Featured By

Renee B.

Private tutor in Tempe, AZ

Education

I have an MFA in Fiction Writing from the Iowa Writers' Workshop as well as an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from the University of Montana. I studied English with a Creative Writing emphasis as well as Film & Photography as an undergraduate at Hollins University. I graduated summa cum laude, am a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Tau Delta. I believe that part of being a committed educator is being an active and dedicated learner.

Experience

I currently work locally as a tutor helping students aged 8 through 17 with Executive Function training as well as reading comprehension and essay writing skills. In the past, I've taught college Composition at the Introductory and intermediate levels. I've volunteered with a program that brings Creative Writing lessons to the inmates of juvenile halls. I've also taught Creative Writing Studio Workshop to undergraduates and held an adjunct position teaching a class called The Sentence: Strategies for Writing. This class was intended to help students hone their skills of peer- and self-editing. It focused on incorporating elements of style into crafting sentences that are both strong grammatically, intelligent, clear, and beautiful. I attempted to bring creativity and precision together on the sentence-level, helping students to understand form, punctuation, and other finer points of sentence-writing. The opportunity to teach this class has really helped to sharpen my teaching techniques, both one-on-one and in the classroom. During my time teaching at the university level, I was committed to working with students individually and served as an advisor for a student’s senior project in the pursuit of his English Literature degree. In addition, I have spent fourteen months in the Czech Republic teaching English as a second language to a wide range of students of all ages (from four-year-olds to fifty-year-olds, from stay-at-home parents to CEOs). I mostly taught one-on-one lessons which is one of my favorite ways to approach instruction because it allows you to focus fully on the individual’s needs – encouraging them in their strengths and helping them to recognize areas where they most need improvement. I was able to see the students’ language skills improving over time, which is an incredibly rewarding process. Many of the students I worked with were high school and middle school age, which are age groups I work very well with as I recognize that with young students it is important to make the material interesting, applicable, and accessible to them. This partially encompasses my philosophy as a teacher – meeting the students where they are at, understanding how my knowledge and experiences can best be applied to aid each student in his or her improvement, whether their task is to craft an essay or simply be able to communicate more fluently.

Subject Expertise

College Essays GRE Subject Test in Literature in English GRE Analytical Writing Expository Writing Fiction Writing Essay Editing ESL/ELL English Creative Writing GRE Verbal British Literature AP English Literature and Composition AP English Language and Composition American Literature ACT Writing ACT with Writing ACT Reading ACT English GRE Verbal Reasoning Handwriting Introduction to Poetry Literary Analysis Literature Poetry Writing Reading SAT Critical Reading SAT Subject Test in Literature SAT Verbal SAT Writing Shakespeare Short Novel Study Skills Study Skills And Organization 2nd Grade Reading 10th Grade Reading 10th Grade Writing 11th Grade Reading 11th Grade Writing 11th Grade 12th Grade 12th Grade Reading 12th Grade Writing Writing World Literature Vocabulary TOEFL Test Prep 1st Grade Reading 1st Grade Writing 10th Grade 2nd Grade Writing 3rd Grade Reading 3rd Grade Writing 4th Grade Reading 4th Grade Writing 5th Grade Reading 5th Grade Writing 6th Grade Reading 6th Grade Writing 7th Grade Reading 7th Grade Writing 8th Grade Reading 8th Grade Writing 9th Grade Reading 9th Grade Writing

Availability

Friday at any time, Saturday at any time, Weekdays in the morning, Weekdays in the afternoon, Sunday in the morning

Can Meet

Up to 45 minutes away for no additional charge

Hobbies

I play piano and a little guitar. I love to spend time outdoors, play basketball, hike, bike, and swim. I love to watch films, invent board games, visit museums, teach parrots to talk, tell stories, and make pizza from scratch.

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