PEARL
Teaching & Tutoring, LLC

Lauren is a certified K-12 special education teacher who has worked in both private and public school classrooms for the last 10 years in northern Virginia and Florida. She holds a Master's degree in Education from George Mason University, a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Clemson University, and a current teaching license in the state of Florida. She has worked with students aged 2 to 21 with varying levels of cognitive and behavioral needs and reading challenges. Only a couple years into her career, Lauren quickly realized that many students, with and without learning disabilities, struggle with at least one of the five components of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension), but “one size fits all” instruction to address these challenges does not work. Students therefore develop different gaps, and teachers cannot fill in every gap for every student over the course of a school year because they must adhere to current grade level instructional standards, especially with strict standardized testing schedules. These gaps continue to widen as the years progress, often resulting in decreased student motivation and self-confidence both in academics and personal lives.

 

Lauren became passionate about addressing reading gaps because if students struggle with reading they will inherently struggle in most other subjects. Unfortunately, there just isn’t enough time in the school day for addressing individualized gaps because of class size and time restrictions. However, research has shown that students benefit most from 1:1 or small group instruction explicitly focused on addressing their specific gap(s), which in practice is only made possible outside of typical classroom pedagogy.

 

Lauren has been trained in many different reading curricula, strategies, and interventions over the years. There are a variety of environmental and neurological factors involved in the science of reading that are outside of teacher control, but instruction is something we can control. Through a customized and controlled approach, grounded in building a supportive student-teacher relationship, Lauren aims to see confident and capable readers emerge while developing self-esteem. This driving passion is how PEARL Teaching & Tutoring came to be.