The Annual Newsletter of the International Reading Association's Phonics Special Interest Group

Who’s Who in the Phonics Special Interest Group

Denise Baker is a Literacy Coach at Chickasaw Elementary School in Orlando, Florida. She earned her B.S. degree in Primary, Elementary, and Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) Education at Florida Southern College in May 1992. She earned a M.Ed. degree in Reading Education K-12 from the University of Central Florida in August 1997. She taught SLD Resource K-5, First Grade, Reading Recovery, and Reading Resource prior to becoming a Literacy Coach. She does numerous staff developments in the area of reading for her school and has also presented at her district’s Reading Conference.

Patricia (Pat) Benner is retired having taught basic skills in high school, adult education and community college. She now works part-timeas a consultant for various schools and literacy groups teaching volunteer tutors, including inmates in the local jails. She received her B.A. from San Francisco State University and her M.A. from San Jose State University. She holds four California teaching credentials including Reading Specialist. She is a published author of TroubleShooter I (now out of print but in revision), was a consultant for TroubleShooter II; wrote PreGED Critical Reading Skills, Breakthrough in
Critical Reading Skills and is a co-author of PreGED in Literature and the Arts. She has also won awards for teaching. She believes phonics provides the structure beginning readers of any age need.

Pat Butchko is a first grade teacher in Buckeye Arizona where she has
taught for 15 years. While she has the opportunity to retire this May, she is going for another three years teaching first graders to read and write. Pat uses Total Reading as a phonics component. She individualizes reading in her classroom with personal books. Pat has been a member of the IRA for 10-15 years. “I love their philosophy and their magazine and newspaper,” reports Pat.

Karen Cochran is completing her 11th year as Coordinator of Secondary Reading and Learning/Language Support Programs for Frederick County Public Schools, Maryland. Mrs. Cochran earned her bachelor's degree in English/Journalism/Speech and Secondary Education from New Mexico Highlands University. She holds advanced professional certification equivalent to a master’s plus 30 with a concentration in reading. Besides coordinating secondary reading programs for her district, Mrs. Cochran teaches graduate level reading classes for the Maryland State sDepartment of Education and Hood College. She has been involved in public education for 35 years.

E. Judith Cohen is a faculty member at Florida International University in Miami, Florida where she teaches courses in reading and LD. She earned a B.S. in Specific Learning Disabilities (1974), M.S. in Diagnostic Teaching (1977), and Ed.D. in Exceptional Student Education (1996). Judy worked as a classroom teacher and clinician for over 25 years. She is the co-author of Focus on Phonics: Assessment and Instruction, Building Early Language and Literacy: A Preschool Program, and the contributing author to FastTrack Reading (phonics component). She believes that students must “conquer the code” in order to “master the meaning!”

Faye Crow is in her twentieth year as an instructor of reading methods courses for Drury University. She retired from public school teaching in Missouri, Germany, and Kansas (16 years K-1 and 17 years as reading specialist). Faye's B.S. from Centenary College, and work in Kansas and Missouri for her M.A. in reading, paved the way for her dedication to improving reading instruction. Faye has written reading materials for Milliken Publishers and is the author of Ready Reading, a multisensory approach to beginning reading. Her expertise in teaching reading has taken her to several states for numerous IRA presentations and consulting.

Ricki Fischer is the District Coordinator for Dyslexia in Pasadena Independent School District, Pasadena Texas. Her career in education spans 35 years and includes teaching first, fourth, fifth and sixth grade, Title I reading, Title I Director in Howell, Michigan, and Developmental Reading for College of the Mainland, Texas City, Texas. Ricki's passion has always been the struggling reader and her cause has always been to make sure that no matter how the educational pendulum swings, phonics will not be left out of reading instruction.

Annette Gast is a Reading Specialist with the Pattonville School District. She has a master's degree and has been teaching (with ten years off devoted to being a stay-at-home mom) since 1973. Except for two years, she has exclusively taught special reading. For eight years, she taught Reading Recovery. Annette was a primary teacher finalist for Teacher of the Year in 2001. She has taught all levels from preschool through college and finds kindergarten and first grade to be her real niche. Annette compares teaching reading to teaching small students how to a dance. You follow their lead and let them guide your instruction. Annette loves teaching.

Lynn Gordon, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of reading and literary in the Department of Elementary Education at California State University, Northridge. She earned her B.A. and M.A. from Occidental College and her Ph.D. from UCLA. Lynn currently teaches reading methods and educational psychology courses to students in the elementary teaching credential program at CSUN. Before that, she taught kindergarten and first grade for fourteen years with the Los Angeles Unified School District. Dr. Gordon founded the International Reading Association's Phonics Special Interest Group in 2002. She is the Phonics SIG's current chair, co-editor of the Phonics Bulletin, and moderator of the WeLovePhonics@Yahoogroups.com e-mail group.

Phyllis Herzog has devoted her entire professional life to working with students with language and learning disabilities. Since receiving her B.S. in 1970 at the University of Michigan and her M.S. in 1973 at Hunter College in special education, she has taught in self-contained and resource special education classrooms and tutored privately with both LD and ELL students. Her Slingerland (Orton-Gillingham based) training taught her the necessity of good phonics instruction. Out of need, Ms. Herzog developed a picture cueing system called PhonicsQ. Since 1999, she has sold over 3,000 sets for use with emerging readers, K-12 special education students, K-adulthood ESL/ELL students and struggling adults. Ms. Herzog has great satisfaction knowing that her direct instruction and PhonicsQ have made a difference for students around the world.

Rochelle Ireland-D'Ardenne is a Reading Supervisor for Montgomery County (VA) Public Schools. She received her B.S. in Elementary Education from Pittsburg (KS) State University and her M.S. in Reading from Southwestern Oklahoma State University. She was selected as the New River Valley Reading Teacher of the Year in 1992 and has served on the Governing Council of the Virginia State Reading Association since 1992. Rochelle was the President of VSRA in 1999-2000 and presently chairs the Past President's Advisory Committee for that organization. She is also an adjunct professor in the Educational Studies Department at Radford University where she teaches undergraduates who are planning to become teachers. "Most of these undergraduate students have not been taught to read using any phonics skills and, thus, they are lost when asked to teach using a balance of phonics and other strategies," notes Rochelle.

Marilyn Joshua, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Elementary Education, California State
University, Northridge. She earned a B.A. from U.C.L.A. and M.A. and Ph.D. from the Claremont Graduate University. She
teaches credential and graduate level courses in reading/language arts. She is one of the first authors in the country to publish rewritten classic children's stories featuring Children of Color (Cinderella and the Glass Slipper, Snow White, The Original Three Little Pigs Retold, and The
Adventures of Curious Eric: Learning Concepts). Her scholarly interest and research includes journal articles with a focus on: Transcultural reading and writing opportunities in the classroom; "best practices" instructional strategies for teachers who are reluctant to teach writing; and students as authors.

John Paul Lapid is a Regional Literacy Coach with the Northern Comprehensive Assistance Center at WestEd. He consults with and provides training for eight high-poverty underachieving schools that received the California Reading Excellence Act grant. He works closely with district coaches, principals, and site literacy leadership teams. Lapid also trains educators in the Reading Success Network (RSN), which provides school leadership teams with reading instruction strategies and coaching skills. Prior to working at WestEd, Lapid worked as an adjunct professor of education through the University of Guam, where he focused on language and literacy development throughout the region. John Paul has worked on Guam, Saipan, and the Marshall Islands across the grade levels.

Diana Lytle is a Reading Specialist at Broad Street School in the Nashua,
NH. She has taught in Connecticut, New York, and New Hampshire. Diana
earned her B.A. in History and Elementary Education from Emmanuel College in Boston MA., her M.S. in Developmental Reading from SUNY Albany, NY, and an M.S. in Mathematics from U Lowell, MA. She is a past president of her local IRA over 30 years. She is certified in PhonoGraphix©. She feels that her students have benefited from her improved phonics instruction.

Don McCabe has been the Research Director of the AVKO Dyslexia Research Foundation (www.avko.org) since 1974. He is the author of To Teach a Dyslexic, The Patterns of English Spelling, and The Teaching of Reading and Spelling: a Continuum from Kindergarten through College. Perhaps McCabe's greatest contributions to education are the development of the "sequential spelling" technique and the concept of the five different types of English spelling: the simple, fancy, insane, tricky, and the scrunched up. McCabe has 17 years of classroom experience and 30 years as a clinician and trainer of parents as tutors.

Marci McGowan is a first grade teacher at H. W. Mountz School in Spring Lake, NJ. She earned her Ed.M and teaching credential from Rutgers University. Teaching reading is “the best part of the day,” according to Marci. She has developed an extensive award-winning classroom website that features student work and parent/teacher resources: (http://www.mrsmcgowan.com). Marci creates interactive webpages for students to practice their phonics skills, and her collaborative online literacy projects have earned several Miss Rumphius Awards from IRA's RTEACHER LISTSERV.

Basha Millhollen is Administrator of Curriculum and Instruction for the Santa Barbara County Education Office, where she oversees all curriculum related activities, teacher/administrator training and the County Academic Audit Team (CAAT) for reading instruction, and programs and services for English Learners. Prior to this, Basha was Senior Research Associate/Literacy Projects Director with WestEd where she provided Program Improvement and High Priority schools with reading reform tools and training through the Reading Success Network, the Reading Excellence Act and the Secondary Literacy Support Network. She has been an Education Programs Consultant at the California Department of Education, a Director of Bilingual Programs and classroom teacher for twenty years. Basha firmly believes that all children can learn, especially if they are taught [to read]!

Susan O'Keefe has been a Resource Teacher for 30 years both at the primary and at the secondary level in Montreal, Canada. She has a Bachelor of Education, a Reading Diploma, a Special Education Diploma, a T.E.S.L. Certificate and is now completing a Masters in Curriculum at McGill University. Balanced literacy and providing equal access to reading for all children have been the driving passion behind the many years of teaching. Multiple intelligences, multi-sensory integration, differentiated instruction, cooperative learning and connecting sounds, print and cognition make up the background that colors the teaching style of this teacher, but in the foreground is her deep belief in the importance of the role of phonics in teaching reading and writing skills. She has said that the reason that she has been able to offer the gift of reading to many special needs children is because of her continued belief in phonics and the role it plays in becoming a reader.

Shelly Osborne has thirty-five years of teaching experience in elementary classrooms. She received her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.S. from the State University of New York, Oneonta. She holds a Reading Specialist Certificate from College of the Holy Names, Oakland, CA. and a CLAD Certificate from the state of California. She currently is a consultant in the area of language arts and a lecturer in reading at UC Berkeley Extension and John F. Kennedy University, Orinda, CA. She also supervises multiple subject student teachers. She truly believes in the teacher as life-long learner.

Karen Pasquini teaches small groups of students (grades K-6) for 40-minute periods twice a week, remediating below-average reading and math skills. Previously, she taught all subjects in grades 1, 4, 5 and 6 in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida, in inner-city, suburban, rural, international, northern US, and southern US schools. Her students’ lessons are often featured in city newspapers. Karen won a West Virginia state-wide award in economics for a 6th-grade unit. Karen holds a B.S. degree, a master’s of art in teaching, an elementary math specialist certificate, and a reading specialist certificate. Karen says, “I get to apply the research and writings of others.”

Mary Rector is a first grade instructor at Pleasantville Elementary in Pleasantville, Iowa. She earned her B.A. at Central College in Pella, Iowa. Mary was awarded an “Excellence In Education” award in November of 2002. Mary is a member of the Iowa Reading Association where she has served as a zone director. She currently chairs a creative writing contest for her local reading association. She is very involved with reading instruction and curriculum within her school system. She recently published an article on the mirandanet.ac.uk Internet site explaining her pen pal exchange program with a teacher from Great Britain.

Patrick Riccards is vice president of Widmeyer Communications in Washington, DC. He currently serves as senior counsel to the Partnership for Reading, a federal inter-agency effort designed to provide educators, parents, and community leaders with information on scientifically based reading research and its application in classroom instruction. Patrick was senior counsel to the National Reading Panel from 1998 to 2001. He earned his B.A. in government and communications from the University of Virginia, and currently serves as co-chairman of the Early Childhood Education Committee for the Arlington (VA) School Board.

Melissa Rust is a reading specialist and reading intervention teacher at Walkersville Middle School. She earned a B.A. in psychology from Randolph-Macon College, her secondary English Certification from the University of Md., and her Master’s in Reading and reading specialist certification from Hood College. She has taught pre-school to college age students. Mrs. Rust is particularly interested in learning how findings in brain research affect our understanding on how we teach reading.

Wanda Ryan is presently a Reading Teacher at Allen Elementary School in Houston, Texas. She earned a B.S. degree in Business from Texas Southern University and became a teacher through an Alternative Certification Program. Wanda has taught first and second grade and has devoted many hours to after-school reading intervention. The last two years, she has taught small group reading intervention for first, third and fourth grade students and next year will serve as Literacy Coach for her campus. Wanda’s first love is teaching students to read and seeing their progress. This summer, she will attend a preparatory class for State Master Reading Certification.

John Shefelbine, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Teacher Education, California State University, Sacramento, where he teaches courses in language and literacy, assessment, and beginning reading. His scholarly interests have focused on how students learn word meanings from context, academic language development, frameworks for making decisions about reading instruction, and polysyllabic decoding strategies. John was a contributor to the California Reading Language Arts Framework, the California Reading Initiative, and the California Reading and Literature Project and has authored variety of reading materials and programs for developing fluent, confident readers.

Jeanette Sleeper is an elementary teacher at Fulda Elementary School, currently teaching all day everyday kindergarten. She earned her B.S. in elementary education and early childhood education from the Minnesota State University at Mankato. Her M.S. degree is in elementary education/gifted education from the State University at Mankato. She has taught for 32 years and is a part of the Best Practice reading network in the state of Minnesota. She has presented teacher in-services many times throughout the state (reading best practice academies) on the importance of phonemic awareness and phonics in the process of learning to read. Jeanette loves to watch the children as they become readers - "It is wonderful to be the person who helps children open the door to the world of reading!"

Grace Vyduna-Haskins, now retired, taught for thirty-three years in McHenry County, Illinois. She earned her B.A. from Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, Illinois, and her M.Ed. and Ed.D. from National-Louis University in Evanston, Illinois. After receiving training in Orton-Gillingham methods of reading instruction, she researched using a multi-sensory approach to teach first grade reading for her master's project. Her doctoral dissertation investigated American reading-spelling relationships from 1607 to 1930. In addition to doing numerous presentations and publishing several articles on the topic of spelling/reading relationships, she is the author of The Spel-Lang Tree, a word study program for primary grades.

Kendra Wagner is an outspoken literacy activist, enthusiastic writer, and K-6 Title 1 reading specialist near Seattle. She also mentors and coaches teachers, and maintains a private practice in tutoring. Her first career, as a counselor/
dance therapist, was a rebellion attempt, since her family was joyfully entrenched in education. She has taught primary grades in Chicago and K-8 teachers in California, facilitating staff development with the Consortium On Reading Excellence (CORE). Kendra has authored reading instruction materials and is a regular IRA and NCTE presenter. Kendra reports that when she is not reading research on the Stairmaster, she is opening rejection letters from journals, informing her that if only she had a PhD they would publish her. Kendra is a co-editor of The Phonics Bulletin.

Kali Woodward is an inventor, teacher, social entrepreneur, and founder/CEO of FUNetix, Inc., a reading development company featuring a patent pending, phonics-based reading system. Kali studied law at UCLA, served as a multi-lingual translator for U.S. Army Intelligence (Spanish and Arabic), taught English as a Second Language in Bogota, Colombia and owned and operated four telecommunications companies for eleven years, including a digital voice processing studio and a Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) Cisco Powered Network partner, before devoting his career to developing brain science and other mathematics and reading curricula for elementary school students.

Kristi Yanta is a New Product Manager at AGS Publishing in Circle Pines, Minnesota. She completed her graduate work (Ed.S.) in school psychology at the University of Wisconsin in River Falls and is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist. Kristi worked for three years in public schools before leaving the field to join the test development team at AGS. Her current projects include a new reading fluency measure and two test revisions. Kristi has presented at the American Psychological Association convention and is an active member of several local and national professional organizations in the fields of school psychology and reading.

Helen Zeitzoff is a veteran teacher of 32 years in the Baltimore County School System. In the last three years Helen has authored the following books: No Glamour Reading: Vowels, No Glamour Reading: Syllables, No Glamour Reading: Sight Words (LinguiSystems) and Phonics Rules! (Remedia Publications). She is a demonstrated expert in the use of phonetic principles to teach the decoding of words. Ms. Zeitzoff holds a B.S. degree (Towson University) and Master's Degree Equivalency (Johns Hopkins University and Loyola College). In 1990 the Baltimore County Chamber of Commerce presented Ms. Zeitzoff with an Award in Excellence in Education. Helen's newest book to be published by Scholastic is titled Using CONTEXT CLUES To Help Kids Tackle Unfamiliar Words (Strategies and Practice Pages That Teach Students to Use Context Clues to Build Vocabulary and Comprehension). Publication for this book is January 2005.

Who’s Who Updates

Phonics Special Interest Group members should e-mail their 100-word Who’s Who profile or update to kendra9@mindspring.com. When you e-mail Kendra, please indicate that you are submitting a biographical statement for The Phonics Bulletin.

(Remember, to become a member of the International Reading Association's Phoncs Special Interest Group you first need to become a member of the International Reading Association.) Please do not submit a biographical statement if you are not a member of the Phonics Special Interest Group.

Who's Who information will appear in both The Phonics Bulletin (print version) and in www.PhonicsBulletin (our online version). See the Who's Who in our Organization link.

Directions: Begin the biographical profile with your name and a statement about your current position in the field of education. For example, "Susan Smith is a resource specialist at Paradise Hills Middle School in Paradise Hills, North Dakota." Follow up with other details about your teaching experience, educational background, awards received, special areas of interest, publications, or even a statement about your educational vision or passion for phonics. There is a 100 word limit. Note: Please, write in the third person, as if someone else interviewed you and then wrote up the profile.

Your biographical profile might look something like this:

Susan Smith is a resource specialist at Paradise Hills Middle School in Paradise Hills, North Dakota. She earned her B.A. and elementary teaching credential from Brown University. Susan was awarded the a Paradise Hills Unified School District's "Teaching Excellence" award in 1998. Ms. Smith wrote an article entitled, "Phonics Facts and Fiction," which was published by Teacher magazine in 1995. She will begin a master's degree program at Dakota State University next September. Susan reports, "I love teaching reading because I see the results every day and I know I'm making a difference in my students' lives."

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