Veronica Karwoski

Before I was an Orton-Gillingham tutor, I spent 10 years as a special education teacher and reading intervention teacher in public schools. In my last classroom, I had as many as 15-17 students in a single class, all reading at different levels — some students were brand new to English and just learning to read, while others already had solid fluency and simply needed support with comprehension. That range taught me how to differentiate without losing my mind trying to do a million things at...

This summer I worked with a rising kindergartener. I was impressed that he knew all his letter names and could write his name all before entering school. He could even repeat back a familiar book that his mother had read to him. However, I soon discovered he could not read actual words yet. Why not? Because he had not yet learned how to decode, or recognize unfamiliar words. Together we strengthened the underlying skills needed to read, and we explicitly practiced decoding. Below I share some...

that don't take long at all.... As reading specialists and special education teachers, we know that no two readers are alike. In any given group, you’ll have students who are decoding fluently but struggle with comprehension, others who still need phonics instruction, and a few who are just learning to attend to print. Differentiating reading lessons can feel overwhelming—but it doesn’t have to be. The key is to plan small, manageable adjustments that target student needs without requiring...