Online tutoring offers many advantages:
- No commute for parents
- We can reach students who live far away and have trouble accessing in-person tutors
- Students can stay in the comfort of their own home, familiar surroundings, often reducing anxiety
- We can access a wide range of virtual games and activities to practice skills
KoalaGO for Online Tutors
I use KoalaGo (instead of Zoom) for online tutoring and love it! Give the free version and try if you are bored or frustrated with Zoom. Zoom is, after all, an online meeting platform, not necessarily intended for tutoring. KoalaGO is made by tutors, for tutors, and works with tutors to optimize new features.
There are many amazing and creative features with KoalaGO, but the number one feature that got me interested at first was independent mouse control. My students and I each control our own mouse and cursor, so unlike Zoom, there is no conflict or struggle when we are both trying to share one mouse control – rather important when teaching with multi-sensory methods and students must to be able to manipulate objects on-screen and write.
In the video below, I demonstrate how teachers can prepare a lesson plan and use a 3D KoalaGO playground I created to engage students with built-in brain breaks throughout the lesson. (Tutors and students each have their own avatar in KoalaGO Playgrounds, and can move, look, and build independently (unless the tutor restricts student controls in order to maintain focus on an activity).
I tutor students who need intervention and remediation in reading, spelling, and writing using EBLI methods through KoalaGo and I tutor students needing support or intervention in numeracy with multi-sensory math using KoalaGO, as well. Below are some screenshot examples of what KoalaGO looks like for online multi-sensory math tutoring:
Online Resources for Barton Tutors
You can download this FREE Google slide deck with “Adventure Progress Path” boards for Barton Books 3 and 4. Students can track their progress in each Barton Book by moving their avatar on the board after completing each lesson, and get a sense of what’s in store for future learning.
For teaching high-frequency “sight words” or “irregular words” online, I have created my own digital resource that combines Orthographic Mapping, the Barton method, Structured Word Inquiry, and mnemonic devices. These cards align with the Barton Sight Word lists for each level but can be used by any literacy tutor in any order as needed for their student’s needs or curriculum. You can get a FREE digital copy of my High-Frequency Word Cards covering fourteen beginning words (and purchase additional sets in my Classful shop) here:
I have created Connect 4-inspired game bundles for Barton Books 3, 4, and 5 ifor Google Slides and KoalaGO, available in my Classful shop for Zoom tutors and in the KoalaGo Marketplace for Koala tutors.
I use r KoalaGO for online tutoring.
To see how some Orton-Gillingham and Barton tutors are using Koala3D for tutoring, watch these videos: one and two.
Barton tutors can also access FREE online games from the Barton tutor support page.
I use these FREE online games from Sue Bridgeman. They are listed according to each Barton level and lesson, so it’s easy to quickly find the right game while tutoring.
If you want to make your own games similar to the Sue Bridgeman games above, using pre-coded plug-n-play apps, try Flippity (FREE), Wordwall, and Book Widgets.
I share most of Barton lesson Wordwall games publicly from my account, here:
Almost any game you buy on Teachers Pay Teachers or Classful can be turned into an online game using Google slides (FREE!) by taking a picture of the game board (or cropping a picture of the PDF file).
Virtual dice and counters can be moved by the tutor and student by sharing the mouse through Zoom. Many sellers of Teachers Pay Teachers sell pre-made online games and google slides for Orton-Gillingham and Barton lessons/games.
Have no idea how to use Google slides? No problem, neither did. I learned to use Google slides after watching this video tutorial on YouTube. It is 20 minutes long and was well worth my time. What a game changer! I can now confidently and quickly make Google slide activities and games for both Barton and multi-sensory math lessons.
Virtual dice and customizable spinners are the best!
If you’ve tried my FREE Set 1 High-Frequency Words Cards for online tutoring (aligned with Barton Sight Words sequence) and want more, I have bundled deals for Level 3 and Level 4 words. These are in Google slides and ideal for online tutoring; however, you can print (and laminate) for in-person tutoring as well.
Online Resources for Multi-sensory Math Tutors
Here is a video showing how I get started with online mutli-sensory math tutoring:
I use Ronit Birds e-books with embedded videos during Zoom tutoring sessions and have Google slides made for all activities and games for the lessons. Students are able to move virtual manipulatives with shared mouse control in Zoom or Koala, and also have concrete math manipulatives with them at home (for example: counters for dot patterns, Cuisenaire rods, tens blocks, and place value mats).
Below is a video about how I teach students addition and subtraction within 20 and how I introduce the “bridging through 10,” method which they will learn to use with much larger numbers as they progress. I also discuss math anxiety and some of the strategies I use to help alleviate math anxiety and replace anxiety with new skills and new habits.
I am currently working on tracking sheets to combine and align all the games, activities, and worksheets I use with students from multiple multi-sensory resources, and will make that available in my Classful shop when it is finished. I also plan to make digital slide frameworks available for each of Ronit Bird’s ebooks (excluding copyrighted material, of course) and guide parents and tutors through the tracking sheet with pre-made slides for each activity and game.
Above are some examples of digital slides I have made for online multi-sensory math tutoring. Below are web apps with virtual math manipulatives, customizable number lines, fractions, tens frames, tens blocks, and more for online math tutoring.
My favorite digital tool to use with students when modeling word problems using the Singapore Math bar modeling method is the “Thinking Blocks Tool” from MathPlayground.com. Many students with dyslexia also have dysgraphia and this tool makes it easy for them to model the problems visually without getting caught up in drawing/writing challenges or insecurities.
Marilyn Zecher, a CALT and multi-sensory math educator, offers this low-cost guide: “Teaching math in an online environment” for multi-sensory math tutors.