Ron Yoshimoto of Hawaii conducted a 40-hour training program that lasted July 14-18 hosted by the Tennessee Center of the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia at MTSU. Yoshimoto is Hawaii’s statewide special education literacy resource teacher trainer and is considered a master trainer of the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading, which focuses on phonics-based, multi-sensory, and hands-on learning.

About 35 educators from the state joined together to learn how to help students who may be suffering from dyslexia, and also those who are struggling with spelling, reading, writing and reading comprehension.

“Sometimes student reading comprehension is low, but their listening comprehension is high,” Yoshimoto explains to the group during a discussion on how to best perform one-on-one reading instruction.

Cindy Nickerson, a workshop participant and third grad teacher in Rutherford County is excited about applying what she has learned in the classroom. She says that her students are in a crossroads where “they are switching from learning to read to reading to learn.”

Jim Herman, director of the Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia said, “I believe if all teachers had this reading training, our reading scores would go up. It’s that good.” He also shares that there is a waiting list of teachers seeking Yoshimoto’s training.

I think it is great to hear that Tennessee is investing in further training their educators. Too many students struggle with reading, and starting with teacher education, hopefully we can see an increase in reading scores. I would love to see more states bring in Yoshimoto for teaching training in efforts to help struggling readers.