Our Mission

Reading-by-the-Sea, under the direction of certified reading specialist Francis Lunney, provides specialized in-person academic instruction and educational assessments for students struggling with reading, writing, spelling, and other language-based skills on Boston’s North Shore. We also offer online instruction to students from other locations. Reading-by-the-Sea also offers teacher training workshops in the Lively Letters / Sight Words You Can See in your selected location.

About Reading Specialist Fran Lunney

Certified Reading Specialist Fran Lunney

Fran is a knowledgeable and engaging reading and writing teacher with over 25 years of experience teaching students of all abilities. He currently directs reading intervention services at Manchester Memorial School, a K-5 elementary school in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA where he has taught for the past 12 years. In this role, Fran’s work ranges from teaching kindergarten students just beginning to learn their sounds and letters to students in upper elementary grades who require specialized instruction to become more accurate, fluent, and proficient readers. Fran’s instructional focus includes phonemic awareness, phonics (decoding and spelling), oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, and written expression.

Fran is trained and experienced in specialized reading approaches, most notably the Orton Gillingham approach and Lively Letters. He earned graduate degrees in teaching reading (C.A.S, MGH Institute of Health Professions) and teaching writing (M.S.T., University of New Hampshire).

Early in his career, Fran taught for ten years in specialized private schools for dyslexic students including the Carroll School (High School / Upper Division) in Lincoln, MA; the Greenwood School in Putney, VT, and the Rawson-Saunders School in Austin, Texas (where he directed the school’s writing program). In addition, Fran taught reading tutorials and writing classes at well-regarded Orton-Gillingham based summer programs including the Pine Ridge Summer School in Williston, Vermont and the Durango Mountain Camp in Durango, CO.

Fran went on to work as a reading researcher with Dr Maryanne Wolf at Tufts University Center for Reading and Language Research and later co-directed the Shoshone Summer Camp in Cody, WY, a 5-week program for dyslexic students that paired academics, including Orton-Gillingham based reading instruction with outdoor adventures such as rock climbing, mountain biking, and horseback riding. A frequent summer traveler, Fran has worked more than ten summers as a private reading teacher for families living in locations including Bozeman, Montana; Jackson Hole, Wyoming; and Hong Kong.

Fran has experience teaching writing across all grade levels. Fran’s own writing influences his writing instruction. His non-fiction conservation and fly-fishing articles have appeared in Eastern Fly Fishing and American Fly Fishing. His poems have been published in literary journals such as the Southern Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Tar River Poetry, Salamander, and Appalachia.