Private Tutoring Archives

Understanding the Value of Tutoring with My Learning Springboard

February 27, 2024 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Differentiated Instruction

With expertise differentiating for a wide range of learners, our private tutoring and test preparation work with families is designed to meet the needs of neurotypical and neurodiverse learners. Our faculty includes Learning Specialists, Classroom Teachers, Professors, and Subject-Matter Experts with varied backgrounds and cross-training. Moreover, our private tutoring and test preparation services are designed to give families top priority with our Leadership Team through in-person appointments, phone or video conferences, and e-mail.

From Remediation to Acceleration

From “Back To Basics” instruction to “Accelerated and Enrichment Teaching”, our skillful faculty provides direct instruction in person or remotely depending on a family’s preference and geographic location. All tutoring and test preparation efforts benefit from a team-based approach internally in addition to collaboration with outside professionals at a family’s preference. This internal, team-based approach leverages our deep knowledge of curriculum and instructional design, specialized instruction, and educational psychology to consistently create successful outcomes. And all work provides a vehicle for the authentic development of executive function skills provided the intention is set with explicit instruction.

To address skill gaps and/or accelerate instruction, private tutoring is the most effective solution. Meeting once weekly or twice weekly is most typical. High-dosage tutoring is generally defined as intensive 1:1 tutoring at least 3x per week, or for about 50 hours over a semester.

For students with reading and writing challenges needing Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, or PAF curricula in addition to other scaffolded instruction in math and other subject areas, we have this expertise. And for our students who don’t necessarily need this specific instruction, they benefit from our specialized training, too.

Benefits of Tutoring with My Learning Springboard

Direct partnering with Brad Hoffman and Faya Hoffman, the only Board Certified Educational Planners in NYC at the K-12 Level (located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan), and both of whom are Learning Specialists with expertise in Curriculum and Instructional Design.

Notably, Board Certification through AICEP is the highest level of credentialing in the Educational Consulting space. It requires a significant commitment to continuing education and professional development, demonstrated educational leadership, and regular school visits and engagement with school professionals. Re-certification occurs every 5 years, and Brad and Faya were just re-certified this month.

Moreover, Brad is a Literacy Specialist and Elementary Math and Science Specialist; Faya is a Literacy Specialist. In partnership with our faculty, we create a teaching team for each family, and we leverage our deep knowledge of various school settings (including mainstream, specialized, and therapeutic) and curricula in order to offer a unique perspective for strategic planning purposes.

Developing, implementing, and/or managing targeted plans for remediation, acceleration, and test preparation as well as executive function coaching.

Brad and Faya’s collaboration and instructional coaching with faculty members for all private tutoring and test preparation programs.

Unlimited availability for parents, guardians, or caregivers with Brad and Faya, during normal business hours, regarding instructional matters related to tutoring or test preparation programs (scheduling for calls and meetings is required).

Access for families to our integrated services and instruction with our highly-credentialed, skillful, and multidisciplinary faculty in order to meet the diverse needs of each student or siblings within a family.

Teacher access to our Virtual Library of professional resources and curated curricula material.

Collaboration with parents, school faculty, and related service providers per a family’s preference.

Flexibility with in-person or remote instruction as well as teacher choice for each family.

All tutoring and test preparation programs intentionally integrate executive function skill building.

Support with referrals to related service professionals, including psychologists, psychiatrists, speech therapists, OTs, etc.

Review of school report cards and progress reports as they become available quarterly or semesterly for strategic planning purposes.

Initial support with accommodations approval processes and planning (more complex planning efforts and appeals processes require separate, ad hoc consultation).

20% reduction on ad hoc consultation (1-10 hours) while engaged in tutoring and test preparation services, which may be related to planning for parent-teacher conferences, navigating interactions and requests with school administration or classroom teachers, crisis management (e.g. disciplinary action, medical leaves), and strategizing for upcoming processes, such as school transitions or college planning.

Privacy, discretion and confidentiality within our boutique, multidisciplinary educational consulting firm.

Scheduling A Planning Meeting

Whatever your need or wonder may be, please don’t hesitate to contact us. An initial planning meeting is usually the best way to get started. These meetings can be 30, 45, or 60 minutes by Zoom, by phone, or in person per a family’s preference. A single planning meeting allows us to talk more substantively about your family’s specific needs, priorities, and goals so that we can determine possible next steps. We’re committed to developing unique solutions for unique learners!

We look forward to hearing from you!

Warm regards,
Brad Hoffman and Faya Hoffman,
Co-Founders and Learning Concierges, My Learning Springboard

Math Specialists

January 24, 2024

At My Learning Springboard, our Math Specialists and Learning Specialists support students of all ages from preschool through high school and beyond. We focus on developing conceptual understanding, logical reasoning, and problem solving strategies along with strong number sense, mental math skills, and mathematical reasonableness. Moreover, we tailor instruction to the meet the needs of all types of learners, including students with learning challenges, such as ADHD or dyscalculia, and/or anxiety related to math performance.

We help students achieve success by taking an individual’s learning profile into careful consideration in order to differentiate our instructional approach while also choosing materials that complement the existing school program. For younger learners, we typically find success by first introducing concepts concretely, then progressing to pictorial representations, and finally moving into the abstract representation of math problems. We may employ a similar sequence for older learners if they encounter conceptual challenges in more advanced math.

Our Math Specialists often conduct comprehensive math diagnostic assessments at the beginning of our work together in order to fully assess a student’s performance level. We use these types of diagnostic tools when addressing both remediation and acceleration in order to develop an appropriate and targeted instructional plan. Our approach to diagnostic work is differentiated depending on the particular circumstance and purpose.

Our diagnostic tools, preK through 12, are informed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Principles and Standards, Common Core State Standards, and NYS Next Generation Learning Standards; and we utilize materials and research from known math experts, including Kathy Richardson, Marilyn Burns, and Dr. John A. Van de Walle. Our math work is also informed by the CTP content standards from the Educational Records Bureau (ERB) and IB Standards, as appropriate, for students at schools making use of these assessment tools and/or curricula.

Popular Math Programs

Remediation or Acceleration: preK-5

Counting and Cardinality
Basic Facts and Computation (math fluency), including addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
Number Operations and Algebraic Thinking, including fractions and long division
Measurement and Data (representation and analysis), including graphing
Geometry
Problem Solving and Reasoning

Standards for Mathematical Practice

Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
Model with mathematics.
Use appropriate tools strategically.
Attend to precision.
Look for and make use of structure.
Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

$Math Center Manipulatives$

We also help families to create math centers in their homes. We select age-appropriate math manipulatives and resources that support classroom and tutoring instruction. We also teach parents and/or caregivers how to use these resources more comfortably. Since students are used to accessing these materials in their classrooms, it makes sense to have them available at home when completing homework or exploring mathematical ideas. Materials are divided by primary grades (K-2) and intermediate grades (3-5), and these materials may benefit older learners as well. Having a complete math center in your home is a strategic investment in your child’s math education.

Please contact our office for more information.

High-Dosage Tutoring

November 27, 2023 Brad Hoffman

Following several years of significant operational disruptions, schools are focused on stabilizing routines and expectations and reconciling underdeveloped skills given the overwhelming data on pandemic learning loss experienced to some degree for the majority of learners in both private and public schools. In a recent research brief from July 2023, NWEA estimates that the average student needs 4.1 additional months of reading instruction and 4.5 additional months of math instruction in order to catch up to pre-pandemic levels. Nationally, the average 8th grader is one full year below grade level.

The antidote to skill gaps is high-dosage tutoring, which is generally defined as intensive 1:1 tutoring at least 3x per week, or for about 50 hours over a semester. We’ve seen an increase in the requests for high-dosage tutoring over the past 18 months, and this trend has continued this fall.

Our conversations with parents and school faculty in addition to our own observations confirm the following concerns across the curriculum:

Writing skills across all grade levels, and for all writing purposes (e.g narrative, informational, and persuasive), needs improvement. Subcategories of writing work include:
- Prewriting strategies
- Basic and advanced grammar and syntax
- Sentence fluency and varying sentence structures
- Transition words and phrases
- Sequencing and chunking ideas to create effective, multi-paragraph pieces
- Incorporating quotations and citing references
- Systematically editing and proofreading
- Incorporating stronger vocabulary
- Improving close reading skills, including note taking, annotating, and properly outlining, is a common need for students in the upper elementary, middle, and high school divisions.
Decoding, reading fluency, and comprehension work with students in elementary and middle school, which includes effectively summarizing texts and determining / justifying the main idea of a non-fiction text.
Automaticity of basic math facts (all four operations).
Work with fractions is complex and spans common fractions, decimal fractions and percentages. We see a lot of skill gaps here.
Executive function skill building is needed, particularly as it relates to work prioritization, goal setting, time management, minimizing distractions, and developing enhanced metacognition so that a student learns to set themself up for optimal performance under particular circumstances.

As a result of academic doubt, we’ve seen a return to admissions testing requirements at most NYC day schools and some highly selective boarding schools in addition to many colleges. Despite the continued use of “test-optional” language at various schools, this testing is NOT really optional for everyone. It remains a filter. We know that media buzz can sometimes be confusing and misleading, and this is absolutely true as it relates to test-optional policies for the majority of our students. We continue to help our students achieve success with school and college admissions because we continue to take the harder, more steady road exceeding expectations everywhere we can. Submitting strong test scores continues to be a way to demonstrate academic mastery in a climate where there is considerable doubt. Moreover, “holistic reviews” by admissions committees take each student’s specific context into consideration, so “being competitive” is relative to each student’s situation and environment.

Of note, the average baseline performance we’re seeing for admissions testing is lower than the average performance we saw prior to the pandemic. This data is reinforced by the lower scores we’ve seen at large on private school achievement test data, such as CTPs or MAP testing. Therefore, students engaged in ISEE, SSAT, ACT or SAT work have the specific advantage of auditing prerequisite skills and systematically closing any gaps before moving onto accelerated instruction.

With most planning and establishing new routines, it’s important to not let perfect be the enemy of good. Plans can always be tweaked or recalibrated as more information becomes available. With that in mind, if you have any questions or concerns about your child’s academic performance, or if you have an interest in pursuing a private school or college admissions process, please contact us to schedule an appointment for further discussion without delay!

By Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed., Board Certified Educational Planner, and Faya Hoffman, M.A., Board Certified Educational Planner

Tutoring As A Springboard To Achievement

August 21, 2023 Brad Hoffman

You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.
~Clay P. Bedford

Learning is a lifelong journey, and it should be an exciting one! Can you remember your favorite teacher? Tour guide? Facilitator? What made that experience so memorable? For me, it always comes down to relationships and connections. Passionate, engaging teachers tend to have passionate, engaged students. A master teacher does really make a difference.

With the help of a great teacher, mentor or coach, we can push ourselves that much farther and realize our full potential. It isn’t about competition with others; it’s about self-empowerment, self-motivation, curiosity, and a desire to achieve for one’s own gratification. A master teacher is invaluable at all stages of life.

Tutoring comes in all shapes and sizes. Beyond school admissions and test preparation, we generally work with families for one of three reasons:

A student is struggling in a particular subject area and needs help to fill a learning gap or reinforce material. This work may include working with a Learning Specialist, Reading Specialist, or Math Specialist.
A student is seeking additional challenge or wants to pursue a specific curiosity with an enrichment teacher or academic coach.
A student needs help to optimize their approach with organizational and study skills, thus executive function coaching is needed.

Ultimately, the goal is to help students develop effective studying strategies that will lead to self-empowerment, improved confidence, and greater independence. Whether the focus is support or enrichment, tutoring may be short-term to jump start the process or long-term to provide more ongoing instruction.

In the case of short-term tutoring, students often need a teacher, mentor or coach to help them springboard into success. A common question is “How long does it take to create a habit?” There are varying opinions ranging from 21-66 days. But the bottom line is that consistency and practice are needed for any habit or behavior change to stick. This idea applies to tutoring as well. If a student needs support to develop organizational systems, study habits, or new behaviors, then tutoring may be a short-term engagement to help get on the right path and take off.

Tutoring may also be short-term if the learning goal is narrow. For example, a student may want to spend several sessions with a language tutor getting ready for an upcoming vacation, business trip or study abroad experience. Or a student may want to meet with a museum educator or historian to help bring a historical unit to life. Other students have sought out short-term support to prepare for a specific exam or to expedite progress in a particular area.

Longer term tutoring may begin as specific academic support but then evolve into broader academic coaching. Once the relationship is developed, our students often request that the tutor stay on as a resource for continued support, enrichment, motivation and structured practice. We’re so impressed with how much ownership our students assume. We have students as young as fifth and sixth graders that directly manage scheduling, send text messages when they have questions and prepare the agenda and work priorities for the upcoming session.

As a teacher, you can choose to be the “Guide on the Side” or the “Sage on Stage.” Both have their time and place, but more often than not we look to be the “Guide on the Side” because that means our students are equal partners in the process. As a classroom teacher, my colleagues and I used to say that an “A” has 3 points: 1) the student’s accountability, 2) the teacher’s accountability, and 3) the parent’s accountability. Another way of saying this is “my job, your job, our job.” When all 3 points are working together, a student’s achievement is unstoppable!

By Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed.
Board Certified Educational Planner and Learning Specialist
My Learning Springboard, Inc.

The Best Approach to SSAT or ISEE Preparation

May 21, 2023 Brad Hoffman

Most competitive private day schools and many selective boarding schools are back to requiring standardized testing as part of the application process to grades 3 through 11. And whether testing is required or not, test-optional policies ought to be considered cautiously given holistic review application processes. We strongly recommend planning to exceed any minimum admissions requirements in order to be more competitive, and it’s likely that at least 1 or more schools on your working school list with require standardized testing. Certain schools require completion of their own placement tests in addition to, or in lieu of, standardized testing.

To this end, many families wonder about the best approach to ISEE or SSAT preparation. For any grade level transition between grades 5 and 11, we recommend starting about a year in advance with an eye toward official testing in November and December. While test preparation and school planning can certainly feel overwhelming, there are many factors within a family’s control, and starting early provides a structure that’s comforting for both children and parents. By initiating the SSAT or ISEE planning process about a year in advance, families stand to create the greatest number of school options.

Many families currently enrolled in private schools with CTP testing assume that CTP testing and ISEE testing are very similar, but they’re not. While they do share the same publisher, the ERB, the tests serve different purposes and have different formats. The CTP is designed as a grade level achievement test, whereas the ISEE (as well as the SSAT) is designed as an above-grade level measure:

The primary level ISEE is designed for admissions to grades 3 (PL3) and 4 (PL4).
The lower level ISEE test is designed for admissions to grades 5 and 6, and it covers math content and vocabulary well through 7th grade.
The middle level ISEE test is designed for admissions to grades 7 and 8, and it covers math content and vocabulary well through 9th grade.
The upper level ISEE test is designed for admissions to grades 9 to 11, and it covers math content and vocabulary well through 10th grade.

The best way to approach SSAT and ISEE preparation is to start early. We strongly recommend diagnostic testing during the winter/spring term so that we are able to better assess instructional needs and pacing over the spring, summer and fall. Sometimes educational testing is needed, too, in order to explore a suspected learning disability and appropriate accommodations. This educational testing should be completed during the spring or summer.

The best approach to SSAT and ISEE preparation is content-based, which means remediating and/or accelerating instruction for each student with the goal of achieving mastery. Surely there are test-taking strategies, but choosing an appropriate strategy generally still requires an understanding of the content. Simply “working backwards” or using “process of elimination” isn’t effective if a student doesn’t have a starting point or means of assessing the reasonableness of an answer choice.

We also value an approach to SSAT and ISEE preparation that focuses on the bigger, more important picture of middle and high school readiness. This readiness includes mastery of a certain body of content as well as a skill set around managing the workload itself (executive functions) and persisting through a difficult task and process (grit). Since the testing has to be done in most cases, it’s best to take advantage of all the learning opportunities related to the testing experience.

There’s also family debate about SSAT vs. ISEE testing, and some families feel they need to prepare for both, which isn’t necessary or advisable. Most NYC independent schools AND boarding schools accept both ISEE and SSAT scores. There are three main factors to consider when making the choice: 1) The ISEE has no wrong answer penalty, and 2) The ISEE presents sentence completions vs. analogies, and 3) The SSAT presents 5 answer choices, whereas the ISEE only presents 4 answer choices. We’re happy to discuss these factors further as they relate to your family’s situation.

For 7th grade students interested in specialized public high schools, there is SHSAT testing to manage as well. Historically this testing happened in October, but this past school year, it occurred on November 17, 2022. The previous school year, this testing occurred in January 2021. We do not yet have confirmation of the test date for Fall 2023.

Are you ready to start planning?

Please contact our office.