Who Is This Blog For?

Hi! I’m Justine, tutor, teacher, and mom who loves helping kids learn to read and spell accurately. I also love helping parents find the right resources to help their child feel confident in reading, spelling, and writing.

If you’re a parent of a child who is learning to read or who needs help in becoming a confident reader and speller, then you’re in the right place.

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    What To Expect

    Here’s a glimpse of what you can look forward to from my Reading, Spelling, and Writing blog:

    • Home assessment tools for parents
    • Overview of the different approaches to teaching reading
    • Reviews of different phonics programs for home support
    • Choosing the right reading program for your child
    • Suggestion for ways to gamify reading and spelling at home
    • Building your child’s reading confidence
    • Understanding and thriving with dyslexia
    • Downloadable and printable reading, spelling and writing activities
    • Writing prompts to inspire kids to write
    • Handwriting tips and techniques
    • Book lists for the different grades

    . . .and so much more to help you support your child at home!

    Who Is Teacher Justine?

    In addition to being a mom of two daughters, I have been a CA Credentialed Teacher since 2011 and became a full-time Reading Tutor in 2021.

    I have to be honest, even after all my teacher training and working in schools as a teacher, I didn’t really know how kids learn to read and I wasn’t confident that I was doing things the right way.

    It wasn’t until my second daughter was clearly not learning to read at school, that I became very interested in learning how to help people with dyslexia and other learning difficulties learn to read.

    Structured Literacy or Print-to-Speech

    While trying to find the best help for my daughter, I learned that reading is not natural and that it must be explicitly taught because our brains have to be rewired for reading and writing.

    For the first two years of tutoring, I used a Structured Literacy approach which was very effective for almost all of my students.

    There are many excellent print-to-speech programs available for parents to help their children. I have tried many of them and will share what I have learned with you.

    Structured Linguistic Literacy or Speech-to-Print

    In 2023, I began tutoring students in reading, spelling, and writing using EBLI (Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction). EBLI is a “speech-to-print” or Structured Linguistic Literacy approach which accelerates student learning and literacy outcomes.

    I am very happy with this approach and feel it makes a lot of sense. I will share information about the different speech-to-print programs with you.

    In March of 2024, I became a Certified EBLI Instructor.

    I am not the only one who loves this method. My students love it too.

    Why I’m Writing this Blog

    Helping all beginning, struggling, and reluctant readers read and spell accurately and fall in love with reading is my purpose.

    But I can’t do that just through one-on-one tutoring, so I also blog about different methods and shares tips with you so that you feel inspired and have the tools to make a real difference on your child’s reading journey.

    Fun Facts or Let’s Get Personal

    • Both of my daughters learned to read! One is in college and the other is a senior in high school working on her college applications.
    • When I started off as a Waldorf Teacher, I truly believed reading would happen naturally like the “sprouting of the second teeth”.
    • My college degree is in Italian and I love all romance languages. Pro tip: learning a romance language helps vocabulary and spelling in English.
    • I have a Chihuahua/Terrier mix that often is seen on camera during online tutoring.
    • I have tutored students online who live in CA, GA, PA, HI, TX, UT, NV, WI, and MI.
    • I was born and raised in Madison, WI and CA students sometimes tell me I don’t say the short “o” sound correctly.

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