Firstly, the tutors would like to thank parents/guardians for the terrific, continued support they have provided these past weeks in having their child attend their daily tutoring lessons. We appreciate the effort that has gone into ensuring they are seated in front of their computer each day, ready to work. Special thanks go to those parents/guardians who are managing more than one child’s education from their household, managing parental responsibilities on their own or caring for other family members who may be ill, all the while continuing to work at their jobs remotely. The tutoring team thanks you!

With some online tutoring experience behind us, the tutoring team has gained observations and would like to share these insights to help make online tutoring as successful as possible. This list of tips is the result of these observations.

Please reach out to your child’s tutor should you have any questions or concerns and please remember these are only suggestions. Online tutoring has been successful thus far, and these are simply suggestions to ‘fine-tune’ our sessions.

Thank you again for your support,

The KGMS Tutoring Team

Tips for Online Learning

Physical Environment Recommendations:
• Ideally, the student is seated comfortably at a desk or table with enough tabletop space to enable them to open their devices, notebooks, write, and do paperwork.
• To improve focus, it is best if the student is seated in an area free from visual distraction, for example, facing away from an open kitchen area.
• Remove distractions such as iPads and other hand-held electronic devices from the immediate vicinity.

Resources and Supplies:
• Headsets – for focus and hearing
• Be ready for the lesson with any materials required:
o Device – fully charged and/or plugged in
o Writing utensils
o Paper, journal, or a small whiteboard
o A glass of water (if preferred)

Routine Considerations:
• Set device alarms to alert the student 5 minutes before their lesson.
• Orton Gillingham tutoring is based on one-to-one instruction. The tutor facilitates very specific instruction and then elicits responses from the student. The nature of the lesson includes challenges and errors for the student. Working through these challenges and errors is a significant component of the learning process. For the student to stretch and improve upon the foundational skills being taught, it is essential that the student work independently with minimal support from parents/guardians.
• Orton Gillingham lessons are dependent on learning individual sounds, therefore, it is necessary for tutors to be able to clearly hear the sounds the student is making. Ideally, and it is understandable that there is some household sound that is not controllable in this situation, it is best if the student is working in quiet surroundings.