by Claire Miller
Floretta Thornton-Reid arrived at the O2 Studios in Pompano Beach, Fla., and was whisked to the wardrobe and hair and makeup departments before heading to the stage where the Lifetime TV network films its one-hour morning show, “The Balancing Act.”
Thornton-Reid, executive director of the Reading Recovery program in Georgia State University’s College of Education, joined “Balancing Act” hosts Danielle Knox and Kristy Villa in a segment on reading for episodes that air this month.
“It’s an interesting process,” she said of the filming. “You just don’t realize how much goes into filming for a TV show until you do it.”
Prior to her trip to the studios in August, she spoke with producers over the phone about the specific areas they planned to cover on the show, which designs its segments around offering “new ways for women to achieve success in all areas of their lives,” according to the show’s website.
During the interview, Thornton-Reid described the Reading Recovery program – an international early intervention that trains teachers to create tailored lessons to help individual students improve their reading and writing skills – and gave suggestions for things parents and school leaders can do to reinforce those skills when children are young.
“If you have a child that’s struggling, you want to encourage your school to have a professional who has expanded expertise in reading interventions,” she said. “For us in Reading Recovery, we work with the lowest 20 percent of readers and we believe we can help a lot of those kids by intervening early.”
When the segment airs on Nov. 16, Thornton-Reid hopes viewers will have a better understanding of how Reading Recovery works and will feel more confident in the way they approach their children’s literacy needs.
“I’m hoping parents encourage their schools to have a trained professional there to work with students and to remember that there are things they can do at home to encourage their children to read and write,” she said.
For more information about Reading Recovery, visit http://education.gsu.edu/ece/reading_recovery.htm.
