Ellen McCann

Orton-Gillingham Reading/Language Tutor

In my tutoring work with children with dyslexia and other language-based learning challenges, my focus is on reading and spelling skills using the Orton-Gillingham approach — a structured, highly respected alphabetic-phonetic system that employs visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic pathways to learning.

I prepare an individualized, diagnostic, and prescriptive tutoring lesson plan for each one-on-one session with my students, focusing on the areas he or she most needs to work on and incorporating reading and spelling skills throughout the lesson. Tutoring can often be arranged during the academic school day at a child’s school, and/or during after-school hours at my tutoring office or a student’s home.

In addition to working as a private tutor, I have worked at the Carroll School in Waltham, MA tutoring students during the school year and in the school’s Summer@Carroll program. I graduated from the Carroll School’s Garside Institute for Teacher Training and have my associate level certification from the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators. I have completed additional trainings on upper-level O-G work, on screening and intervention at the Tufts Center for Reading and Language Research, and on the RAVE-O fluency and comprehension program. I have also worked with children on reading and writing skills at the Natick Public Schools. Before that, I worked in educational publishing as an editor in the School Division and the College Division at Houghton Mifflin, and as a grant writer and researcher at a social services nonprofit, and as a freelance writer and editor. I’m also a graduate of Brown University.  On a personal note, I am married and a mother of two adult children (my daughter is a graduate of Wellesley College and is now in a Masters of Social Work program, and my son is a graduate of Yale University and is now in a PhD program in engineering/robotics).

In my tutoring work with children with dyslexia and other language-based learning challenges, my focus is on reading and spelling skills using the Orton-Gillingham approach — a structured, highly respected alphabetic-phonetic system that employs visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic pathways to learning.

I prepare an individualized, diagnostic, and prescriptive tutoring lesson plan for each one-on-one session with my students, focusing on the areas he or she most needs to work on and incorporating reading and spelling skills throughout the lesson. Tutoring can often be arranged during the academic school day at a child’s school, and/or during after-school hours at my tutoring office or a student’s home.

In addition to working as a private tutor, I have worked at the Carroll School in Waltham, MA tutoring students during the school year and in the school’s Summer@Carroll program. I graduated from the Carroll School’s Garside Institute for Teacher Training and have my associate level certification from the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators. I have completed additional trainings on upper-level O-G work, on screening and intervention at the Tufts Center for Reading and Language Research, and on the RAVE-O fluency and comprehension program. I have also worked with children on reading and writing skills at the Natick Public Schools. Before that, I worked in educational publishing as an editor in the School Division and the College Division at Houghton Mifflin, and as a grant writer and researcher at a social services nonprofit, and as a freelance writer and editor. I’m also a graduate of Brown University.  On a personal note, I am married and a mother of two adult children (my daughter is a graduate of Wellesley College and is now in a Masters of Social Work program, and my son is a graduate of Yale University and is now in a PhD program in engineering/robotics).