2021
Tally Uses Multisensory Learning to Empower Readers Carl Smith
L
eslie Tally, the 2021 Mississippi Teacher of the Year (MTOY), prepares her students to become lifelong learners by helping develop their most essential skill: reading.
Tally, a second grade teacher at Tupelo School Focus
Public School District’s (TPSD’s) Lawhon Elementary School (LES), specializes in assisting students with dyslexia and other learning impediments in building confidence through non-traditional methods, including multisensory approaches. In her classroom, students of all abilities can be found each day spelling words in sand, tapping out syllables and using raised, bumpy implements as they 18
trace over letters with their fingers. When students unlock barriers to literacy, Tally said she sees them develop confidence, and this newfound confidence helps them take on future challenges and allows them to become the lifelong learners they deserve to be. “Reading is centered in that core philosophy [of lifelong learning] because Spring 2022
