Sterling kindergarten teacher shifts to becoming a reading interventionist

Reading Interventionist Becki Edmondson is being recognized for her efforts to help students in their reading skills at Franklin School in Sterling.

When the reading specialist at Sterling’s Franklin Elementary School left, students who struggle with literacy lost a valuable resource.

Rebecca Edmondson, then a kindergarten teacher, agreed to make the career shift to support the new initiative — and keep working with beginning students.

“Everything is still amazing to them, and they love learning and their teachers, and it is what really draws me to that age,” she said.

You get students who come in not yet able to write their name and leave being able to write two or three sentences and reading a book at their level. I love that light that finally goes on when they realize they know how to do it.”

—  Rebecca Edmondson

Edmondson has been educating students for 26 years, the last 16 years with Sterling Public Schools.

A kindergarten teacher for most of that time, Edmondson discovered her desire to work with young children early on.

Reading Interventionist Becki Edmondson is being recognized for her efforts to help students in their reading skills at Franklin School in Sterling.

“I was a softball player in college, and we had a camp working with young girls,” Edmondson said. “I knew then and there that I wanted to be a teacher.”

At the time, Edmondson was studying physical education at Illinois Central College in East Peoria, but made the move to elementary education after that camp experience with the children.

“That was my first experience working with kids, and that is what started it,” she said.

This is Edmondson’s first year as a reading interventionist and she is enthusiastic about her new role. Helping children to read is something she is incredibly passionate about.

“This has always been my favorite area with Kindergarten. Just teaching them to read is very self-gratifying,” Edmondson said.

Principal Brooke Dir praised Edmondson’s flexibility in the new role, including her willingness to work with the classroom teachers.

Edmondson runs through what a typical session is like when meeting with students. The reading intertention is a new core curriculum at Sterling Public Schools.

“Ms. Edmondson made the change from a kindergarten teacher to an at-home teacher to a reading interventionist,” Dir said. “As the lead reading interventionist, she works collaboratively with all of the classroom teachers as well as the reading aides, to ensure the students’ needs are being met.”

As a reading interventionist, Edmondson works with small groups of students, focusing on their areas of need. She has witnessed the improvement in her students’ confidence.

“You get students who come in not yet able to write their name and leave being able to write two or three sentences and reading a book at their level,” said Edmondson. “I love that light that finally goes on when they realize they know how to do it.”

Edmondson believes great teachers strive to make connections with their students.

“When kids you have taught get off the bus and run up to give you a hug the next year because they missed you, that is what keeps me teaching,” said Edmondson.

Teachers at Franklin Elementary are embracing a new core curriculum, Wonders. The curriculum utilizes a phonetics and phonemic awareness program, 95% Group, which identifies and categorizes students’ areas of need so an interventionist can provide lessons specific to each student.

Earlier this year, Matthew Birdsley, as director of curriculum and instruction for the district, sent an email inviting interested teachers to special literacy education training. Edmondson and several other classroom teachers with kindergarten, first- and second-grade classroom responsibilities, immediately stepped up.

The program is Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling training. But commonly, it’s called LETRS. It connects teachers with the science of reading and gives them tools so they can interact with the processes of the student brain that governs literacy. The training provides teachers with additional skills they can use in their literacy instruction.

Edmondson runs through what a typical session is like when meeting with students. The reading intertention is a new core curriculum at Sterling Public Schools.

“It’s something we can use right away and has been really meaningful, and everybody I have talked to loves that program, and we are really grateful that we have that training,” said Edmondson. “It gives us the training we need to help children quicker.”

Edmondson and the other teachers have committed themselves to these teacher training sessions for the next two years. Children in these programs are tested every quarter for progress and goal evaluation, continuing to assist in their areas of deficiency.

Edmondson has embraced the challenge, Dir said.

“All of our teachers have been tasked with challenges these past couple of school years. Ms. Edmondson takes on the challenge with a positive attitude as if there is nothing she can’t overcome,” Dir said.

With continued guidance from such dedicated educators, the students of Franklin Elementary look to have a bright future.