Staci Thompson, M.Ed
Ms. Thompson is an independent contractor affiliated with NNI to offer individualized learning services. She is certified to teach K-8 general education and K-12 Special Education. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Education with a major in Child Development. Ms. Thompson graduated with a Master of Education with emphasis in Special Education in 2007. During her graduate studies, she wrote her Master’s Research Paper on Positive Behavior Support: Analysis of Consistency between Office Discipline Referrals and Teacher Recordings of Disruptive Classroom Behaviors. She is the co-author of the article published on the topic in the Behavioral Development Bulletin: Special Section on Early and Intensive Behavioral Intervention in Children. Ms. Thompson began teaching in 2000 and has taught with research validated, Direct Instruction for over 6 years. She taught as a special education teacher in a resource room and in a self- contained classroom. She has worked with students with a variety of special needs. Ms. Thompson provides individualized, explicit, Direct Instruction based on each child’s needs.
Direct Instruction (DI) is a model for teaching that emphasizes well-developed and carefully planned lessons designed around small learning increments and clearly defined and prescribed teaching tasks. It is based on the theory that clear instruction eliminating misinterpretations can greatly improve and accelerate learning. What Ms. Thompson does at NNI works! We keep data that shows each student’s progress. Students are making clear and significant gains.
For math instruction, Ms. Thompson uses a highly focused, intervention program that allows for a quick, targeting intervention based on each child’s needs. Whether instruction needs to focus on addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, basic fractions, fractions, decimals, and/or percents, ratios and equations, students will make progress and build confidence in the areas of math. Ms. Thompson teaches mathematics skills, rules, and strategies efficiently and effectively, ensuring that students will learn to work mathematics problems accurately and confidently.
For writing, Ms. Thompson directly teaches structured writing strategies (e.g., story writing, opinion essay writing, report writing), as well as general writing strategies (e.g., employing good word choice, creating interesting openings) with in the writing process. Instruction is designed to promote students’ ownership and independent use the writing and self-regulation strategies. Students will learn self-regulation strategies such as goal setting, self-monitoring, self-reinforcement, and self-instructions, to help them manage the writing strategies and tasks and to obtain concrete and visible evidence of their progress.
Ms. Thompson also specializes in teaching students with and without learning disabilities to become confident readers and writers. Students who have not learned to read or write with traditional methods of instruction and are two or more years behind their peers can be taught to be confident readers and writers. Whether your child needs instruction in reading, writing, math, or study skills, research shows that frequent systematic, research validated, one-on-one direct instruction produces the most progress. We have developed different levels of instruction to make services assessable and affordable.
