The Grammar & Writing Foundations Class at Tutoring by Christine is a focused, six-session course designed for 5th graders, with each session lasting one hour.

This class provides a solid introduction to essential grammar concepts and writing skills. Over the course of the sessions, students will explore the basics of grammar, including nouns, action verbs, and simple sentence construction. They will learn to differentiate between parts of speech and parts of a sentence, identify sentence fragments, and effectively use adjectives, including comparative forms.

The class also covers the four types of sentences, sentence expansion techniques, and the construction of simple, compound, and complex sentences using conjunctions. Students will practice identifying parts of speech, understanding sentence structure, and applying the CUPS strategy (Capitalization, Understanding, Punctuation, Spacing/Spelling) to their writing.

The final session offers a comprehensive review, reinforcing key concepts through interactive activities, ensuring students leave the course with a strong foundation in grammar and writing.

Orton–Gillingham was the first teaching approach specifically designed to help struggling readers by explicitly teaching the connections between letters and sounds. Today — decades later — many reading programs include Orton–Gillingham ideas.

The Orton-Gillingham Approach always is focused upon the learning needs of the individual student. Orton-Gillingham (OG) practitioners design lessons and materials to work with students at the level they present by pacing instruction and the introduction of new materials to their individual strengths and weaknesses.

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 a powerful tool of exceptional breadth, depth, and flexibility.

This engaging course is held for 18 sessions and consists of 45-minute classes that meet twice a week. It focuses on building a strong foundation for understanding the structure of words by introducing key concepts such as roots, prefixes, and suffixes.

Morphology, the study of how words are formed and structured, is essential for developing reading and writing skills, and this Orton-Gillingham-based course uses a multisensory approach to help students decode and understand complex words.

Students will review open and closed syllables, learn how prefixes refine the meaning of a word, and explore how roots carry the word’s main meaning. Through a variety of hands-on activities, including fluency drills, oral exercises, and coding practices, students will develop their morphemic awareness, making it easier for them to decode and understand complex words.

Each subsequent week introduces a new set of morphemes, ensuring that students reinforce their learning through consistent practice and application. By the end of the course, students will have gained valuable skills that will enhance their reading, writing, and overall literacy.

Orton–Gillingham was the first teaching approach specifically designed to help struggling readers by explicitly teaching the connections between letters and sounds. Today — decades later — many reading programs include Orton–Gillingham ideas.

The Orton-Gillingham Approach always is focused upon the learning needs of the individual student. Orton-Gillingham (OG) practitioners design lessons and materials to work with students at the level they present by pacing instruction and the introduction of new materials to their individual strengths and weaknesses.

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 a powerful tool of exceptional breadth, depth, and flexibility.