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Reading and Writing Specialist: phonics, ESL, essays, and SATs
Stephen S.

5.0 (607 ratings)

1,685 hours tutoring

Your first lesson is backed by our Good Fit Guarantee
Hourly Rate: $75
Contact Stephen
Response time: 1 hour
Stephen S.'s Photo
Stephen S.'s Photo Stephen S.'s Photo Stephen S.'s Photo

Reading and Writing Specialist: phonics, ESL, essays, and SATs
Reading and Writing Specialist: phonics, ESL, essays, and SATs
Stephen S.

5.0 (607 ratings)

1,685 hours tutoring

Your first lesson is backed by our Good Fit Guarantee
5.0 (607 ratings)

1,685 hours tutoring

Your first lesson is backed by our Good Fit Guarantee
Meet Stephen S.
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About Stephen

Bio

I specialize in one-on-one and small group tutoring to help students read and write more effectively, acquire and refine English or Spanish language skills, prepare for standardized tests, or understand and write about history and science. I am also a professional editor available to help you plan, draft, revise, and edit work of any length.

I earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in History from UC-Berkeley and UCLA and was a National Merit Scholar. When I started teaching high school...

I specialize in one-on-one and small group tutoring to help students read and write more effectively, acquire and refine English or Spanish language skills, prepare for standardized tests, or understand and write about history and science. I am also a professional editor available to help you plan, draft, revise, and edit work of any length.

I earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in History from UC-Berkeley and UCLA and was a National Merit Scholar. When I started teaching high school social studies, I saw that some of my students already knew how to do college-preparatory work, while others lacked foundational skills. I adapted the program to meet them where they were, and helped them be successful. I also taught SAT preparation courses in the evenings, and developed a wide range of techniques to help students boost their scores. Student success requires effort, and as a parent, sports coach, and former teacher, I have empathy for students, but won’t back down when it come to helping them reach their goals.

I also edited and wrote books to support literacy for struggling readers. I base my phonics instruction on the systematic, sequential approach that helps students of all ability levels acquire early reading skills.

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Education

University of California, Berkeley
History
Northwestern University
Masters
University of California, Los Angeles
Masters

Policies

  • Hourly Rate: $75
  • Rate details: Groups: add $25/hr for each additional student.
  • Lesson cancellation: 24 hours notice required

  • No background check

  • Your first lesson is backed by our Good Fit Guarantee

Schedule

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Sat

Approved Subjects

Corporate Training

Grammar,

Grammar

I taught writing as part of a social studies curriculum I designed for at-risk teens. Earlier, I coached high school and college students in planning and improving their essays. For 15 years, I have edited educational content for students of all levels.
Proofreading

Proofreading

I edited K-12 educational materials for 13 years, supporting authors in content development, line editing, and final-stage proofreading. I can show you how to raise your grammar and syntax knowledge quickly to support self-editing.

Elementary Education

Elementary Math,

Elementary Math

I run an in-person tutoring center for PK-12 students. I help elementary school students with all math concepts and skills from counting and number sense to multiplication, division, fractions, and pre-Algebra. I also train and manage assistants helping math students.
Grammar,

Grammar

I taught writing as part of a social studies curriculum I designed for at-risk teens. Earlier, I coached high school and college students in planning and improving their essays. For 15 years, I have edited educational content for students of all levels.
Phonics,

Phonics

I developed phonics books for an educational publisher for over a decade, and have a deep knowledge of word categories, sound progressions, and how to measure student accomplishment. I taught phonics to my own children, tutored upper elementary students in reading, and taught study skills in secondary school social studies classes. I'm multilingual (English native), and live in a multilingual household, so I'm sensitive to English learning issues for students of all ages.
Reading,

Reading

I taught reading comprehension to at-risk teens as part of a social studies curriculum, and tutored SAT Reading (along with Math). My first publishing work was in K-12 test development, requiring strong understanding of how to assess comprehension. I also edited and wrote educational materials for the special education market for 11 years.
Vocabulary

English

English,

English

English has always been a strong suit for me, but I understand how it can be a struggle, in part because I spent many years studying other languages. Another source of insight is my experience teaching a wide range of students. Furthermore, for over a decade, I developed and edited educational materials for young people, struggling readers, and professionals.
Grammar,

Grammar

I taught writing as part of a social studies curriculum I designed for at-risk teens. Earlier, I coached high school and college students in planning and improving their essays. For 15 years, I have edited educational content for students of all levels.
Proofreading,

Proofreading

I edited K-12 educational materials for 13 years, supporting authors in content development, line editing, and final-stage proofreading. I can show you how to raise your grammar and syntax knowledge quickly to support self-editing.
Reading,

Reading

I taught reading comprehension to at-risk teens as part of a social studies curriculum, and tutored SAT Reading (along with Math). My first publishing work was in K-12 test development, requiring strong understanding of how to assess comprehension. I also edited and wrote educational materials for the special education market for 11 years.
SAT Reading,

SAT Reading

I earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of California. Later, I taught social studies and writing in high schools, and SAT preparation with several companies. I can help with Reading, Math, and Writing skills.
SAT Writing,

SAT Writing

Three years of experience as a private SAT Writing tutor, fifteen years as a full-time professional editor, and 25 years overall teaching and tutoring, mainly in language arts and social studies.
Writing,

Writing

I edited and rewrote educational materials for 15 years, both fiction and nonfiction. Before working in publishing, I coached secondary school writing skills, then integrated the techniques I learned into a social studies curriculum and a practical course in business writing. As an editor and as a teacher, I focused on helping people to write clearly through modeling and practice.
Vocabulary

History

Social Studies,

Social Studies

After earning an MA in history from UCLA, I taught social studies and history for five years, then developed reading and social studies assessments and K-12 classroom materials for 15 years. I believe it takes good, basic education in social studies to understand each other and participate in a democracy.
World History

World History

I earned Master of Arts degrees in History from UCLA and Northwestern University, both focusing on African history, with additional teaching responsibilities in African, Chinese, and Japanese history. I also taught world history in California high schools for four years, developing a two-year curriculum in world history for a new charter school.

Homeschool

English,

English

English has always been a strong suit for me, but I understand how it can be a struggle, in part because I spent many years studying other languages. Another source of insight is my experience teaching a wide range of students. Furthermore, for over a decade, I developed and edited educational materials for young people, struggling readers, and professionals.
Reading,

Reading

I taught reading comprehension to at-risk teens as part of a social studies curriculum, and tutored SAT Reading (along with Math). My first publishing work was in K-12 test development, requiring strong understanding of how to assess comprehension. I also edited and wrote educational materials for the special education market for 11 years.
SAT Reading,

SAT Reading

I earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of California. Later, I taught social studies and writing in high schools, and SAT preparation with several companies. I can help with Reading, Math, and Writing skills.
Writing

Writing

I edited and rewrote educational materials for 15 years, both fiction and nonfiction. Before working in publishing, I coached secondary school writing skills, then integrated the techniques I learned into a social studies curriculum and a practical course in business writing. As an editor and as a teacher, I focused on helping people to write clearly through modeling and practice.

Most Popular

English,

English

English has always been a strong suit for me, but I understand how it can be a struggle, in part because I spent many years studying other languages. Another source of insight is my experience teaching a wide range of students. Furthermore, for over a decade, I developed and edited educational materials for young people, struggling readers, and professionals.
Reading,

Reading

I taught reading comprehension to at-risk teens as part of a social studies curriculum, and tutored SAT Reading (along with Math). My first publishing work was in K-12 test development, requiring strong understanding of how to assess comprehension. I also edited and wrote educational materials for the special education market for 11 years.
Writing

Writing

I edited and rewrote educational materials for 15 years, both fiction and nonfiction. Before working in publishing, I coached secondary school writing skills, then integrated the techniques I learned into a social studies curriculum and a practical course in business writing. As an editor and as a teacher, I focused on helping people to write clearly through modeling and practice.

Special Needs

Phonics

Phonics

I developed phonics books for an educational publisher for over a decade, and have a deep knowledge of word categories, sound progressions, and how to measure student accomplishment. I taught phonics to my own children, tutored upper elementary students in reading, and taught study skills in secondary school social studies classes. I'm multilingual (English native), and live in a multilingual household, so I'm sensitive to English learning issues for students of all ages.

Summer

Reading,

Reading

I taught reading comprehension to at-risk teens as part of a social studies curriculum, and tutored SAT Reading (along with Math). My first publishing work was in K-12 test development, requiring strong understanding of how to assess comprehension. I also edited and wrote educational materials for the special education market for 11 years.
Writing

Writing

I edited and rewrote educational materials for 15 years, both fiction and nonfiction. Before working in publishing, I coached secondary school writing skills, then integrated the techniques I learned into a social studies curriculum and a practical course in business writing. As an editor and as a teacher, I focused on helping people to write clearly through modeling and practice.

Test Preparation

SAT Reading,

SAT Reading

I earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of California. Later, I taught social studies and writing in high schools, and SAT preparation with several companies. I can help with Reading, Math, and Writing skills.
SAT Writing

SAT Writing

Three years of experience as a private SAT Writing tutor, fifteen years as a full-time professional editor, and 25 years overall teaching and tutoring, mainly in language arts and social studies.

Examples of Expertise

Stephen has provided examples of their subject expertise by answering 9 questions submitted by students on Wyzant’s Ask an Expert.

See all of Stephen ’s answers ›

Ratings and Reviews

Rating

5.0 (607 ratings)
5 star
(598)
4 star
(9)
3 star
(0)
2 star
(0)
1 star
(0)

Reviews

Steve is the best!

Steve is totally tuned in to what my daughter needs to work on. And she loves working with him. She is a fifth grader, mostly working on spelling. We will continue to work with Steve this year.

Kendi, 60 lessons with Stephen

Stephen is very personable and highly skilled instructor.

He quickly built rapport with our student and then proceeded to help him with his reading comprehension. Using small, bite sized paragraphs he led the student gently and patiently through the material. Once completed, the student remarked that he really felt like this training helped him.

Dawn, 7 lessons with Stephen

Knowledgeable and patient tutor

Stephen's patience and calm demeanor was amazing for my 7 year old writing resistant child. He broke down the goals so that she could easily grasp how to write without becoming anxious in the process.

Devon, 5 lessons with Stephen

Excellent tutor

Stephen is a great teacher for my 5th grade son Luc. He really works with him on the details of sentence writing, grammar, comprehension etc. He provides on topic homework each week which is the only homework my son has for school. I am grateful we found Stephen and that he can fill in some of the missing holes from his current district education.

Katchen, 15 lessons with Stephen

Fist class experience

Today is my son first class with Stephen, Stephen spent time to get to know about the kid. He did know which area my kid need to improve, and he already setup plan how to help him. He is patient, experienced tutor. He know how to encourage my kid to participate. And my son said it is interesting class. That is all about the first class experience, expect more good experience for coming class. Thank you Stephen.

Yanna, 1 lesson with Stephen

Knowledgeable teacher!

Stephen helped me to restructure my essay and clarified my wording. He gave a lot of advice for my essay that was applicable to ones I may write in the future.

Juun, 1 lesson with Stephen

Very informative

Stephen went over reading comprehension for SAT He was very knowledgeable in this field. He gave us great feedback after the lesson We will continue our tutor with Stephen Than you

Deniece, 25 lessons with Stephen

Knowledgeable, profesional and efficient

It is very gratifying to see the joy and confidence in your daughter’s face after completing a lesson. I sincerely thank Stephen for his excellent work. My daughter feels so happy for having found in Stephen the perfect help fir her college essay. He was very patient and detailed and knew how to clearly explain each point and corrections.

Evangelina, 3 lessons with Stephen

Great Teacher

Stephen helped me with putting my ideas, thoughts and emotions appropriately on paper. I explained a situation and he was able to help me formulate a plan to write it out. Great session and I look forward to the next one. I feel so much better knowing someone can help me with writing. I feel like I can breathe a little.

Starr, 2 lessons with Stephen

Fantastic!

Stephen provided thorough explanation of grammar and solid writing guidelines! Very friendly and easy to understand. I will definitely re-schedule.

Nicole, 1 lesson with Stephen
Hourly Rate: $75
Response time: 1 hour
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