Award-Winning 1st Grade Common Core
Tutors
Award-Winning
1st Grade Common Core
Tutors
Private 1-on-1 tutoring, weekly live classes for academic support, test prep & enrichment, practice tests and diagnostics, and more to elevate grades and test scores.
Based on 3.4M Learner Ratings
UniversitiesSchools & Universities
DeliveredHours Delivered
ProficiencyGrowth in Proficiency
Who needs tutoring?
No obligation. Takes ~1 minute.

I am an interdisciplinary educator with an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. from Dartmouth College. My background is primarily in integrated arts learning and museum education and I specialize in visual arts, history and art history, and object-based learning. In all subjects, I take a creative, inquiry-based and learner-centered approach, designing opportunities for each unique individual to meet their learning goals.

I'm not tutoring or buried in my textbooks, you will either find me rock climbing at the Triangle Rock Club, playing Ultimate Frisbee, working on my car, or enjoying the great outdoors (beaches, mountains, forests--you name it, I love it). On rainy weekends I enjoy tinkering with computers and old electronics, playing Pokemon, or picking at my guitar.
I am a recent graduate from a masters program in biostatistics at Columbia University. I received my Bachelor of Arts in biological sciences, with a focus in neurobiology at Northwestern University. In August, I will be starting a doctoral program in biostatistics at NYU. I was a teaching assistant at Columbia University in my department and also have tutored graduate students and undergraduates privately as well. My primary areas of tutoring are math and statistics coursework in addition to math sections on standardized tests such as the GRE and GMAT. I am very passionate about helping students feel more confident and excited about math. In my spare time, I enjoy running, playing piano, and spending time with friends and family.
I am a graduate of Wesleyan University, where I received my Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with High Honors. With eight years of experience working in education, I've tutored students in math, science, history, and English, as well as helped students prepare for standardized tests. I've guided adults towards passing the US Citizenship Exam and taught English in India, where I lived for six months. Whenever I work with a student I personalize the lessons to fit their particular learning style, since I know every student is unique and having the right fit can make all the difference in making learning fun and effective. My strengths are tutoring the social sciences and humanities, as well as making math and standardized tests approachable to students that normally don't like those subjects. In my spare time I like traveling, spending time in the outdoors (climbing & backpacking), meditation, and playing soccer. Next fall I will be beginning my PhD in Education at Harvard University.
I'm Solange - a recent graduate from Harvard where I studied Sociology & Women's Studies. I've been tutoring for eight years now, and have worked with a wide range of ages and in a wide range of subjects. Some of my specialties are college prep/test taking II worked in the admissions office on campus); social sciences; and literature/writing.
I am a junior Mechanical Engineering major at Yale, and I hope to become a Naval Aviator after college. I am also a varsity sailor, and enjoy playing music with friends when I can get some free time. I have been tutoring my fellow students throughout my entire academic career, and I would best describe my tutoring style as one that adapts to each students' needs. For example, I have always tried to frame questions in a different way so that the student can better understand the question. Some students need visual representations of numbers and systems to understand them, and others benefit more by understanding the concepts behind each formula. I prefer to tutor in math and physics, and especially with real world application problems. I hope to help students improve their standardized test scores and their understanding of the math and sciences so that they can achieve their academic goals!
I am a graduate of Washington University in St Louis, where I received my Bachelor of Arts in History with minors in Humanities and Anthropology. Since graduation, I have worked as a tutor, teacher, and director of tutors at a charter public middle school in Boston. During this time I also received my Masters in Mild to Moderate Disabilities from Simmons College. I have worked extensively with students with a range of abilities, including students with specific learning disabilities, emotional impairments, dyslexia, and ADHD. My teaching experience has given me a deep understanding of the knowledge and habits essential to academic success and has given me the opportunity to hone a variety of strategies that ensure students at each level can achieve their academic goals. While I tutor a broad range of subjects, my favorite ones are Reading, Elementary/Middle School Math, History, and Test Prep. In my experience, tutoring is the most rewarding when a student has that "aha!" moment and achieves a new level of understanding and confidence in his/her abilities. I am a firm believer in the transformative power of education, and I see my role to be that of a facilitator and coach who is there to help the student reach his/her goals through individualized support and rigorous practice. In my free time, I enjoy reading, running, practicing my Spanish, and discovering new music. I am also an avid traveler and just got back from a 3 month trip to South America. I look forward to the opportunity to work with you!
I am a rising sophomore at Harvard College and am about to declare as a Mechanical Engineering concentrator, working towards a Bachelor of Science degree. I've always enjoyed sharing my knowledge with my peers and those around me and have done so in both formal and informal settings. I've been a tutor for both Math and Spanish programs in high school and enjoyed the strides I made with students. I am willing to tutor any subject I have a background in, but am strong in mathematics, the sciences, Spanish, history, writing, and ACT prep. I enjoy teaching mathematics most due to the joy I can see in children once they master a topic and can answer even pointed questions meant to stump them, and maybe even put their knowledge to real world use. As a tutor, I like to give a strong foundation to orient my student, and then gradually grant them more freedom and independence until they can feel themselves grasp the concept, pointing out pitfalls or common errors along the way; teachers who used these methods on me always left the most lasting impressions. Outside of my studies, I really enjoy listening to music, both old favorites and new interests, reading classics, and gaming/playing basketball with my friends.
I am proud to be a part of Varsity Tutors! I am originally from San Antonio, TX; I completed my undergraduate education at Rice University in Houston where I received a bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Currently, I am in my second year of medical school at Baylor College of Medicine.
I am an aspiring applied mathematician, with particular interest in image processing and climate science. I graduated in May 2017 from Washington University in St. Louis with a bachelor's in physics and mathematics, and am beginning a PhD program in September 2017 at the University of Chicago in Computational and Applied Mathematics. I've tutored introductory physics students for three years and enjoyed it thoroughly, as a chance to help other students while revisiting fundamental concepts to enhance my own knowledge. I'm eager to continue reaching out and helping students of math and physics to succeed and, furthermore, to appreciate the beauty and power of these subjects.
I am excited to be home and help fellow straphangers on their educational paths! My largest wealth of tutoring experience is in foreign languages--particularly French--but I also feel very comfortable editing essays of any kind and working through standardized test concepts. My availability is extremely flexible, and anywhere in New York City works for me. I look forward to working with you.
I am a graduate of the University of Chicago where I received my Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy. Currently, I am in the master's program at the University of New Mexico where I am continuing my education in philosophy. Ultimately, I hope to go on to earn a PhD in Philosophy so that I can continue engaging in my passions for learning and teaching. While in school, I have spent countless hours coaching high school speech and debate both in person and working online with students across the country. My focus in coaching has been to emphasize philosophy and critical thought to prepare students to think through novel arguments on their own. I am passionate about teaching and tutoring because I love seeing students learn to be intellectually independent and think through problems on their own terms by developing their critical thinking skills. I have devoted my life to education because I am passionate about it, and I try to share some of my passion for learning with the students I work with. I tutor all sorts of Standardized Tests, and I particularly enjoy working on logic-based problems like analogies and math sections. When I am not tutoring or reading for school, I enjoy strategy games (both board games and video games), listening to music, hiking, playing basketball, and just relaxing with friends.
Testimonials
Because the right 1st Grade Common Core tutor makes all the difference.
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Frequently Asked Questions
The biggest challenge areas are typically foundational math concepts like understanding place value and the relationship between tens and ones, which underpins all future arithmetic. In literacy, students often struggle with phonemic awareness and decoding multi-syllabic words, as well as understanding that letters represent sounds in a systematic way. Reading comprehension also becomes harder when students haven't yet automated decoding—they're using so much mental energy on sounding out words that they miss meaning. Personalized tutoring targets these specific gaps by breaking skills into smaller steps and building automaticity through repeated, focused practice.
Common Core emphasizes understanding WHY addition and subtraction work, not just memorizing facts. Students learn multiple strategies—like using number lines, ten-frames, and decomposing numbers—before relying on rote memorization. For example, instead of just learning 7 + 5 = 12, students understand they can break 5 into 3 + 2, add 7 + 3 to make 10, then add the remaining 2. This conceptual foundation is critical because it helps students solve unfamiliar problems and prevents the "I forgot the answer" trap. A tutor can help students who are stuck on traditional methods transition to these flexible strategies by using visual manipulatives and real-world contexts.
1st graders typically move from simple CVC words (cat, dog) to digraphs (ch, sh, th), then blends (bl, st, gr), and finally more complex patterns. Many students plateau at the digraph or blend stage because these require holding multiple sounds in working memory simultaneously. Common Core also emphasizes applying phonics to real reading and writing, not just isolated drills—so students need to blend sounds AND recognize that "ch" makes one sound, not two separate sounds. A tutor can slow down this progression, use multisensory techniques (tracing letters while saying sounds), and provide repeated exposure to the same patterns across different words and texts until automaticity develops.
1st graders transition from mark-making to forming letters correctly, spacing words, and beginning to use simple sentence structures with a capital letter and period. The challenge is coordinating fine motor skills (pencil grip, letter formation) with phonetic spelling and composition—it's cognitively demanding to think of an idea, spell it out, AND write it legibly all at once. Common Core expects students to write for different purposes (labels, lists, simple sentences), which means they need flexibility, not just one "correct" way. Tutors help by breaking writing into components: first sound-spelling practice, then sentence building with support (like sentence frames), then gradually releasing responsibility so students compose independently.
Fluency in 1st grade means reading connected text with accuracy, appropriate pace, and expression—typically 40-60 words correct per minute by end of year, depending on the assessment used. However, Common Core emphasizes that fluency serves comprehension; students should read smoothly enough that they can focus on meaning, not just decode quickly. Many 1st graders can decode individual words but read so slowly or choppily that they lose the thread of a story. Tutors assess fluency through running records (tracking errors and self-corrections) and help build it through repeated readings of engaging texts, modeling expressive reading, and ensuring phonetic foundations are solid so decoding becomes automatic.
An effective 1st Grade Common Core tutor should have deep knowledge of the Common Core standards themselves, understanding not just WHAT students should learn but WHY the standards are sequenced that way. They should also have training in structured literacy (phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension) and understand how these components interconnect—a tutor who only focuses on phonics without building comprehension will leave gaps. Experience with formative assessment is critical too; they need to identify exactly where a student's understanding breaks down (Is it letter-sound knowledge? Blending? Automaticity?) so they can target instruction precisely. Finally, patience with developmental variation is essential—1st graders have wide ranges in readiness, and a great tutor adjusts pacing and materials to meet each child where they are.
Number sense—understanding what numbers mean, their relationships, and how to use them flexibly—is foundational to all math success, yet some 1st graders haven't yet internalized that "5" can be represented as five fingers, five dots, or five objects. Without this, they're memorizing facts without understanding, which leads to confusion when problems are presented differently or when they need to solve unfamiliar problems. Common Core emphasizes building number sense through concrete manipulatives (blocks, counters), pictorial representations (drawings, ten-frames), and abstract symbols, in that order. A tutor can slow down this progression, use hands-on materials extensively, and connect numbers to real contexts ("You have 3 cookies and get 2 more—show me with blocks") until abstract number concepts click.
In literacy, you should see progress in phonemic awareness (identifying and manipulating sounds in words), letter-sound fluency (naming letters and their sounds quickly), and decodable text reading (accuracy and speed increasing over weeks). In math, expect to see students move from counting on fingers to using strategies like "make a ten," and from needing manipulatives to visualizing problems mentally. Concrete measures include running records showing fewer decoding errors, sight word fluency assessments showing faster recognition, and math fluency probes showing increased accuracy on addition/subtraction within 10. Most importantly, you'll notice students becoming more confident and willing to tackle unfamiliar problems rather than shutting down—that's a sign the foundations are solidifying and they're developing genuine competence, not just memorized answers.
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