Phonemic Awareness
Our multisensory phonemic awareness activities develop the child’s listening skills and letter/sound awareness. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate individual phonemes. Activities are included in the lessons in order to blend, segment, and manipulate sounds which is a reading fundamental.
Phonics
Our multisensory phonics-based program teaches letter-sound awareness in a systematic and structured approach. The rules and sounds of the letters blended into words make for a logical and systematic approach. Orton Gillingham is not a program for it is an approach. Science and research has proven the Orton GIllingham and Structured Literacy approach to reading as the Gold Standard around the world.
Spelling
Spelling based on taught strategies and concepts will ensure that your child improves spelling and writing skills. The spelling of words in the English language is not always easy. The Orton Gillingham and Structured Literacy approach will ensure your student will have the skills needed to improve spelling.
Fluency
Fluency drills will give your child the ability to read with appropriate speed, accuracy, prosody, and proper expression. Building fluency skills is an important part of reading because having a poor reading rate or accuracy percentage can directly or indirectly impact reading comprehension.
State-wide funding and resources are available from the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA).
Dyslexia and Reading Struggles
Dyslexia is a brain-based learning difficulty that impacts up to 10% of people in the UK. Of those individuals who are affected, 70% experience phonological dyslexia. This makes it difficult for them to break words into their component sounds and has a direct impact on decoding ability and spelling skills.
Orton-Gillingham works because it enhances phonemic-awareness in dyslexic individuals by examining common language patterns. Learners experiment with blending sounds, looking at letters and word parts in isolation and in various configurations, and studying language features, including diphthongs and silent letters.
The goal of Orton-Gillingham based instruction is to enable learners to decode words on their own and improve literacy skills in order to achieve their full potential at school.
Vocabulary We know our kids do not get enough rich vocabulary. We want to make sure that the students are able to use context clues to learn word meaning.
Register for virtual or in-person Orton Gillingham Reading Tutoring for Fall 2023
Pam’s Orton Gillingham Reading Canine Therapy Dogs
Sadie and Buddy, provide a relaxed and “dog-friendly” atmosphere, which allows students to practice the skill of reading. Since the children all have difficulties reading and as a result some have developed self-esteem issues, Pam’s Therapy dogs have added such a wonderful element of love and enjoyment to the environment.
Reading Comprehension
Reading Comprehension is the ability to process text, understand its meaning, and to integrate with what the reader already knows. Fundamental skills required in efficient reading comprehension are knowing meaning of words, ability to understand meaning of a word from discourse context, ability to follow organization of passage and to identify antecedents and references in it, ability to draw inferences from a passage about its contents, ability to identify the main thought of a passage, ability to answer questions answered in a passage, ability to recognize the literary devices or propositional structures used in a passage and determine its tone, to understand the situational mood conveyed for assertions, questioning, commanding, refraining etc. and finally ability to determine writer’s purpose, intent and point of view, and draw inferences about the writer.
Homeschool Tutors
Homeschool students who struggle with reading can be supported with Orton Gillingham tutoring and other strategies virtually.
Executive Function
How do we approach and break down a task? How do we manage a task and maintain focus? Including a set of mental skills that include working memory, flexible thinking, and self-control. We use these skills every day to learn, work, and manage daily life. We can work together to improve this hurdle.
Who is Pam’s Orton Gillingham Reading Tutor?
North Carolina International Dyslexia Association Scholarship Recipient
Pam was recognized for her contribution to children with dyslexia by being awarded the Dr. Lucia R. Karnes Memorial Teacher Training Scholarship. Dr. Karnes (1921-2012), a founding member of the NC IDA formerly known as the Orton Dyslexia Society. Dr. Karnes was a language therapist who worked with June Lyday Orton, Dr. Samuel Orton’s wife, at Bowman Gray School of Medicine in the 1950s.
How I tutor is especially important to you and your children. Virtual, Homeschool children, and after school children will improve their reading skills. My goals as an Orton Gillingham Reading Tutor are to engage and motivate your student. I have a fun tutoring style and that has worked for the past 15 years! From brain games, puzzles, and word association, making sure the child is excited to learn increases grades, communication, and reading skills across the board.
With 15 years of experience in Charlotte NC as an Orton Gillingham tutor, I have helped many children to learn to read and thrive. The key is to build self-confidence, life skills, learn how to win, and improve communication skills. I have time tested techniques and applications that will assist with reading, working memory, critical thinking skills, which in turn improves reading skills. Give me a telephone call at (704) 906-6097 and we can discuss your child together to develop a plan.
*Approved provider of the ESA+ Program. Learn more about eligibility requirements here.
What is Orton Gillingham and Structured Literacy?
The Orton-Gillingham Approach is a direct, explicit, multisensory, structured, sequential, diagnostic, and prescriptive way to teach literacy when reading, writing, and spelling does not come easily to individuals, such as those with dyslexia. It is most properly understood and practiced as an approach, not a method, program, or system. In the hands of well-trained and experienced instructors, it is a powerful tool of exceptional breadth, depth, and flexibility.
The Orton Gillingham approach incorporates the following criteria:
- Comprehensive – every detail of phonology is taught – every letter, every sound, every sound-letter combination, rules for spelling, rules for decoding, and high-frequency words.
- Explicit instruction – every detail of phonology is taught outright – there is nothing that is bypassed in the instruction.
- Direct instruction – Every detail is taught directly to the student.
- Multi-sensory – Each piece of instruction is taught multiple ways using auditory, visual, and kinesthetic (movement) based teaching.
- Mastery – Each piece of instruction is taught until the student can automatically recall the sound-letter combinations, decoding and spelling rules, syllabication, etc. without hesitation.
As a key step, you will want to assess your child’s learning style to know what type of learning activities serve your child best. If your child is primarily a visual or auditory learner, you’re in luck! Virtually all Orton Gillingham reading programs use visual and auditory components or activities. In addition, there is a Cognitive Learning Style Assessment that will provide even more additional insight.
Neuro-Cognitive Learning Style Assessment
– Coming soon!
I have always wanted to find a tool that would provide parents with a valid assessment that would provide the much-needed insight as to strengths and need areas to improve and how. The need simply indicates an area where extra support may be necessary to help a child succeed. I would perform a learning style assessment which showed whether the student was a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner. Yet, that was not enough.
This assessment is a scientifically valid, nationally normed assessment of cognitive skills. The learning profile is parent-friendly and provides specific recommendations for strategies not just a picture at the time. This profile connects each student’s performance and its likely impact on academic performance.
Do you want your student to see improvement in the SAT/ACT or in the classroom with reading or/and math?
- Computer-based cognitive test
- Taken in your center or home
- Measures complex reasoning, executive functions, memory, and processing efficiency.
- Developed by neuroscientists at Penn Medicine and used by NASA.
The scores provide the first objective insight into how each student learns best.
- Skills Areas Assessed: Executive Function-Attention, Working Memory, Flexible Thinking
- Reasoning Skills: Abstract Reasoning, Spatial Reasoning, Virtual Reasoning
- Memory: Visual Memory, Verbal Memory
Learn: Math difficulties can be tied to one of four cognitive domains. It’s essential to understand which skill(s) are problematic to provide effective support. We can provide strategies and solutions.
Reading Comprehension: By 3rd-grade students should be “reading to learn” and no longer “learning to read”. It’s important to keep in mind that fluency is different from comprehension and both skills need to improve over time. By 3rd grade, students should be “reading to learn” and no longer “learning to read”. Here are some signs that your student might be struggling with reading comprehension or reading fluency. We can provide reading strategies and solutions.
Steps in the Process
Step 1: Identify Learning Strengths and Needs. The Cognitive Skills Assessment helps you understand why a student is performing at that level. For example, a standardized achievement test may show that your student is reading at a level below his or her peers but will not tell you why. Learning why and how will help you understand if this performance is due to difficulties with processing speed, complex reasoning, or memory.
Step 2: The Learner Profile will show the student’s learning strengths and needs in ten skills across the core domains of speed, executive functions, complex reasoning, and memory. It will show your students’ relative and absolute strengths and needs and provide recommendations for supporting your student across subjects.
The Academic Profile aligns your student’s strengths and needs from the Learner Profile to each academic subject and study skills. Understand which subjects will come easily and which may require more effort or support. The Academic Profile includes specific strategy recommendations to support your student for each learning strand.
Step 3: Action
“Ms. Pam has worked with our child who was diagnosed with dyslexia. Over the past four years, Ms. Pam has helped increase our daughter’s language art skills specific to reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing. Her confidence and love for reading has soared and we are so thankful! Ms. Pam’s unique style to reach the “whole” child and become a fluent, confident reader is such a gift and blessing to us. She is experienced in all grade levels, ranging from primary up to high school. As a mom and teacher, I highly recommend Ms. Pam as a reading tutor.”
“We love Pam! She is a lifesaver! Literally. As a parent, it was heartbreaking to watch my child struggle trying to read and keep up with his classmates in school so his diagnosis of dyslexia was the first step. Honestly as confusing as it was at that time it was also a relief because we now knew where to start. And, finding Pam turned his education around. Literally. Her professional training and experience along with her compassion and patience gave him the fresh start he needed. Watching him change from a frustrated second-grader who dreaded opening a book to now a rising senior reading Shakespeare and Homer willingly is a testament to the remarkable work that Pam James does. My son’s future is wide open with dreams of success!”
Contact Pam
Tutors will not discuss information regarding a child with anyone other than the parents or guardians on the application.
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