Joanna and her team have helped Alexa with all the areas in reading where she was falling behind. Joanna makes a careful assessment of the gaps and relentlessly addressed those with the lessons. Joanna brings a lot of energy to her online Orton-Gillingham tutoring and manages to keep the attention of our daughter and even have fun even after a long day at school. We’ve seen extraordinary progress in our daughter’s reading and just as importantly, her confidence, because of her lessons with Joanna.
We couldn’t be happier with the progress our daughter has made with Joanna’s tutoring. Joanna has helped fill in all the gaps and holes in our daughter’s reading abilities that were unaddressed in a public school system that is not built to assist kids with reading disabilities. After working with Joanna twice a week over the last year our daughter is reading at just about grade level.
- Danielle, parent
Our son required extra attention in reading and writing. He was not getting the help he needed in a public school setting-he was four reading levels behind where he was supposed to be. Joanna has worked with our son for several years, in person and online, to improve his reading and inferencing skills. He is currently at grade level with both. Perhaps more importantly, whereas reading used to be a chore for him, he now likes reading books on his own now. Joanna keeps his tutoring time fun and engaging through games and funny stories. He never complains when it is time for him to meet Joanna online for tutoring. Thank you!
- Thad, parent
Joanna Brown has been working with our daughter Lexi for the last 4 years. Throughout this time she has been a consistent source of support and provided an excellent education. Our daughter has gone from an emergent reader in 2nd grade to reading on grade level by the end of 3rd grade. Our daughter is now in 5th grade and thriving in school. Lexi has grown in all areas of her literacy, particularly fluency, accuracy, and comprehension. Joanna is able to keep our daughter focused and engaged while working remotely. She is organized, prepared, and keeps lessons moving. She keeps our daughter engaged and on track with positive feedback. I have never heard Joanna lose her cool or patience. I highly recommend Joanna and feel incredibly lucky to have had her on our team.
- Julia, parent
Remote learning brought to my attention how deeply my daughter was struggling as an emergent reader. Working with Joanna via Zoom, 1-2 sessions per week has been a critical component in the development of her reading skills during this period. I’m very pleased with the progress my daughter has made since she started working with Joanna. Her stronger grasp of how letters and letter combinations correspond with sounds has given her a powerful tool for tackling text, and given her a greater confidence when picking up a new book to read. Joanna’s work with my daughter complements the instruction my daughter receives in school, reinforcing what she learns in class while addressing critical gaps. And importantly, my daughter loves the instructional games Joanna plays with her, delighting in showing off her new skills.
- Drew, parent
We highly recommend Joanna for online reading/writing tutoring without reservation. We found Joanna when our son was struggling with reading and writing in the middle of second grade. Joanna is incredibly thorough and was able to assess his challenges and pinpoint what he needed to work on right away. She got him up to grade level work quite quickly and has continued to support his work in third grade. He is now having a much better experience at school. My daughter started having similar trouble this year and Joanna also helped her make substantial progress within a few weeks. Joanna is a true specialist with incredible expertise in reading and writing. Most importantly Joanna has a wonderful personality for working with kids; she’s both fun and rigorous. It’s sort of magical how she’s able to keep them focused and interested in Zoom sessions. Her calm and supportive presence has helped both my kids thrive and keep up with their classes during the pandemic!
- Sasha, parent
Our son was struggling with learning to read. Joanna helped him with phonics, vowel and consonant pairings, and also gave him the tools to start reading. She used games and activities that helped him have fun while illustrating what she was trying to teach him. Joanna was really good at redirecting him when his focus was not there. Overall, he made great progress in the time that she worked with him. I would recommend Joanna as a tutor.
- Cynthia, parent
Joanna worked with both of my children, ages 6 and 9. I felt like my son needed extra support in reading comprehension and writing. My son’s writing and reading comprehension have really improved, and in particular, his writing has become more detailed and organized. He is now reading and understanding much more sophisticated materials. With my daughter, Joanna has really focused on her reading with great results-since working with Joanna her reading level has gone up dramatically! Joanna is calm, thoughtful, and creative. She is able to seamlessly engage with two children with very different learning styles. She is a pleasure to be around!
- Jennifer, parent