Ages 4 - 12

Writing in many genres prepares students for classroom instruction. This fourth grader is fast at work writing a rough draft. Following the session, he'll edit, revise and complete a final draft to bring to the next session.
Using her personal ABC book, this student is matching letters she knows. Practicing "reading" her ABC book on a daily basis leads to recognizing and fluently reading all letters of the alphabet. Next steps include recognizing digraphs, and later, blends within words.
Students learn and practice strategies needed to excel at their level.
Here a student is learning to slowly say the sounds of a CVC word as she slowly pushes colored disks into corresponding sound boxes.
Please contact me to discuss your child's needs.
575 North 17th Street, San Jose, California 95112, United States
650-518-2132. It is BEST to text Nancy to set up a phone conference.
Open today | 07:30 am – 06:00 pm |
Please reach us at nancyleebilbao@gmail.com with any questions.
I'll continue to work with individual students this summer. The curriculum is tailored to your child's needs, based on ongoing assessments.
All lessons are conducted in my home office in San Jose. Online instruction is also available, in which the student and Mrs. B. work in tandem using the website: Literacy Footprints (https://www.literacyfootprints.com/)
Each lesson is 50-55 minutes, once or twice a week. The reading and writing lessons are planned according to your child's needs and adjusted as the lesson series continues. Students will be given books to read and assignments to be completed between lessons.
Therese Kehl
Los Gatos, CA.
June, 2021
Nancy has been such a blessing for our family! Our kindergartener fell behind in school because of the pandemic so we hired Nancy to help him get up to speed with his class. Nancy was absolutely wonderful, patient and kind to our son. He looked forward to working with her twice a week and within a short time, he gained the confidence and knowledge he needed to be a better reader. We are so grateful for Nancy and how she worked with him. She quickly figured out he was a kinesthentic learner and used tactics to help him enjoy learning and reading! She gave him the boost of confidence he needed. His classroom teacher was amazed at how well he was participating and behaving in class! Thank you!
L. H.
Menlo Park, CA
May, 2022
Our pre-kindergartener has been working with Mrs. B. once a week for about three months. Our daughter has solidified her letter recognition, learned about fifty sight words, and is reading at a beginning first grade level. Her letter formation has greatly improved and she is beginning to construct complete sentences.
Rick Talamantes
San Jose, CA.
May, 2022
Marc really enjoys his time with Mrs. B and I’ve noticed a big difference in his word structure, and ability to write much longer paragraphs since he starting meeting with her once a week about four months ago. Marc (fourth grader) comments: “I learned a lot. It was fun! I learned how to write faster, how to use graphic organizers and write final and rough drafts. Now I know how to choose titles for stories and how to use paragraph transitions. I learned the parts of a sentence, like: subject, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. I now know to write different kinds of writing, like compare and contrast; problem and solution; persuasive writing; non-fiction summaries and opinion pieces. I want to come back in the Fall.
J.K. Menlo Park, CA
June, 2021
My kindergartener's confidence and reading ability increased considerably while working online with Nancy once a week over the summer. The website used in the program, Literacy Footprints, allows for my son to read independent and instructional level books with Nancy during lessons and he continues to practice during the week.
Adriana and Steve Tonelli
San Jose, CA
June 1, 2020
We can’t say enough positive things about Nancy. She honestly rescued our daughter and, as a parent, we will forever be grateful. At 7 years old, our daughter was diagnosed with a vision issue that required intensive vision therapy. While therapy addressed her vision issues, we quickly discovered her condition had led to her getting extremely behind in school. By the time we found Nancy we had a 2nd grader who wasn’t able to read and was coming home crying almost daily out of sheer frustration. After one meeting (the initial diagnostic testing) we knew Nancy was the right fit for our daughter. She was patient and compassionate and my daughter instantly loved her. Nancy has now worked with our daughter for over a year. She has made a tremendous difference in our daughter’s confidence and her attitude towards reading and school in general. I love that Nancy knows when to give encouragement but is also consistently challenging our daughter to push herself and stay focused. We have been astounded at the progress our daughter has made in a year. We have been so pleased with Nancy and her ability to work with our daughter, we now have her working with our 6 year old son. I know that working with Nancy will ensure he has the foundation for a lifetime love of reading!
Thanks Nancy!!
Taji T. Brown
Dublin, CA
May, 2021
With Nany's help our boys continued to make reading progress during online instruction during the pandemic. Our older son's fluency improved and our younger son continued to move up in reading levels.
Angie H., Santa Cruz
Friday, December 6, 2019
Nancy began working with my daughter in September '19. She has shown marked improvement and confidence in reading in just a few short months. I am profoundly thankful for Nancy's committment, belief in my daughter and in the patience and flexibility that she's shown us. Nancy's lesson plans are personalized and very well organized. She takes time after each visit to summarize the session, go over expectations and answer any questions I may have. Her calm and encouraging demeanor are especially comforting for a child who is struggling in reading. I highly recommend Nancy to anyone who is looking to help their child overcome any reading challenge.
Sat, Jan 4, 7:15 PM
"My goal is keeping my son interested in reading and writing, as well as helping him to reach his full potential.When I googled, I found Nancy. It’s amazing that she keeps Lucas focused on class. She always has a lesson plan ready that give us a clear idea of what Lucas will be learning and what the assignments are. She is professional and expert on working with kids. Lucas improves rapidly with her help. I am very happy for the result. And I appreciate the flexible schedule." Fuli Li
***
S. G., Sunnyvale, CA
March 2, 2020
Nancy worked with our kindergartener for approximately two months. He was very enthusiastic about his lessons. We noticed a change in his interest in reading, as well as his confidence. He made significant progress in a very short time and we are happy to recommend Nancy.
***
Comments from student teacher candidates Nancy mentored
in her role as Adjunct Professor at the Lurie College of Education at San Jose State California
2018 - 2022
• Nancy is extremely supportive and considerate. • She is very friendly and showed up when expected for observations. • Nancy is always accessible and supportive of her students. • She wants to support them in any way that she can and when you communicate with her she will work with you to get you to a place that is more manageable. • Nancy is very helpful and willing to suggest what she thinks is her best advice. • Nancy always provides useful and constructive feedback. She is approachable for questions and advice. • The use of the scheduler on Google sheets is helpful to keep everything organized. I also appreciated that she would ask for feedback after seminars and adjust based on our interests/needs. • Insures we are on task, and that expectations are being met. Very responsive to questions and available to discuss concepts we are experiencing in our classrooms further if needed. Is very good about sharing resources and showing us where resources are.
I have over 30 years experience teaching in the primary grades and a Master's Degree in Teaching from the University of San Francisco. I currently hold Elementary Education and CLAD credentials in the State of California. I am also a certified Reading Recovery teacher. See below, right.
I specialize in working with individual early learners who need extra support.
All lessons are conducted in my home office in San Jose or online (using Zoom);
Nancy is fully vaccinated
(including boosters) for
Coronavirus. May 2022.
Masks are worn and required.
When working with a student individually, I develop a plan following an initial assessment. I'll pinpoint what the student knows and what he or she finds difficult about reading and writing.
My instruction builds on his or her strengths and is consistently adapted to make it easier for the child to learn.
All materials are provided by instructor. Take-home followup activities are also provided.
Individual students can make significant progress in a very short time!
Each lesson is unique and based on immediate prior learning, so that students are working at a level and pace that inspires confidence and signals growth.
Please contact me to schedule an assessment for your child.
Nancy Bilbao personally plans and teaches every lesson. Parents are welcome to sit in on the lessons and follow through by reading with their child at home, after receiving explicit suggestions from Nancy.
Every child is unique and learns at a different pace. You can expect, however, that your child will make from one-half to one year's progress within a three to five month period.
Please contact Mrs. B. by text or email for an introductory conversation. After an initial assessment, recommendations will be made. In many cases, an initial six-week plan (in which the student meets with Mrs. B once or twice a week), is recommended, followed by further assessment and recommendations about continuing further instruction, only as needed.
A written assessment will be emailed to parents.
The Observation Survey assessment includes six literacy tasks, all of which are necessary for describing a young child’s emerging reading and writing behaviors: For example, three of them are:
In addition, instructor determines student's instructional and independent text level; oral language development; phonetic and phonemic awareness, sight words known within text; written spelling word knowledge; known and unknown reading strategies used, writing strategies.
Assessement fee waived if student begins individualized program. However, if a lesson series is not decided upon, there will be a fee for the assessment.
Please contact me to discuss your child's needs.
575 North 17th Street, San Jose, California 95112, United States
650-518-2132. It is BEST to text Nancy to set up a phone conference.
Open today | 07:30 am – 06:00 pm |
Students are successful because of the method I use to slowly build on what they know. This results in renewed confidence on the part of the students.
Let's get going! the 2022 - 2023 school year will be awesome!
Copyright © 2022 Nancy Bilbao Reading and Writing Specialist - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy