Leslie Ternes displays her certification as a fully trained Literacy Lessons intervention specialist. Joining her are other Literacy Lessons teachers, from left, Gena Boyd, teacher leaders Teresa Fruth and Holly Christie and Nancy Fensch. Not pictured is Deanna Mack.
It took two years of study and training but Leslie Ternes now is a fully certified Mansfield City Schools Literacy Lessons intervention specialist.
Literacy Lessons is an Ohio State University professional development project for specialist teachers, including special education teachers, who work with children having difficulty learning to read and write.
Teachers must complete graduate-level course work over two years to earn Literacy Lessons certification.
Veteran teachers Holly Christie and Teresa Fruth are the district’s certified “teacher leaders,” trained in both Literacy Lessons and Reading Recovery, a one-on-one program for at-risk first-graders. Christie and Fruth assist in providing ongoing professional development to teachers involved in the two programs.
“As Literacy Lessons teachers we are the intervention piece,” Fruth said in an earlier interview. “The goal of Literacy Lessons is to get special needs students to function at their age-level classroom.”
Literacy Lessons training and continued professional develop involves “behind the glass” teaching sessions at Ashland University. The one-way glass allows other educators to monitor and critique a teacher’s work with a student. Afterward, observations and ideas are shared.
“That’s the key,” Christie said earlier. “Professional development is ongoing. It never stops as long as a teacher is involved in the program.”
While Literacy Lessons teachers work one-on-one with students during part of their day, the learning techniques used in those sessions also are applied to small groups of students or, in some cases, an entire classroom.