Reading Specialist-Middle School
Department: Special Education
FLSA Status (Exempt/Non-exempt): Unit A
Reports to: Special Education Department Head/Principal
SUMMARY: The Reading Specialist provides direct reading service to students with reading disabilities, including students with language-based learning disabilities, to develop strong reading & writing skills in accordance with IEP goal areas and benchmarks. This specialist also engages in the special education process including IEP meetings and service reccomendations.
Qualifications:
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:
-Valid Massachusetts Special Education/Moderate Special Needs teaching license required
-Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, and/ or LindaMood Bell Certification required.
-Reading Specialist license preferred
-Masters Degree
-Experience teaching and assessing reading skills
-Ability to handle multitude of varying and complex literacy issues
-Excellent oral and written communication skills
-Computer experience
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS:
-Familiarity and experience with various encoding and decoding literacy instructional methodologies
-Familiarity with language-based instructional methodologies
-Familiarity and experience with the administration of reading assessments, analysis of data from assessments, and ability to write comprehensive educational evaluation reports from assessment data.
-Familiarity with progress monitoring methods and utilization of data to drive intervention
-Familiarity and experience with individual and small group instruction & intervention in reading and writing
Essential Job Duties and Responsibilities (Not Limited To):
-Provide direct instruction and intervention to struggling readers for encoding/ decoding, reading comprehension and reading fluency
-Work cooperatively and collaboratively with other professionals and service providers in planning instruction to meet Page 1 of 3 the needs of diverse learners
-Comprehensive knowledge of reading and language-based disabilities and evidenced based interventions for supporting students with varying reading and language-based disabilities
-Knowledge of specialized instructional techniques for supporting the written expression work of struggling readers
-Provide and support formal and informal literacy assessment and data analysis for progress monitoring and reporting purposes
-Ability to provide case management to students on caseload including running team meetings and developing individualized educational programs
-Consistent, reliable and punctual attendance is essential for supervision and instruction of the students
-Responsible for implementing "other job related duties" as needed.