Jessica Fortuna

Jessica Fortuna is currently a Title I Middle School Reading Teacher at West Preparatory Academy with a background in middle school social studies. While instructing social studies for grades 6-8, she incorporated popular music, videos, and current events as a means to expose her students to the community and world around them. Students were encouraged to ask questions, develop their own opinions, and apply content knowledge to the world around them. In addition to visual aids, students created their own lessons to instruct their classmates on specific materials including budgets, economies of the world, and influential Americans.

As a Title I teacher, she serves the highest need students with specialized, individualized, and differentiated instruction to improve decoding in reading, comprehension, and fluency. Focusing her instruction in small groups, Jessica Fortuna creates a safe, positive, and exciting learning environment for her students by incorporating student interests into her instruction. In order to make reading interesting, she uses a combination of print, digital, and self created media created by herself and her students to foster a love of reading. By focusing on data obtained from NWEA MAP scores, she created targeted instruction to assist her students in becoming stronger, happier readers.

Jessica Fortuna is a 2014 graduate from Cleveland State University after transferring from Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, Oh. Focused on her studies, she earned a spot on the Dean’s List for every semester she attended. She earned Magna Cum Laude honors upon graduation. She is currently re-enrolled at Cleveland State to earn her Masters Degree in Literacy and Development with her reading endorsement. Upon receiving her graduate degree she hopes to use it to delve deeper into reading intervention to help children succeed in reading despite socioeconomic status and learning styles. By helping the next generation of students become strong readers, she believes that they will develop a life long love of learning to pass down to future generations.