{"id":145843,"date":"2024-01-16T12:32:19","date_gmt":"2024-01-16T17:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=145843"},"modified":"2024-01-16T12:42:22","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T17:42:22","slug":"a-love-for-literacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2024\/01\/16\/a-love-for-literacy\/","title":{"rendered":"A love for literacy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers honored Laura Simons for the thesis she produced as a graduate student in the Master of Education in Literacy Program at Wright State.<\/p><\/div>\n

As a second-grade teacher at Celina Primary School, Laura Simons wanted to ensure she was doing everything she could to help her students become better readers.<\/p>\n

She began using different teaching methods \u2014 the use of flashcards and orthographic mapping \u2014 in her classroom to determine which was more effective.<\/p>\n

Her research became the focus of her thesis as a graduate student in the Master of Education in Literacy Program<\/a> at Wright State University.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s really important to find effective methods,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to just continue doing the same things over and over if they were not helpful for my students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simons\u2019 thesis, titled \u201cPutting Words to Work: A Comparative Study on the Effects of Flashcards and Orthographic Mapping on Students\u2019 Sight Word Reading and Spelling,\u201d helped her grow as a teacher and also gained national attention.<\/p>\n

She received the prestigious J. Estill Alexander Future Leaders in Literacy Master\u2019s Thesis Award from the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers.<\/p>\n

Simons was honored at the association\u2019s conference in November in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She was also invited to present her research at the conference. Her thesis will be published in the annual Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers Yearbook.<\/p>\n

Hannah Chai, Ed.D., professor of literacy and co-program director of the Reading Endorsement and Master of Literacy Program, described Simons as an amazing teacher and literacy leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaura is making a difference not only for the children she teaches in Celina but is also adding her strong teacher research to the field of literacy education,\u201d Chai said.<\/p>\n

Simons received a master\u2019s degree in literacy<\/a> in 2023 from Wright State and a bachelor\u2019s degree in early childhood education<\/a> in 2018 from Wright State\u2019s Lake Campus<\/a>. She is in her fifth year as a second-grade teacher in Celina.<\/p>\n

For her master\u2019s thesis, Simons compared how flashcards or orthographic mapping affected her students\u2019 spelling and reading skills. Orthographic mapping helps students learn new words by making letter-sound connections that help them commit spellings, pronunciations and word meanings to memory.<\/p>\n

Simons found that flashcards were less effective for teaching her students how to spell new words, while her students were able to learn and recall more words with orthographic mapping.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were able to look at the letters and pair sounds with letters and that helped them to recall more words by sight and produce the correct spelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simons was inspired to study literacy after taking a graduate course on teaching dyslexic learners. She realized that if she could teach a child with dyslexia to read, she could teach any student.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always wanted to be that teacher who was able to service my students,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to be that one-stop shop. That\u2019s how I would describe it: a one-stop shop where I\u2019m able to meet the needs of my students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her approach to teaching is guided by her tagline: \u201cDoes that make sense to your brain?\u201d If a lesson does not make sense to a student, she says it is her job to find a way to help them understand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen students feel that I have helped, and can say, \u2018Oh my goodness, you just helped me to figure that out,\u2019 that\u2019s what I\u2019m here for. That is my purpose,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Simons is not just passionate about teaching literacy; she is also an avid reader. Her love for reading started as a child with books like \u201cThe Secret Garden\u201d by Frances Hodgson Burnett through which she would explore different worlds.<\/p>\n

Later she was inspired by her high school principal\u2019s extraordinary vocabulary, which she used to capture the attention of her audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWords and writing are really important to me because they allow you to express yourself,\u201d Simons said. \u201cYou can reach so many people in so many different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simons grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, and worked as a school counselor before staying at home to raise her daughter. Her family eventually moved to the United States when her husband, Courtney Simons, received a scholarship to study at North Dakota State University.<\/p>\n

The family moved to Celina when Courtney joined the Lake Campus faculty to lead the food science program.<\/p>\n

Laura Simons quickly enrolled in the teacher education program at the Lake Campus to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a teacher.<\/p>\n

She liked how Wright State’s undergraduate and graduate teacher education programs provided her with practical and hands-on experiences to help her put into practice what she was learning in the classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re using theory and practice in tandem,\u201d she said. \u201cThat helped me get a better feel for how the classroom system works here in the United States. Wright State allowed me to have the exposure, the experience, and the understanding to be an effective teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n

She credited the faculty, including Betsy Crites, lecturer and education coordinator at the Lake Campus, and especially Chai, for pushing her to be the best teacher she could be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey care more than people will ever think or imagine,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s what makes the difference for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simons is not the only member of her family to benefit from a Wright State education.<\/p>\n

In addition to his faculty role, Courtney Simons received master\u2019s degrees in earth and environmental sciences and digital learning from Wright State, and their daughter, Anna Simons, is pursuing an associate degree in biological sciences at the Lake Campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe in the education at Wright State so much that we all decided to go through Wright State in some way, shape or form,\u201d Laura Simons said. \u201cWe are lifelong learners.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers honored Laura Simons for the thesis she produced as a graduate student in the Master of Education in Literacy Program at Wright State. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":145855,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,733,4309,4299,2104,2060,744,725,731,715,18,4892],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-alumni","category-alumni-association","category-alumni-profile","category-teacher-education","category-graduate","category-education-human-services","category-home-news-sidebar","category-lake-campus","category-news","category-research","category-teacher-education-education-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145843"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145864,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145843\/revisions\/145864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}