French Immersion Reading Support
LIVE online and in person in the Greater Toronto Area. Evidence-based French immersion reading support, delivered by a bilingual specialist, Dr. June Starkey, an Ontario-certified French immersion teacher with 30+ years of teaching experience
Your child is in French Immersion, and reading isn't going as well as you had hoped.
Perhaps the school has said, "It will click; just give it time." Maybe you've been told that early struggles in French Immersion are to be expected. If you don't speak and read French well yourself, you aren't completely sure what's going wrong, or how concerned to be. You only see the tears at homework time, the avoidance, the sparkle in your child's eyes growing dimmer when they talk about school.
Underneath all of that is the question that keeps you up at night:
Do we stay in French Immersion — or is the program the problem?
Here's what 18 years of teaching French Immersion K-6 and
a PhD in teaching and learning from OISE/UT have taught me:
Leaving French immersion may not be the answer.
A learner who struggles to read and write in French needs structured, evidence-based reading instruction — in both languages.
Reading challenges don't exist in only one language for a learner.
Struggles with reading respond to the right teaching.
With the correct support, most struggling French Immersion readers mend the gaps
and thrive in a language immersion program.
The bilingual brain you are building with and for your child is worth fighting for.
What French Immersion reading support looks like:
This is not "French tutoring." This is a structured literacy intervention delivered by a bilingual specialist educator, someone who can diagnose exactly where the reading breakdown is happening, in English and in French, and teach directly into those gaps.
In your sessions, your child receives:
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Structured phonemic awareness and decoding instruction, the foundation of all reading- taught explicitly and systematically to automatize code knowledge
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Cross-language strategy: skills that transfer between English and French are named and practiced in both, so progress in one language reinforces the other
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Fluency and comprehension work in the language where your child needs it most
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Vocabulary development and vocabulary-learning strategies, because comprehension and confidence grow when word knowledge grows
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Confidence-building and rebuilding — because a child who has decided "I'm bad at reading" needs to unlearn that belief by seeing repeatedly that they can read
Every session is grounded in the science of reading
— the same evidence base, applied in two languages.
French Immersion Reading Support is the right fit for:
French Immersion students from Senior Kindergarten through Grade 12 who are struggling to read, write, or keep pace
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Families whose first language is not French — most of the families I work with don't speak French at home, and that is completely fine
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Families told to "wait and see" who would rather not wait
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Students whose English reading is fine but whose French reading is falling behind — or vice versa
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Families deciding whether to stay in French Immersion — sometimes the answer is yes, with support; occasionally it isn't. I'll give you an honest read either way
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Students who need an assessment of where exactly the breakdown is happening, in either language
How it works
Sessions are 45 or 60 minutes, either LIVE online or in person in the Greater Toronto Area.
Typical frequency is once or twice a week, depending on the depth of the reading gap.
Every session works on the actual reading work — decodable texts, your child's real classroom materials, and structured practice designed for their exact learning profile. I have a library of hundreds of hard-copy French books at all levels that we use.
Parents are partners. You don't need to speak French to support your child's French reading. I show you exactly what we're working on and how to help at home — in English.
Many families begin with the Bilingual Learning Skills Assessment so that the first month of sessions targets the real gaps, not a guess.
Why working with a bilingual specialist educator matters
Many gifted tutors do wonderful work with French Immersion students. Very few can say why a specific child is struggling with reading and writing and use evidence from the learner to create a personalized plan to address and resolve literacy gaps in French. Knowing what to do about those learning gaps — in both languages, so that difficulties don't compound — is the reason so many families seek assistance from Dr. June.
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Her doctoral thesis research studied language teaching and feedback practices that make the biggest difference for learning (the academic discipline that explains how students learn to read, write and communicate in a second language)
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She is bilingual (CEFR C1 in French)
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Dr. June has more than 20 years of teaching experience in French Immersion: 18 years for two school boards in Ontario, and 6 years teaching in French immersion at the University of Toronto in both undergraduate and graduate contexts
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She trained future teachers of French immersion at OISE/UT, in her roles as Academic Advisor and Teacher Education Program Assistant of Proficiency Testing at OISE/UT
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Dr. June offers Bilingual Learning Skills Assessment services — a dynamic diagnostic assessment that examines a child's learning skills in both English and French. This experience often becomes a turning point in a student's learning journey. Parents want answers they can trust and results that transform their child's learning trajectory. When students see evidence that they can learn, everything changes.
From a Great Brain Learning family
"Dr. June, I've decided to continue French immersion in high school and I wanted you to be one of the first to know. I've worked so hard to become bilingual all through elementary school! Reading novels, writing book reports and working with you to grow my grammar and vocab knowledge, I figured, why wouldn't I keep going? I know I want to be able to work in French in my future (maybe even work in Paris?) It just makes sense, you know? I hope we can continue to work together in high school.
— Eva*
Grade 8, Toronto
Eva* began working with Dr. June in Grade 5 as the demands of French immersion increased and she felt her confidence slipping. At Dr. June's suggestion, Eva began tutoring young learners in French, and she became a peer tutor in her friend group. At the end of Grade 12, Eva graduated with high honours and was awarded the Bilingual Certificate by the Toronto District School Board. Eva travelled in France, first with her family, and then during her undergraduate degree when she worked for a term in Paris.
*Name changed to protect student privacy.
Questions & Answers
1. I don't speak French at home. Can we still help our child?
Yes! Most of my French Immersion families don't speak French. I equip you to support the work in English, and I coordinate with what your child is doing in their French classroom.
2. Should we pull our child out of French Immersion?
For most struggling readers, no — with the right intervention, they catch up and the bilingual advantage is preserved. But every child is different. If leaving the program is genuinely the right call, I will tell you plainly. This is your family's decision; my job is to give you the information you need to make an evidence-informed decision.
3. Is it dyslexia — or just the second language?
Sometimes what looks like "French Immersion struggle" is an underlying reading difficulty showing up in the more demanding language first. The Bilingual Learning Skills Assessment is designed to answer exactly this question. If a formal psychoeducational assessment is needed, I'll tell you — and I work closely with psychologists who can provide one.
4. How long before we see progress?
Families usually see changes in reading confidence within weeks, and measurable reading growth over one to two report card cycles. Deeper gaps take longer — I'll give you an honest timeline after I've met your child.
5. What are your fees?
French Immersion reading support sits within Tier 1 Literacy Coaching and Tutoring, starting from $150/hour. The Bilingual Learning Skills Assessment is available through my Diagnostics service.
Meet Dr. June Starkey
Dr. June Starkey OCT, PhD, is the founder of Great Brain Learning. She holds a doctorate from OISE at the University of Toronto with research grounded in language teaching and learning science, and has taught and coached students across Canada for the last two decades. She has experience teaching in the IB (MYP) program in Ontario, has taught in the Master of Teaching (MT) program at OISE, and has worked with more than 1,000 families across Canada. Her in-person work is located in the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario.