Instructor Spotlight: Jessica Alestra
Jessica Alestra is a passionate first year Reading Rescue instructor at P.S. 69 in Jackson Heights, Queens. We are excited to introduce you to her here, and in our Instagram story.
Jessica has recently returned to school to become a teacher, as is the case with both of her two Reading Rescue instructor colleagues. She loves being a paraprofessional and is confident that her classroom experience will make her a better teacher. In all of her five years as a paraprofessional at her current school, Jessica has been a crisis para. This means that her one-to-one student has difficult behaviors, including running from class or struggling to regulate their emotions. This has given Jessica valuable experience in practicing patience and creativity in working with students.
Jessica Alestra and her student Marcel.
“My favorite part of Reading Rescue is reading new books and learning new things from them.”
When Jessica was selected as a Reading Rescue instructor, she was excited, but initially worried about the workload when she had such a high needs one-to-one student. She and her colleagues decided to prepare in advance to cut down the prep time they'd otherwise do each day. They made informational pages on each of the Reading Rescue-provided books, including pre-planned comprehension questions and sentences to write. They were invested in this prep because they believe that if the program will be in the school for years to come, it should be intentionally-done and well-organized. Because she’s halfway through her first year as an instructor, Jessica has worked with one student so far, and she says she’s learned a lot from him. Marcel started the program reading independently at a B intervention level and celebrated his graduation today after reading level H - grade level! His foundational reading skills have come a long way, and he is a speedier, more accurate decoder now. “I see a huge difference in his reading!” she beamed.
“All children learn at their own pace, but with Reading Rescue I feel that you can focus in on the individual’s specific learning needs.”
Jessica has loved the experience of working with Marcel in an educational capacity, rather than focusing on his behavior. “This is more hands on, where I’m really teaching. It’s giving me a sense of preparation.” She likes that being a Reading Rescue instructor breaks up her day, and she can see how the five parts of the lesson impact reading. “It’s preparing me to become a teacher. It’s an amazing program and I feel if you’re going back to school, you should be involved in something like this.”
The mother of two children - ages 2 and 8 - Jessica is excited to become a teacher. She is proud of her successes as a student and as a para. She wants to teach a K-2 special education class, and knows that this phonics-based literacy professional development will put her in a position to support her full class from day one. “I will try to use some of the strategies I learned (as a Reading Rescue instructor) here in the classroom.”
“I believe literacy is an extremely important ingredient for a successful future.”
Congratulations again to Jessica!