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N.A. Teachers Participate in Teaching Reading Workshop

Pictured above are workshop partipants:  front row (l-r):  Sherilyn Goode, Amanda Price, Bailey King, Tammie Dodds, Sabrina Hamilton, Julie Hatcher; back row (l-r):  Jodie Parham (Worshop Presenter), Tina Ivey, Mary Louise Davis, Dorothy Harris, Tonya Chapin, Candy Walls, Kelly Coltharp (Director of Special Services)

Eleven teachers from the New Albany School District recently participated in a “Teaching Reading” workshop.  The workshop was held at New Albany High School June 16-18 for three hours each afternoon.  Special education teachers, speech therapists, and elementary teachers attended the three-day workshop.

Jodie Parham, a Certified Academic Language Therapist, was the workshop presenter.  Parham has a master’s degree in dyslexia therapy and has received reading training throughout the country primarily in Texas.

Parham reviewed the five basic components of reading instruction with those that attended the workshop.  Those components included phonemic awareness, letter recognition, vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency.  Parham said her goal was to give the teachers strategies and activities that they can use in the classroom with all of their students particularly those students who struggle with reading acquisition. 

Kelly Coltharp, Director of Special Services, offered the training for her special education teachers because reading is one of the most specific disabilities special education teachers deal with in the classroom.  “Learning to read is such a critical skill that all students must learn at an early age to be successful in school,” said Kelly Coltharp, Director of Special Services.  “We want to make sure that our teachers have the knowledge and skills necessary to teach reading to all learners”. 

Parham and Coltharp both commended the group for attending training during their time off from teaching.  “It is very promising that teachers would give up their personal time during the summer for professional growth,” Parham said.  “There are teachers attending the training that have more than twenty years of teaching experience who chose to give up three afternoons of their summer vacation to attend the workshop to gain information to help their students this fall,” Coltharp added. 

“This reading workshop is a huge asset in our teacher arsenal to bridge the gap between reading skills acquisition and academic success in school,” said Mary Louise Davis, a special education teacher at New Albany High School.  “Mrs. Parham has done a wonderful job in supplying us with valuable tools to assist us in providing exemplary reading instruction for all of our students Pre-K through twelfth grade.”

Pictured below:  A group of teachers work on a timed letter recognition activity during the Teaching Reading workshop.