About Your Tutor
Professional and Experienced Teacher, Dyslexia Interventionist, Certified EBLI Instructor, Certified Orton—Gillingham Instructor
I am Jennifer Yenerich, the founder of Once Upon a Time Reading Tutoring. I have a passion for helping young children learn how to read. I find joy in watching children's faces light up when something finally clicks and they are able to segment a word into its individual sounds or decode a new word. Here at Once Upon a Time Reading Tutoring, we delight and celebrate those breakthroughs.
Our mission is to provide instruction based on methods backed by the Science of Reading.
My personal experience as a struggling reader. – The Once Upon a Time Reading Tutoring Story
When I was a young child, I found myself struggling to read. I remember the hours my mom spent working with me and the frustration on her face when I still didn't get it. It wasn't until a special teacher took time out of her busy schedule to privately teach me the phonemic and phonics skills I had somehow missed, that my reading took off. By third grade, I was reading every Beverly Cleary book I could get my hands on. I have a heart for children like me who need that special teacher (or tutor) to come along their side and give them the explicit and systematic instruction they deserve.
There's more to the Story...
My bachelor’s degree in Child Development, my master’s degree in Early Childhood Education, and 12 years teaching experience in the classroom taught me many things. Unfortunately, the one thing it didn’t teach me was how to reach my struggling readers. I was doing everything I had been “trained” to do and yet they weren’t making progress. I felt helpless. It wasn’t until many years later, after staying home to raise my own children, that I began to study the Science of Reading. I learned that most of my struggling readers were probably dyslexic or had some other type of language based learning disability. It was during this time that I discovered the Orton-Gillingham Approach. This methodology uses direct, explicit instruction and a mastery approach to teach reading.
The Story Continues...
Using the OG approach, I found that students were mastering skills and showing a nice amount of growth, but it wasn’t enough. This led me on another search. My desire to support students in the best, most efficient manner led me to EBLI: Evidence Based Literacy Instruction. This ‘speech to print’ approach includes direct and explicit instruction but moves at a faster pace and allows students to grow their skills more efficiently.
Education
Certifications