"Hi, my name is Stacey L. S. I have been what is called a Tier 3 Interventionist for the past 3 school years. I taught phonics, reading, and comprehension to K-5 students at a local public elementary school. I have a professional development certificate in Jolly Phonics and I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biblical Studies with a minor in Family Studies that I earned from John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, in 1992. I can teach systematic, synthetic phonics, assist children who have difficulty reading and also help them with comprehension, writing.

The curriculum we used is called I-Spire and Making Connections. I-Spire can be taught one-on-one or in small group settings of which I taught both. For instance, if a child takes an assessment and can only read short CVC words or consonant-vowel-consonant words like cat, bat, etc and they start to have trouble with the first digraph taught which is "sh" then the child is placed in the "sh" lesson by him or her self or with other children who have landed in or near the same place in their assessments. After the children are placed then systematic teaching of phonics begins from that point of assessment with review of phonograms, blending, segmenting, and encoding words, analyzing words, reading sentences, simple stories and answering questions and filling out worksheets. Mini assessments are given at the end of each phonic lesson such as the "sh" lesson to see if the concept has been mastered at least to 80 percent. A fluency drill is also given at the end of each lesson.

Making Connections is a program centered around comprehension with shorter but interesting articles for the children to tackle reading and answering questions and gaining an understanding of the material and unfamiliar vocabulary. Reading and re-reading the text, spending extra time with the text, and sometimes doing extension activities all help to solidify the learning. With time and effort children improve in their reading and comprehension skills." less...