WHO WE ARE
Katie Takayanagi, MS, ATF/OGA
Alphabet City Tutors Founder
Katie Takayanagi, M.S., ATF/OGA, is an Orton-Gillingham teacher-trainer and tutor based in Brooklyn, NY. She has 20 years of experience as an educator and 12 years as an O-G practitioner. She holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University in French Studies and an M.S. in Environmental Studies from Antioch University New England with training in progressive science education for middle school students. She tutors students of all ages in both school and home settings and trains educators from a variety of backgrounds. In addition to her work as a teacher-trainer and tutor, Katie leads a team of tutors at Alphabet City Tutors.
Though she works with all ages, she has extensive experience with middle and high schoolers who are beyond the typical age for O-G tutoring. These students often need both foundational phonics instruction as well as help in more advanced areas such as reading comprehension, essay writing, vocabulary-building morphology, and study skills. Older students are sometimes particularly daunted by writing assignments. Just as O-G takes a step-by-step, systematic approach to phonics instruction, Katie follows these same principles when teaching higher-level skills, breaking them down into incremental steps and reviewing them until mastery. This approach can allow students to conquer their fear of writing and find a new voice as a writer and a new identity as a learner.
OUR TUTORS
All of our O-G tutors are trained in accordance with the rigorous standards of the Orton-Gillingham Academy (OGA), the national certifying body for O-G practitioners. In addition to holding OGA certification in Orton-Gillingham, many of our tutors also have classroom teacher or Special Education teaching credentials in addition to advanced degrees. Tutors in training at the Associate level have completed at least 50 hours of coursework and are conducting their practicum.
Our academic and test prep tutors come from a variety of backgrounds: some are trained in traditional O-G or O-G math, some are certified Special Education teachers, and all have expertise in helping students with dyslexia and other learning differences such as ADHD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and executive function challenges to succeed.
OUR PARTNERS
Alphabet City Tutors is a partner of Green River Literacy and Learning Center, an Orton-Gillingham tutoring and teacher training center located in Western Massachusetts. Under the direction of OGA Accredited Training Fellow Laurie J. Cousseau, former Director of the Teacher Training Institute at the Kildonan School, Green River Literacy and Learning Center works together with Alphabet City Tutors to bring excellent Orton-Gillingham Teacher Training opportunities to New York City and beyond.
