Volunteer Spotlight

Meet Literacy Tutor Karen

GiGi’s Playhouse San Diego has been blessed with some pretty amazing tutors through the years, one such volunteer is Karen Bartley. A tutor since June 2022, Karen has fit right in and made that meaningful connection with her tutee Lindsey. Finding that right fit can mean the world in terms of progress, enjoyment and progression, Karen and Lindsey have certainly created this flourishing working relationship.

GiGi’s 1:1 Literacy Tutoring is guided by a meaningful set of principles:

• Teach using materials that are meaningful and relevant to the student to maximize interest.
• Teach with a multi-sensory approach to build and confidence and reinforce learning.
• Teach students to practice, transfer and generalize newly learned skills.
• Teach students to comprehend and use information gained from reading to apply to their real-world experiences.

As stated by Karen in regard to tutoring Lindsey:

“Lindsey and I have been working together for almost 2 years now . During our tutoring sessions , she loves reading stories on the computer with RAZ kids and is already at Level D!”

To get a better idea of how Karen came to GiGi’s Playhouse San Diego, we asked her to share some thoughts:

“I found out about Gigi’s Workshop from a website about volunteer opportunities. I was interested in volunteering because I am a retired elementary teacher and wanted to start working with children again , especially in reading and as a tutor in a small setting. I am a literacy tutor with Lindsey Falk and we’ve been working together on sight words, fluency and comprehension. One of my favorite things about Gigi’s is the convenience- I can walk to my session. Also I appreciate all the resources available and having access to reading programs on the computer . It’s been a pleasure to be able to work with Lindsey in consecutive sessions and see all her growth.”

We certainly appreciate Karen’s work/volunteer ethic and cheer her and Lindsey on in their future tutoring endeavors.

For more information about GiGi’s Playhouse 1:1 Math and Literacy Tutoring please visit:

and/or contact dmontero@gigisplayhouse.org