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At the JEI Learning Center, we are constantly working with students with different learning abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Rather than using a blanket approach when it comes to tutoring and improving various skills, we approach students on an individual level, so that we can really target their unique needs, build up critical thinking skills and improve analytical abilities, all while aligning our curriculum with the Common Core State Standards. In our Reading & Writing program, students are exposed to a multitude of literature genres, allowing them to strengthen their reading comprehension and writing skills, one step at a time. Sometimes, students will complain about their frustration in trying to get through a chapter or understand what they just read. On those occasions, we employ an array of reading strategies to help struggling readers get over these hurdles and improve their skills.

Typically, there are two types of reading strategies that we encourage our participants to learn: decoding strategies and comprehension strategies.

Decoding Strategies – When using this method, students are taught to use their phonemic awareness to work through words that are not readily familiar. By focusing on the sound of the language, they will learn how to pronounce a close enough representation of the word that they are struggling with, until they eventually learn how to pronounce it correctly. The best way to improve these skills is by exposing students to a list of the most common words in the English language, so they can improve their letter sounds. Learning experts believe that decoding words is a crucial first step in reading comprehension, so we work closely with students to ensure they understand the meaning and pronunciation of what they are reading before we ask them to tell us what a given story was about.

Comprehension Strategies – If students are struggling with understanding what they just read, it could be because they are not predicting, inferring, comparing, and contrasting. We help improve these skills by asking students to re-read the literature that they are struggling with, but we tell them to read with the explicit instruction to find relevant information that can help them reach more qualified conclusions. We will also ask for participants to re-state what they just read in a couple sentences and make predictions, which allows us to determine if they are grasping the concept or if they are still missing a few crucial pieces of information.

When it comes to improving reading and writing skills, our team of highly trained and qualified instructors will work students on an individual level, to ensure they get the time and attention they need to truly thrive and grow. If you would like to learn more about our acclaimed Reading & Writing program, we would love to hear from you. Simply fill out this contact form and our staff will reach out to answer all your questions and provide you with any further resources and assistance you need. 

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