For families who live in the Portland area, I offer individual, in-person tutoring for children ages 5-12. I’m an experienced teacher and tutor, who loves to form authentic connections and guide children along their learning journey. I work to establish rapport right from the start and weave in games to support your child’s motivation and engagement. I use systematic, structured literacy lessons to support each child in becoming a confident reader, speller, and writer.

I have worked in Montessori spaces since 2004 as a lead guide, administrator, and more. I hold a Masters of Education and AMI Montessori Primary (3-6) & Elementary (6-12) diplomas. I have received Orton Gillingham training at both the Classroom Educator and Associate's Levels through the Orton Gillingham Academy. Additionally, I have completed certificates through LETRS and with the International Dyslexia Association of Ontario. My decoding instruction is strongly influenced by my trainings in both EBLI and Reading Simplified, which use a structured linguistic literacy approach to teaching reading. I am also trained in ThinkSRSD, a research-based approach to writing instruction. I’ve taken multiple courses about morphology including trainings in SWI and with Lyn Stone. When it comes to literacy, I am compelled to always learn more and you can often find me spending my free time attending workshops, listening to literacy podcasts, watching webinars, and reading books and articles about the latest research.

To begin, please complete the intake form to join my waitlist. I provide a free consultation to learn more about your child and your goals for tutoring once a space opens in my roster.

Sessions are 50 minutes in length. For new clients I require a minimum of 2 sessions per week.

Initial Session

During your child’s first visit, I will do some assessment balanced by traditional games or play-based activities. This helps me get a sense of where we might begin our instruction, while allowing us to begin to build connection.

I also share the Origin Story of Reading with your child and ask them about their own goals for their time with me.

Tutoring Sessions

A typical session typically includes components of the following:

-Phonemic awareness and handwriting

-Explicit instruction on various patterns embedded in the English language, individuated for the specific needs of your child

-Lots of interleaved review of concepts previously taught

-Engaging activities to practice reading and writing at the word, sentence and passage level

Before our first session, you will receive a link to an individuated tutoring log for your child. I update this after every session with information about the skills covered, observations of your child's engagement, and sometimes offer homework suggestions. This log also contains ongoing progress monitoring data, which may be helpful to share with your child's teacher. I offer an optional 30 minute conference in November/December and March.

During the school year, I tutor at Childpeace Montessori and Sunstone Montessori. I also have limited availability to tutor from my northeast Portland home. My summer schedule varies, but join the waitlist to learn more.

This is entirely dependent on each child’s unique learning profile and the learning goals we set together as a team. To begin, I require a minimum of twice weekly tutoring for the entirety of one school year. In my experience as a classroom teacher and a tutor, intervention may be required in varying capacities as your child’s academic needs change throughout their school years.

During the school year, sessions are billed on a self-chosen sliding scale of $100-$130/hour. I calculate the total number of sessions delivered over the course of the school year and bill you a set monthly amount, September-June.

During the summer months, there is a flat fee for each tutoring “block” a child participates in, with optional a la carte lessons added.

Payments are accepted by check or Venmo.

Sliding Scale Explained

Please choose the rate that aligns with your resource level. If you have had structural advantage and access to wealth, consider paying at the higher rate. I recognize that even with this sliding scale, tutoring may not be accessible to some families. Please do not hesitate to reach out to see if we can create a financial agreement that will work for all involved.

"Zil does a wonderful job making each session fun and collaborative. They’ve offered my daughter the space she needs to practice her reading without feeling pressure to be perfect. I am so grateful for all the hard work Zil has put in and I’m so proud of the improvement my daughter has made since working with Zil." ~Molly (she/her)

"We appreciate so much how Zil pays close attention to the interests of our child, and comes ready to creatively approach literacy skill-building through play and connection. We appreciate the session recaps, too, which include at-home suggestions for practice we can do together that offers just the right level of challenge while still feeling fun. I highly recommend contacting Zil to grow your child’s circle of support when it comes to their reading journey!" ~ Tessa (she/her)

"Zil has been a lifesaver, and we couldn't be more thrilled with the progress our daughter is making. They're super knowledgeable and flexible in their approach, regularly making adjustments to keep our daughter interested and enthusiastic. When our daughter was having strong feelings about needing tutoring, including feeling stupid, Zil met with us to discuss and snapped into action to help our daughter navigate this aspect of needing extra help. I can't recommend them highly enough." ~Kristen (she/her)

“Our son has been working with Zil for the past five weeks, already we have noticed a huge impact on his confidence, fluency and ability to work through hard words. Zil is super creative and does a great job keeping our son engaged and finding activities he gets excited about. I appreciate how as parents we have set activities to do which takes the guesswork about how to support him through the process. I highly recommend working with Zil!” ~Charlene (she/her)

“Zil instantly put my child at ease during her assessment. My daughter joyfully engaged with Zil while completing the process—I think she thought they were simply playing a game!” ~Katie (she/her)