Shirley Veldhuis

Shirley Veldhuis, Ed.S, CCC-SP Retired, is a retired educator from Lincoln Park Public Schools in Lincoln Park, Michigan, where she was employed as the district's special education supervisor and Response-to-Intervention (RtI) coordinator. Prior to that, she was a speech and language pathologist for the district. Shirley has presented at numerous state and national conferences on the design and implementation of an RtI framework and is the author of the book "How to Write RtI Procedures."

Articles by Shirley Veldhuis

• Part 2 of 2: Language development is essential to educational success, so why isn’t it a priority?

  Monday, October 08, 2018

  Many classroom teachers may not be aware of the difference between phonemic awareness and phonics. The teacher preparation program at their universities may have only emphasized phonics instruction, so these teachers may not provide direct instruction of phonemic awareness skills. However, without phonemic awareness, phonics makes little sense. Phonemic awareness is a leading predictor of reading success in young children. Phonemic awareness skills have a direct impact on reading comprehension so these skills need to be explicitly taught.

• Part 1 of 2: Language development is essential to educational success, so why isn’t it a priority?

  Monday, October 01, 2018

  Let’s imagine a struggling school district where the new superintendent just received results from the state assessment, which revealed a large percentage of the elementary students were not proficient in reading. She is not alone. Reading proficiency is declining across the state. She thinks about an important book she had read by Dr. Sally Shaywitz, entitled "Overcoming Dyslexia." In one chapter, Dr. Shaywitz discussed the role of Dr. Paul Broca, who established that the root of reading is language and speech. The superintendent repeats this statement — the root of reading is language and speech.

• Why active listening should be an integral part of the daily lesson plan

  Monday, December 15, 2014

  ​I will always remember the moment my re-entry into the teaching profession became a sign of interesting things to come. As I was working with Lexi on her expressive writing I asked her, "How old are you?" She quickly answered, "Eight."