June 1, 2004

Dear Betty:

Many, many times in the last 10 years I have rehearsed in my mind a letter that would adequately thank you and the Initial Teaching Alphabet for the tremendous service you have provided to me, our preservice teachers, and the students and parents we have served in the i.t.a. literacy clinic.  The benefits of the initial teaching alphabet are so numerous that it is hard to know where to begin.

I can truly say that i.t.a. has been the organizing principle of my professional life as I searched for the answer to dyslexia in children.  All of the theories and controversies that have existed in the field of reading in general, and reading disabilities in particular, were resolved when I came to understand how the initial teaching alphabet can be used to unlock the code of writing language and give struggling readers the power over their own literacy learning.  Through your training and the financial support of the Initial Teaching Alphabet I have been privileged to watch how frustrated readers learned to read and write with confidence and joy.  In watching them, I have learned much about reading and writing achievement for all children, how to truly leave no child behind.

The proof of this unique alphabet's power to unlock the phonological/phonemic code of traditional orthography is evident in the hundreds of graduates of our i.t.a. program.  Some of the first i.t.a. children have now graduated with honors from our own and neighboring universities.  One is planning to enter our Master of Arts in Instruction program next year, to become a teacher who will give to his students what he did not get until he entered the i.t.a. program.  Another is my granddaughter.  When Jessie was in kindergarten she couldn't wait to go to first grade because there she would learn to read.  But by the end of kindergarten she hated school, she hated reading, she hated herself - because she couldn't read. How devastating that was for me to have a granddaughter with dyslexia living 200 miles away from the wonderful i.t.a. program that was helping Winona students.  Luckily, her mother moved back to Winona and Jessie became a successful graduate of the i.t.a. program.  Today she is an honor student entering her senior year in college and planning to do volunteer social work in Mexico after she graduates.

Your wisdom and the support of the Initial Teaching Alphabet Foundation have enabled me to give countless young preservice teachers the power to prevent and interrupt reading failure.  Each year here at Saint Mary's University our students observe and work with children in the i.t.a. literacy clinic.  During our literacy methods courses elementary teachers have hands-on experience with using i.t.a. to foster reading and writing in young children.  In my secondary class, Reading and Writing in the Content Areas, middle and high school teachers learn how to use i.t.a. to help students analyze high-level vocabulary words sound-by-sound and then find those words in their dictionaries or Franklin spellers.  They learn that all students will write much more complex compositions if they are allowed to use i.t.a. to spell unknown words phonemically.  You would be pleased to see how much our preservice teachers enjoy using i.t.a. to better understand English orthography themselves, and how eagerly they look forward to using i.t.a. in their own classrooms.  This year alone, 82 Saint Mary's University teacher candidates will begin their professional careers with the knowledge they need to make a difference for children who struggle in reading and writing.  They also understand normal reading and writing development much better because of their experiences with i.t.a.  Because of your support I feel that I can also make a difference for those future children that I will never see.  That is the legacy of your work at the Initial Teaching Alphabet Foundation - to touch the lives of many, many children who would, without the i.t.a. program, become frustrated and depressed by school failure.

In closing I want to mention one more child whose school life has changed because of i.t.a.  This year, Jessie's seven-year-old brother started first grade.  Because of my work with i.t.a., I know that he was at risk for reading failure.  When he began to fail and become frustrated, his mother enrolled him in our i.t.a. literacy clinic on campus.  Just last week Lucas finished reading 100 books to earn a "Bubble Gum Reading" trophy.  Most of them were only eight pages long, some of them the early i.t.a. readers, but he is not only reading, he now enjoys it!  And he loves to write in i.t.a. One of his favorite games is i.t.a. Hangman, which is his reward for working hard during his tutoring session.

And so, on behalf of all children who have and will benefit from the use of i.t.a. to prevent and remediate reading failure, I thank you and your board.

Sincerely,

Jane Anderson, Ph.D.
Professor, School of Education
Director, Master of Arts in Instruction Program
Director, Saint Mary's University i.t.a. Literacy Clinic.