During an initial session, a tutor will assess your student's current reading level, identify specific strengths and areas for growth, and discuss your goals. This might include evaluating phonics skills, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension strategies. The tutor will then create a personalized plan to address your student's needs and explain how sessions will be structured going forward.

Expert tutors teach evidence-based comprehension strategies like predicting, questioning, visualizing, and summarizing—skills that help students understand and retain what they read. Tutors also use guided practice with texts at your student's level, ask thoughtful questions to deepen understanding, and help students make connections between stories and their own experiences. With consistent, personalized instruction, students develop confidence and independence as readers.

Fluency is the ability to read smoothly and with appropriate expression, while comprehension is understanding what you've read. Both are essential—students who read fluently have more mental energy available for understanding, while students who comprehend well are more motivated to read. Tutors address both by using repeated readings, modeling expressive reading, and pairing fluency practice with comprehension activities so students see how these skills work together.

Rather than memorizing isolated word lists, tutors help students encounter new vocabulary in context through reading and discussion. They teach word families, prefixes and suffixes, and strategies for figuring out unknown words from context clues. Tutors also encourage students to use new words in their own writing and speaking, which strengthens retention and helps vocabulary become part of their active language use.

Every student progresses at their own pace, but research on 1-on-1 instruction shows that personalized, focused tutoring can accelerate learning significantly. Most students begin showing improvements in confidence and skills within a few weeks, though building strong foundational skills takes consistent practice over time. A tutor can set realistic milestones with you and track progress regularly so you see exactly where your student is advancing.

Varsity Tutors connects you with expert tutors who have strong backgrounds in elementary education, reading instruction, or related fields. Many have teaching credentials, specialized training in literacy instruction, or extensive tutoring experience. When you connect with a tutor, you'll learn about their specific qualifications and experience working with students at your child's reading level.

Simply reach out to Varsity Tutors and share information about your student's reading level, goals, and schedule. We'll match you with a tutor who has expertise in elementary reading and availability that works for your family. You can then meet with the tutor to discuss your student's needs and begin personalized instruction right away.