"Tremendous Progress"

"Improved Dramatically"

"Increased Achievement"

"Her attitude towards learning has changed"

"Became an excellent reader"

Highlighted Testimonials

"At night, in my dreams I see letters and hear their sounds. Maybe tonight I'll dream about these new Red Words." - A Beginning Reader

From A Former Employee

I began working as an administrative assistant for Janice Schreiber-Poznik, Director of the Madison Reading and Learning Center (MRLC) the first week of February. This was an opportunity for me to get back in the work force after a series of medical and family related issues.

Janice was extremely welcoming and very focused in terms of which office-related tasks she wanted me to do. She was very good at giving positive feedback and praise for work well-done, and very tactful and non-judgmental in terms of redirecting me in cases where she felt that this input was necessary. Overall, she made me feel welcome, and an important and professional part of the MRLC team.

Over the last 6 months, I have had the opportunity to observe Janice working with a number of students of various ages. She has a cheerful, easy-going manner and it is clear that she is very much likes her students, her tutoring work, and seeing the progress which they all make. She comes across with students, parents, and staff as friendly, comfortable, and highly competent. It is clear that her students enjoy their one-on-one time with her, and are pleased and proud of their accomplishments.

Janice was very grateful of the work I did in helping her organize and run her office during her spring move from one Madison locale to another. Janice works with students of all ages, addressing the specific learning needs of those suffering from dyslexia or other learning difficulties, as well as the intellectually gifted who want to challenge their learning abilities. Reading, writing, math and spelling are all areas addressed at the MRLC.

I highly recommend Janice as an individual tutor and team-player when it comes to the tutoring needs of diverse populations of students.

Sincerely, Esther Lefevre, Ph. D. Clinical Psychology

From A Former Employee

Deborah McCants

Achievement Preparatory Academy

908 Wahler Place SE

Washington, DC 20032

April 7, 2011

To Whom It May Concern:

I have known Janice Schreiber-Poznik since 2000 when she hired me as a reading teacher at the Madison Reading & Learning Center where she serves as founder and director.  I am honored to call Janice my mentor.

In my opinion, Janice knows more than anyone in Madison about evidence-based reading, the research on which it’s based, and how best to implement it.  Apparently I am not alone in these views.  Dr. Sally Shaywitz,  professor of Pediatric Neurology at Yale University and author of the widely-acclaimed book Overcoming Dyslexia, paid Janice a similar compliment when they met at a conference which Janice organized.

Janice has taught me more than I could possibly put into words about how to assess a struggling reader’s strengths and challenges and how to tailor instruction to address his/her challenges.  The changes that I have seen in children’s lives since I began working at MRLC under Janice’s supervision have been mind-boggling.  Children have come to us who were reading many years below grade level and made huge gains.  These are children for whom “guided reading,” Reading Recovery, Read 180, and, in some cases, Direct Instruction had not worked.  In terms of phonics and decoding, Janice and I advocate using a mix of the following Orton-Gillingham-based programs:  Project Read, Wilson, and Barton.  We also draw upon elements of Lindamood-Bell which uses articulatory feedback to help struggling readers focus on what their tongue, lips, and teeth are doing when making a given sound.

Way before the National Reading Panel made phonemic awareness a buzzword, Janice understood, and made sure those of us who worked for her understood, that phonemic awareness must be in place before a student can understand letter-sound correlation, i.e. phonics.

To this day, I consult with Janice often when I need help in how to address a particular student’s enigmatic reading challenges.  In 2009, I relocated to Washington, D.C. to help care for my aging parents.  I have been blessed to find employment as a half-time Reading Specialist at a uniquely effective inner city public charter school, Achievement Preparatory Academy.  APA is a “no-excuses” school with extremely high standards in terms of behavior and academics.  Unfortunately, because it is currently a grades 4-7 school, some students come to us victims of extreme educational neglect.  Many have been socially promoted but are performing woefully below grade level.  These are the students with whom I work in four pull-out reading groups, each of which meets for 55 minutes per day, five days a week.  They are ability-based groups of 3-4 students, so we are able to make good progress toward narrowing the gap between these students and their peers.  I primarily use the same mix of approaches which I honed in my work as a one-on-one tutor at MRLC, adapted to a small-group setting.  At this point, I am considered an expert reading interventionist who uses explicit, sequential phonics and controlled-vocabulary texts to unravel visual and auditory confusions.  I put in place the basic building blocks which, for whatever reason, these students never got.