Carol S. Fitzpatrick worked with her first struggling reader during her student teaching experience back in 1973.  She was fascinated by the intelligence of one of her third graders.  Jimmy could hardly read a word, but he could explain the workings of an automobile engine in great detail. She started reading everything she could find on reading disabilities and dyslexia.  Little did she know that would be the beginning of a career where she would work with over three hundred struggling readers, including her own two sons.

Some of the most fulfilling experiences of her life have been watching these brilliant but discouraged students begin to blossom.  Over the years, she has learned many techniques that work with these students.  Between 2002 and 2006, Carol worked as a reading specialist in a school with a high percentage of struggling readers.  It was her job to help over fifty children learn to read well enough to pass the state reading test each year.  Very few students had to spend more than one year in her program.  It is our desire to share her “secrets for success” with teachers and parents alike.

Credentials:

• Master of Science in Education, specializing in Reading, from Southern Oregon University, 2001
• Trained in the Slingerland Method at the Charles Armstrong School, Belmont, California, 1987
• Oregon Standard Teaching License, with standard endorsements in Reading and Music, 2006-2010

Experience:

• Speaker at reading conferences
• Inservice presenter throughout the western states on effective reading strategies
• Reading specialist and at-risk coordinator at Kennedy Elementary School, Medford, Oregon, 2002-2006
• Elementary classroom teacher at Kennedy Elementary School, Medford, Oregon, 1996-2001
• Received a national NEA Innovation Grant for “The Power of Three,” a project combining peer-tutoring, computer-assisted instruction, and hands-on manipulatives, 2002-2004
• More than twenty years successful experience working with struggling readers