The Reading Connection

By Jordan Fabish

C.S.U.F. Reading Clinic Is In Good Hands

Ensuring the Reading Clinic’s continued professionalism and efficacy is possibly the best way to honor the irreplaceable Norma Inabinette. Therefore, Reading Coordinator Ashley Bishop has hired not one, but two instructors to administer and teach in the Clinic at the Fullerton campus: JoAnne Greenbaum and Jan Lee, both graduates of the C.S.U.F. Reading Program.

Working cooperatively to fulfill the dual responsibility of serving clients with severe reading difficulties and establishing the best possible knowledge base to prepare the university’s graduate students to do so, JoAnne and Jan have met all summer to coordinate their efforts. With Jan Lee acting primarily as parent liaison and JoAnne Greenbaum as lecturer, you can expect to see the following plans come to fruition this fall:

Continued aesthetic upgrades of the facility.

Sharp-looking blue-gray carpet is already installed in the clinic and carrels. A variety of R.E.G. donated posters, appealing to children and adults, are poised to brighten the view. Family members who stay at the clinic during the tutoring sessions will find a cozy waiting area more obviously for them, with toys and games for little ones and reading material for both parents and siblings.

A Clinic WebPage.

JoAnne Greenbaum is creating a site that will include resource links for parents, clinicians, and their students, and even a Student Showcase to publish their work online.

Guest Lecturers.

While maintaining a course of curriculum similar to the one in place, JoAnne and Jan have initiated an exciting addition: speakers who are experts in their fields to address topics of particular interest and value to the graduate students such as current brain research and insights from Reading Recovery, for example.

Further, Dr. Bishop reports that the numbers of clients have stabilized so that they are almost equally divided between the Fullerton and Mission Veijo campuses. That means no double session—good news for everyone!

How do JoAnne Greenbaum and Jan Lee feel about the weighty new challenge ahead of them? When asked, they each responded, "Actually, I think I’ll love it!" Those of you who know JoAnne and Jan will be able to picture Clinic readers, parents and graduate students warming easily to their indefatigable energy, conscientious scholarship, and comforting friendliness. The C.S.U.F. Reading Clinic is, indeed, in good hands.

Faculty Footnotes

By Kathi Bartle Angus

This year’s graduation was memorable for a number of reasons in addition to the fact that it was for the Class of 2000. We had a record number of graduates from the program, 60 in all. The reception, co-hosted by the faculty and REG, in the Reading Clinic was extremely well-attended. We served a light lunch to over 80 graduates and their families.

Three memorable presentations were made at the reception. First, REG presented seven framed reading-themed posters that had been purchased from the American Library Association. The posters will be hung in the clinic for the enjoyment of the children. Second, Donna Padgett presented children’s literature purchased with a generous donation from Peggy and Joe Hammer in memory of their daughter. The books are shelved in a special location and marked with book plates. Finally Dr. JoAnn Carter-Wells read a memorable tribute to the retiring Dr. Norma Inabinette.

Although it is difficult to say good-bye to Norma, we have extracted a promise from her that she will be the speaker at this winter’s REG Dinner. I’m sure that the alumni who did not yet have a chance to congratulate Norma on her retirement will appreciate this opportunity to wish her well.

Hancock Fund

The Hancock Fund was established to honor Dr. Deborah Osen Hancock for her contributions to the field of reading and specifically to the Reading Department. The fund is solely for use by the CSUF Reading Clinic. Over the years, the fund has supplied books and technology for use by clinicians and students. REG would like to thank the following members for their generous contributions to the Hancock Fund:
Ann-Margaret Apodaca
S. Marisa Bowman-Small
Merry Cervantes
Marsha Hafer
Pamela Johnson
Veronica Kortz
Karen Rote
Dixie Shaw
Karen Starkey

Farewell to Dr. Norma Inabinette

by Dr. JoAnn Carter-Wells

Well, Norma dear, it is now our time to thank you for so many things…even as you don’t want us to…and as you just wanted to leave this place quietly…You have said that it is time….that you know that this is the time….

However, it is not possible to expect any of us to follow your wishes—especially on this most fitting day when we once again celebrate accomplishment, achievement, persistence, and quality….caring for people and their lives.

And those same characteristics of this annual commencement rite of passage also mark your rite of passage into retirement from this place that you have devoted 27 precious years of your life.

….from Norma Bartin to the incomparable Norma Inabinette…

….from an empty room with lots of carrels on the bottom floor of a new building to a reading clinic of national renown…

….from a naïve faculty member to a colleague and friend always ready and willing to work hard to make the world better and to be at our side through both professional and personal heartache and joy.

In this room—the clinic—you transformed the lives and spirits of over 1000 individuals. It is truly impossible to explain the emptiness that we feel by just the thought of you not being with us at the start of the next academic year. However, we must honor this change and time in your life and your decision to leave this place, but you will never leave our hearts.

It is our time to thank you for your outstanding contributions, indomitable spirit, never-ending friendship and creative vision as a faculty member at CSUF for over 27 years. And finally we ask you to fully appreciate the love and thanks that we all have for you each in his/her own way…and to remember the incredible difference that you have made in each of our lives and the lives of countless children and adults. What better legacy can there be!!

We want to rename this clinic as the Inabinette Reading Clinic, and we are working towards that goal.

Reading Educators' Guild Newsletter Staff

Editor: Jan Bagwell

Faculty Footnotes: Kathi Bartle Angus

The Reading Connection: Jordan Fabish

If you would like to contribute to the newsletter, by being a regular column writer or just an occasional article donator, please contact Jan Bagwell at jbagwell@fullerton.edu. We need all of you to help make REG great!