Emporia State recently approved two new programs around dyslexia, a certificate and a concentration as part of the Instructional Specialist master’s degree.

“The reading specialist is a masters level program, and the dyslexia courses are also offered at the graduate level,” said Teddy Roop, assistant professor of Elementary Education, Early Childhood, and Special Education. “With the reading specialist, when someone gets a master’s degree they go through what we call concentration. So they are taking core concentration courses as well as courses that are geared towards reading in pre-k through twelfth grade.”

Though the courses are geared towards graduate students, seniors preparing to enter Block 2 with 90 hours can take the courses as they work towards their licensure, according to Roop.

“Every teacher is a teacher of reading,” Roop said. “Understanding the struggles some students may have with reading should always be something you think about when planning instructions no matter what subject you teach because reading, and ELA in general is in just about everything we do we are surrounded by print. So I want my students to think of themselves as teachers of reading.”

After piloting the program in the Fall with a six-week course on dyslexia, an additional 15 credit hours of courses will be available in the Fall.

“The biggest thing that is happening is all of the different areas (of the university) coming together to focus on things,” said Lori Mann, associate professor of Elementary Education, Early Childhood, and Special Education. “I think that is really what’s different about this movement that is happening. Our degrees are aligning with each other so that sped and elementary, and even places like Early Childhood are looking at how we can work together.”

As prospective teachers begin Block 2, Kelly O’Neal-Hixson, associate professor of Elementary Education, Early Childhood, and Special Education, said it is important that the transition goes smoothly.

“I definitely think these courses start that process of preparing teachers to meet the needs of students in the classroom (earlier than they would have before, but) I do believe that it is an ongoing process,” O’Neal-Hixson said. “This program does a fantastic job of really making sure our students are applying what they are learning in their classroom… The ins and outs of applying it is important because it’s not always that perfect application (of theory), there are lots of shades of gray and teachers have to make a lot of decisions.”

According to O’Neal-Hixson, students in special education often miss out on the language building skills that happen naturally in the classroom by being pulled out for individual interventions and instruction.

“I feel that special education teachers definitely need more training in the area of reading to really hone in on their teaching skills and to think about that explicit, multisensory instruction,” O’Neal-Hixson said. “But also that piece of making sure that students who are identified as special ed. still have an opportunity to really be engaged in the classroom and experience those language rich experiences that happen.”

For questions about applying or courses, contact Erin Tuttle at [email protected] or Teddy Roop at [email protected].