Tutoring with ease with ready-to-go lessons (that children love!)

A look at the phonics lessons that come ready-prepared for you as part of the Tutor Like a Pro! membership from Jigsaw Phonics Tutoring if you tutor phonics and early literacy online or in-person.

If you want to go straight to a video look through of the Puzzle lessons, click here.

Here's something on social media recently that really resonated.

It went something like:

Teaching is work you do before you get to work, you work while you're at work and because you don't have the time to do the work while you are at work, you work after work ...

If that resonantes with you, you'll know a lot of that work is lesson preparation.

But as a tutor (tutoring is NOT teaching as we know it!) you don’t need to do ALL the work! We've got the lesson prep covered in 90 lessons that cover all the sounds in a structured, cumulative way. The very most you need to do is have a quick zip through the lesson before you teach it so you know what’s coming up. And with a vocab preteach game for each lesson, your learners who speak English as a second language will have the vocabulary covered before they do their phonics learning. If you are an international teacher, we've got you covered!

Puzzle the panda shows children real words that they can sound out. He's the emotional hook into phonics doing the job of supporting metacognition in children's learning.

The lessons follow the same structure, so learners can forget about how they are learning and focus on what they are learning. Lessons are structured and cumulative, and will help dyslexic learners as well as those who have learning gaps that need bridging.

The characters not only hook children in with their back stories, they do vital metacognitive work showing children the strategies they need to use.

Puzzle the panda signals real words so children know they can use their decoding skills.

Wug the alien signals alien words, so children know they are reading words that don't mean anything (important for dylslexic learners!) and they need their segmenting and blending skills.

Trick the robot shows learners their decoding skills will only go so far, and sight reading skills are also necessary.

You also have flexibility with the lessons to focus on what you know your learners need. If there are three sentences to read but you only want to read one, just read one and spend the time focusing on whatever else it is that your learners need in another part of the lesson.

You guide learners through the lesson with "transition" slides, so your learners are ready for what is coming next. It’s also a moment for you to breathe, chat and build rapport, check in and get feedback - all that important relationship-building work that goes alongside the learning.

The advantage of ready-to-go lessons: consistency

The time-saving aspect of ready-to-go lessons in obvious, but consistency is also key. It’s really important that the lessons follow the same structure so learners feel secure in that structure. It’s an easily-made - although well-intentioned - rookie mistake for teachers and tutors to keep trying out this or that idea randomly with their learners. Jigsaw Phonics Tutoring lessons deliberately follow the same, structured, predictable routine because it’s not what you do brilliantly once in a while that brings results, it’s the slow, structured, regular increments that get your learners real results in the long run.

Wug the alien shows children nonsense words for segmenting and blending practice - and is also our EAL mascot because Wug only speaks Wuggish.

Confidence that you are doing the right thing

You don't have to stick to the exact lesson structure completely if you have your own style or your own favourite activities. Think of the lessons as pre-baked if you want to: everything you need is there, but you can also add your own garnishes. Or add the extras included in the memebrship, like vocabulary preteach games o spelling routines.

Less prep for you also means no homework prep!

Yes, we've thought of it all - so you don't have to! There is free homework you can send parents if they want more to do at home. You can talk your children through their homework at the end of the lesson so they are primed to get that extra learning and consolidation at home.

You have information-rich reports (as editable pdfs) so you just fill them out on your computer and email them in seconds.

There are certificates for children when they finish working with you, including letters confirming their academic achievement if parents need that.

And you have all the assessment materials you need to make sure you place children at the right level when they start working with you.

Meet Trick the robot! Her computer brain is programmed to read anything. She tells children they can't use their sounding out skills so she's the emotional hook into phonics as well as supporting metacognition in learning.

All the physical materials you need

(plus extra digital ones)

As a Tutor Like a Pro! member, you get everything in the shop so you have the flashcards and materials to set up continuous-provision style activities if you are teaching face-to-face. All our materials classroom-tested. As a membership bonus, there are a whole range of digital resources not in the shop that you get as well, so you will never be stuck for resources.

How to join us on our mission to help children to read ...

Because our mission at Jigsaw Phonics Tutoring is helping children to read, the way we do that is to help you get real results for the children you tutor. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to achieve the best for the children in your care.

And we have all the proof that we can do that! One Tutor Like a Pro! member was teaching small group phonics just 14 days after joining, thanks to all the lessons being ready to go. Even though her children spoke English as a second language, she was amazed that they had learned to read after 11 lessons!

It all really fell into place when she started the Jigsaw Phonics lessons. Tutor Like a Pro member Kara Cook on her student who was reading above age after 12 weeks after being very behind in her reading due to speech delay and general anxiety.

If the membership sounds like something you'd like to explore, you can do that in a completely relaxed, no-obligation way by having a chat with Sandra.

To do that, just book a call here

I'm looking forward to meeting you!