ACT Counseling Center - Literacy Project
Donald L. Potter: Reading Specialist

2445 E. 11th ST
Odessa, TX 79761
(432) 333-3667

Mr. Potter's e-mail

I am delighted to announce that my dreams of starting a Reading Clinic here in Odessa, TX are finally coming to fruition. Starting at the end of last school year, I started working with some of the wonderful clients at the ACT Counseling Center at 2445 E. 11th. St. Odessa, TX. This work is expanding far beyond my fondest dreams. You can contact me for an appointment at our office number (432) 333-3667. At the present time, I am available for diagnostics and individualized tutoring on Saturdays and evenings after school hours. Experience has shown us that helping children, teens, and adults with reading problems often helps them in other areas of life. It is our privilege and pleasure to offer these invaluable services to the citizens of our community.

I offer Individual tutoring, small group instruction, and parent-teacher workshops. All of the methods I use have been extensively tested in my classroom. I am confident that they are the most effective methods available. Several exciting computer programs are also used to assist the students of all ages in making the most rapid progress possible.

Five tests are administered to determine students needs:

1. The 1987 Riverside Reading Inventory (a test for determining grade-level reading ability that I have used since 1990)
2. The Miller Word Identification Assessment (a test for whole-word dyslexia)
3. The Nonsense Word Test for Phonics Knowledge.
4. The National Right to Read: Reading Competency Test (a grade-level test by Dr. Patrick Groff)
5. Gray Oral Reading Test (GORT 4). The standard in the field.

Types of instruction based on student needs - as determined by the above tests.

1. Beginning readers (kindergarten and first-grade) will be taught a systematic, phonics-first method. This method used will prevent the development of whole-word dyslexia which is largely the result of instruction using the whole-word method. Our method uses only phonics-first with no mixture of whole-word (sight-word) instruction.
2. Young struggling readers (below grade-level) will be taught an intensive phonics approach that will enable them to quickly overcome their reading problems.
3. Good readers (on grade-level) will be instructed in methods for using their phonics skills to decode multi-syllabic words, thereby dramatically increase their grade-level competency. Special emphasis will be given to words of Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and Greek origins, with their prefixes, suffixes and roots.
4. Teenage and Adults who struggle with reading will be taught an highly accelerated phonics program that will enable them to quickly overcome their decoding and comprehension problems. Test taking strategies will also be taught to help students preparing for the TAKS test or GED.


Meet Our Instructor: Donald L. Potter


May I introduce myself: I have fourteen years experience as a certified elementary bilingual teacher for the State of Texas. It has been my privilege to teach beginning English and Spanish reading to students in all elementary grades. I am very excited about the possibilities of helping many young children, teens, and adults to improve their reading skills so they can be more successful in life. At the present time, I teach Spanish I and II at the Bowie Junior High School in Odessa, TX.

I have taught a number of excellent reading programs, among them: Alpha-Phonics. Phonics Pathways, Saxon Phonics, The Herman Dyslexia Program, Palo Alto: Sequential Steps to Reading, Spalding's Writing Road to Reading, Mr. Frank Roger's Teaching America to Read and Spell, Rudolf Flesch's Teaching Johnny to Read, The Hegge-Kirk-Kirk Remedial Reading Drills, Charles Walcutt's Through the Phonics Barrier, Open Court, my own WISE OWL Phonics, M. K. Henry's WORDS program for advanced readers, the 1987 Riverside Transition Oral Language Program for ESL, DISTAR, ReadingReflex The Phono-Graphics Method by Carmen and Geoffrey McGuinness, Pat Doran's Phonics Steps to Reading Success, and others. I especially like the Phonics Tutor computer program by my friend David Hickerson of 4:20 Communications. I always make sure all my students are working with Read, Write, and Type by Talking Fingers.

I have taught beginning Spanish readers with Hilda Perera's La pata pita, y La pata pita vuelve, Estrellita, and my own Teach Yourself to Read Spanish. The latter is accompanied with an audio CD. I am delighted to help Spanish speaking children and adults learn to read the beautiful Spanish language. I have taught older students to read Spanish in as little as three weeks with my program. I also teach English to non-English speakers.

For valuable information on phonics-first reading instruction, be sure and visit my Education Page.

I call this a Faith-Based Initiative because I make free use of the Bible and character building Christian literature. The entire effort is motivated by Christian love.

 

Pictures of Instruction at The Christ Centered Reading Clinic

Don at the projector ......................Exercises from Rudolf Flesch ................Don teaching Flesch's Exercises

The above pictures show me teaching Rudolf Fesch's Phonics Exercises from his 1955 bestseller, Why Johnny Can't Read and what you can do about it. It was Mr. Edward Miller, the creator of the Miller Word Identification Assessment (a test for whole-word dyslexia), who first pointed out to me the value of Flesch's Exercises for helping children with dyslexia. The exercises are easy to understand, simple to teach, and extremely effective. Audio files are available explaining Flesch method and giving step-by-step instructions for parents and teachers. Here is the link to the audio instruction page: Flesch Audio Instruction. This is just one of the many programs we use at the ACT Counseling Center's - Literacy Project. I have taught kindergarten students to read with Dr. Sam Blumenfeld's beginning primer, Alpha-Phonics. My advanced study M. K. Henry's WORD program which teaches Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and Greek roots, prefixes and suffixes to enable them to make rapid advances in their reading levels.

Revised 2/20/06

Special Note Concerning The Psychology of Reading and Emotional Creativity
Overcoming a Wide Spectrum of Neuroses through Literacy Enhancement
January 8, 2005

One of the main goals of the ACT Counseling Center - Literacy Project is to assist clients to experience the Emotional Creativity necessary to successfully cope with the daily challenges of life as they relating to literacy. As a Reading Specialist, my goal is to help clients overcome any disabling neurosis that might be associated with reading problems. "Neuroses are shortcomings in psychological adjustment, typically caused by stresses that exceed a person's ability to cope" (Voyages of the Heart, 179). The presence of frustration-produced anxiety (stress) in varying degrees is one of the underlying causes of the "almost universal" presence of emotional difficulties underlying reading disorders. The very act of reading for these individuals becomes a persistent, no-escape, frustration situation leading to incorrect stereotyped responds. The viewpoint of Emotional Creativity is that people are able to cope successfully with the challenges of life when they are able to establish Novel, Successful and Authentic modes of thinking and feeling. This ability to cope is seriously disrupted when people are unable to satisfactorily internalize the orthographic structures (spelling patterns) of written language. At the ACT Counseling Center - Literacy Project, we help people develop Novel (for them) word processing skills that will enable them to deal Successfully with written language in a manner that allows them to fully express their Authentic nuclear-self. We believe it is often possible to liberate our clients from the prison of stereotype, unsuccessful, inauthentic behaviors by enabling the to deal satisfactorily with our graphic print system using easily mastered yet tremendously powerful word processing strategies for all levels of Orthographic Processing Difficulty (from elementary through advanced English.). The basic assumption behind all of our work is that most neuroses associated with frustration induced reading problems could be avoided if students are taught correct word processing procedures during their initial exposure to reading instruction. For this reason, besides helping people overcome reading problems, we are also interested in working with parents and educators to see that initial reading instruction focuses on correct instructional methods. In a nut shell: The English print system is a sound-associational system, to teach it with sight-associational methods is to create associational confusion. (For more information on "Emotional Creativity," see Voyages of the Heart, Living an Emotionally Creative Life by James R. Averill and Elma P. Nunley, The Free Press, 1992 .)

The Teacher Who Couldn't Read

Here is John Corcoran's web site. He was a teacher but could not read. His story is fascinating. He eventually learned to read and is now an advocate for teaching reading with phonics - the only method that really works. Here is his web site: Advocate for Literacy.