Laurel D. says, "I had the pleasure of working with Ms. Talis when she was employed as a Reading Recovery teacher, supporting her work in the Palmer, Monson, and Easthampton Public Schools’ Reading Recovery Programs. Elisabeth and I have also been personal friends for over thirty years.
I found Elisabeth’s work in Reading Recovery to be consistently reflective and thorough. She exemplifies the Reading Recovery philosophy of looking to one’s own teaching in order to support children’s accelerated progress in reading and writing. Throughout the years, Elisabeth has engaged in in-depth analysis of her own teaching and lesson records in order to ensure that she was doing all that was possible to help the emerging readers and writers with whom she was working. She recognizes situations in which additional help is needed and calls upon both colleagues and myself, in my role as Teacher Leader, to help problem-solve the more difficult students.
Elisabeth is also extraordinarily attuned to the rich diversity that her students demonstrate in ethnic background, family configuration, and other socioeconomic factors. She truly values each learner and communicates this to the children through her consistently high expectations and attention to each learner as an individual. This makes her an exceptionally strong teacher of students who are learning English.
Additionally, I have had the opportunity to observe Elisabeth in her work with colleagues during the monthly meetings of trained Reading Recovery teachers. In this setting, Elisabeth is always professional in her interactions with peers - she is able to comment on strengths in others, as well as to provide helpful comments in a manner that her colleagues find both informative and positive.
Any organization would be fortunate to have Elisabeth join them. She is a pleasure to have in the field of Education, and an asset to the students with whom she works."See more
