Elementary Learning Program

Our Elementary Learning Program (ELP) for grades 1 through 5 will advance your child’s core skills in math, reading, and writing. Meeting 1-to-1 with a private tutor, students work through our custom curriculum at their own pace for enrichment specifically tailored to them. This is a regularly-scheduled program, but the personalized nature means that students can begin at anytime in the year.

Like Kumon and Mathnasium, students meet twice a week to work through the curriculum, but General Academic surpasses these and other franchise learning centers as students meet privately with one of our brilliant tutors and follow our expertly crafted curriculum.

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Format and Cost

We’ll begin with a consultation with you to discuss your student’s strengths and weaknesses, and then the tutor administers a series of diagnostics in the first several sessions to establish expectations and goals for your student’s needs. From there, the tutor takes your student through our curriculum and materials at your student’s pace, which includes addressing any issues with their current schoolwork. Your student can meet with their tutor in our office or in your home.

Our program is designed to engage students year-round and is structured as:

  • Meeting twice a week for 1-hour each time
  • Split 30 minutes for math and 30 minutes for reading and writing in each session
  • Homework is assigned after each session

To ensure schedule integrity and consistency with the same tutor, we strongly recommend that the days and times of these sessions remain the same throughout the program.

Each 1-hour, private tutorial starts at just $80/hour when meeting at our office or $95/hour when meeting in-home. Exact hourly rates depend on the tutor and scheduling frequency.

Curriculum Highlights

Our Elementary Learning Program tutors have experience with and are specifically trained to work with grade 1 through 5 students to:

  • work ahead and challenge their skills
  • supplement and reinforce class material
  • remediate weaknesses and help them reach their full potential
  • develop the speed and confidence they’ll need to excel on standardized testing

  • Math – fluency with number sense up to 120, measuring tools and analyzing different lengths, money fundamentals, place values, basic fractions, word problems, and simple data analysis
  • Reading – fluency in reading stories and short paragraphs, sight words, challenging words, and reading comprehension, such as identifying main ideas, characters, and plots
  • Writing – develop handwriting, spelling (written and spoken), and oral skills while teaching grammar, sentence structure, and the writing process

  • Math – fluency with number sense for double-digit numbers, basic multiplication, perimeter and area of shapes, money fundamentals, data analysis, fractions, and word problems
  • Reading – fluency in reading stories and short paragraphs, sight words, challenging words, and reading comprehension, such as identifying key details, recounting stories, and identifying different points of view 
  • Writing – write pieces in different literary styles such as persuasive, narrative, and informative paragraphs; plan drafts, use linking words, and write a concluding sentence or paragraph; recount experiences and gather information from sources to answer a question

  • Math – fluency in multiplication, division, metric system fundamentals, estimation, adding/subtracting/comparing fractions, comparing and classifying polygons, data analysis, distributive and commutative properties, and word problems
  • Reading – develop accuracy and fluency with reading texts; recount stories, including identifying the main idea and explain how it is conveyed through key details; answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text; develop annotating and note-taking skills to foster active reading, and determine the meaning of words using context clues, distinguishing literal and nonliteral definitions
  • Writing – write in persuasive, informative, and narrative styles developed with facts, definitions, and details; distinguish between points of view; strengthen command of standard English conventions; conduct short research projects; write over both short and extended periods of time

  • Math – fluency in double-digit multiplication, long division, basics of decimals, money amounts as decimals, multiplying and dividing fractions, data analysis, word problems, measuring angles, symmetry, unit conversions, and basic geometry including area/perimeter of triangles/squares
  • Reading – fluency with making inferences from details and examples in a text; describing in depth a character, setting, or event in a story; learning to identify the overall structure of texts, including chronology, cause/effect, and comparisons; using context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding; and develop annotating and note-taking skills to foster active reading
  • Writing – produce clear and coherent writing that is appropriate for particular tasks, purposes, and audiences; conduct short research projects; explain ideas, concepts, and events in a text, including what happened and why based on specific information in the text; develop and strengthen writing as by planning, revising, and editing

  • Math – fluency in comparing decimals through addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; finding least common multiple and greatest common denominator; order of operations; solving algebraic equations; working with 2D and 3D shapes by classifying them and finding the perimeter, area, and volume; working with data through bar graphs; dot plots, and frequency tables; working with coordinate planes; and word problems
  • Reading – fluency with making inferences, points of view, and story elements from details and examples in a text; answer challenging questions to demonstrate understanding of a text; use context clues to discern the meaning of unfamiliar words; solidify understanding of figurative language and differentiate from literal language; and develop annotating and note-taking skills to foster active reading
  • Writing – produce clear and coherent writing that is appropriate for particular tasks, purposes, and audiences; write using transition words and phrases; summarize and paraphrase information; use appropriate writing structure for persuasive, informative, and narrative pieces; and develop a thesis statement

Get Rewarded for Getting Ahead!

Beginning May 1, 2024, all families will begin earning a monthly credit based on their engagement in the Elementary Learning Program!

Here’s how it works: at the end of each month, we’ll tally up the number of hours your student spent working with their ELP tutor and apply a credit to your account that will be automatically applied to the following month’s lessons.

You can earn this credit as follows:

  • Meet for 4 hours in 1 month, get 10% back
  • Meet for 8 or more hours in 1 month, get 20% back

Students who attend 8 or more hours of ELP tutoring per month can enjoy an effective hourly rate as low as $64/hour for in-office lessons or $76/hour for in-home lessons! For more information, please review our ELP policies.

FAQs

Our amazing tutors have all scored in the top 5% on their SAT/ACT, are charismatic, and have been extensively trained to help students of all grades, motivation levels, and educational goals. Our tutors are a mix of current undergrads or recent graduates from Rice and comparable universities, and they all have experience with helping elementary-aged students. Our goal is to have your student work with the same tutor throughout the program so that they can fully understand your student’s needs and progress.

Your student meets privately with one of our ELP tutors, so we are able to cater to their specific weaknesses and strengths in math, reading, and writing while developing independent learning and critical thinking skills. We move at your student’s pace and do not rigidly restrict how they progress through our curriculum and materials. Other services meet in a group format with inconsistent instructors, focus too heavily on rote memorization, and force students to follow a specific path through their program.

Our tutors use guided questions to help your student find correct answers on their own, and the question-and-answer model in our curriculum helps them grow as learners and builds their confidence. Our students are also encouraged to familiarize themselves with multiple avenues of finding solutions, which allows us to accommodate students of all personalities, levels, and preferences.

We have carefully created our curriculum from national and state standards, such as Texas and New York, to ensure that the concepts we teach match what they are learning or will learn in school and in a challenging way. We use manipulatives for younger grade levels to provide a hands-on experience with math concepts, and we have curated and crafted worksheets, passages, and writing prompts for their sessions and homework. Grade 5 lessons, materials, and tests are all housed in Piqosity, which currently includes education and test prep content for grades 5 through 11.

All kinds! We have structured our program to help a wide variety of interests and goals, including:

  • students who want to work ahead and challenge their skills, such as a first semester 2nd grader working through second semester content or jumping into 3rd grade content
  • students who want to reinforce or dig deeper into what they’re learning in school
  • students with foundation issues who need to remediate missed or previously learned content

Yes, the content and practice they work through will benefit these standardized tests, but we do not work through specific practice for these exams as part of the curriculum. However, we do work to improve your student’s test-taking skills, including time management and engagement with word problems and reading passages, since they will have to tackle these exams and others (such as the ISEE, SAT, ACT) throughout their academic career.

Yes, this program can be held in your home. However, there will be a one-time materials fee for in-home ELP students, and the small cost depends on grade level.

ELP starts at just $64/hour when meeting at our Rice Village office or $76/hour when meeting in-home. Exact hourly rates depend on the tutor and scheduling frequency.

For students meeting twice per week for 1 hour each time (the standard format for ELP), the average hourly rate after monthly credits are applied is approximately $75/hour when meeting in-office and $87/hour when meeting in-home. Invoices are generated at the end of each month and can be paid online or in-person.

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