by Bethanie Tucker
Just over a month ago I received a phone call from Robert Gossom, who teaches Tucker Signing Strategies across the state of Indiana, recommending that we include phonics rules appropriate to each lesson in our next printing. That very same day I learned that the aha! Process office was almost out of manuals and needed to reprint. The timing was so uncanny that I took this as a “sign” that this revision should be made. So the stream of emails and edits began. Just days ago the printer began churning out copies of a new edition of the Tucker Signing Strategies Manual, replete with phonics rules, new photos in higher resolution, and a shiny new cover, thanks to all the aha! Process magic makers.
We want the manual to be as useful as possible. We also want to send the message as clearly as possible that the Tucker signs are not the same as American Sign Language. Not too long ago someone suggested that we call the strategy Sound Language. Hmm … Let us know what you think about the revisions.
Bethanie Hamlett Tucker, Ed.D. of North Carolina has been a professional educator since 1972. She has served as a classroom teacher, a resource teacher, a teacher of gifted students, program coordinator, grant-funded project director, and is currently a professor of education at Averett University in Danville, Virginia. While teaching at Averett she researched and developed Tucker Signing Strategies for Reading, a decoding method using sight, sound, and movement that has been highly successful with struggling readers nationwide and in some foreign countries. Through aha! Process, Inc. Bethanie provides training and consulting services for reading, A Framework for Understanding Poverty, Learning Structures, and Under-Resourced Learners. An experienced consultant, Bethanie has presented numerous workshops for aha! Process since 2000.
