Exploring Support

Services Careers

Hannah Daniels
Frank W. Cox High School
Virginia Beach, Virginia
 Personal Experience
● My previous teacher
● Lexile score of 550 from 3rd-5th grade
● Present in the lower group
● Needed extra guidance
● Used time during class one on one
● My mom went to parent-teacher conferences
● Discussed ways to help me with my reading difficulties
 Reading Specialist
A Reading Specialist plans lessons, teaches and evaluates the inclusion
for students that have a difficulty with reading comprehension and
writing. A Reading Specialist extends in the language arts learning within
the classroom. Typically teaches a classroom lesson then spends more
time one on one or in small groups with students who are low.
 Let’s Meet Mrs. Estill!
● Reading Specialist at Linkhorn Park
Elementary School in Virginia Beach
● Reading Specialist for 20 years
● Completed three years of classroom
instruction
● Masters in reading
● Literacy coach for 10 years (enables
teachers to think about how they will
improve their students reading)
 Mrs. Estill’s Day to Day
● Meets with the grade levels to discuss where students should be
placed in groups (high, intermediate, low)
● Meets with the grade levels to discuss lessons for the teachers to do
within reading
● Goes into classrooms and teaches students reading and writing
lessons (all grade levels)
● Makes brand new lessons for teachers to help a specific student
● Provides intervention for struggling students
● Meets with teachers to discuss goals to make for individual students
on how they will improve
 A Reading Specialist Skills

● Strong communication skills with teachers, parents,

students, and other education professionals
● Ability to guide and train teachers effective techniques
● Be able to adapt to whatever environment they are in
● Understand the teaching and learning process
● Explain and teach lessons that reflect multiple intelligences
● Support all classrooms and special education teachers in all
area of literacy
 Takeaways
● More to reading than just looking at words and saying them
● Teachers have a lot of responsibility!
● You have to wear your professional cap when meeting with
your peers
● Teaching students how to read and write is a lot harder than
people think
● You have to be able to depict what issue a student has to
specifically help them improve in that specific area
 Reflection
Overall, the experience was eye opening. It was
really interesting to have Mrs. Estill’s perspective
on things. I always saw the perspective of the
student because I personally did have Mrs. Estill
for two years in elementary school. The amount of
work that she has to do though is overwhelming,
but she makes it look easy and she is amazing at
what she does.