Welcome to Playful Pursuits!

Hello!! My name is Veronica, and I am the owner of Playful Pursuits.

Whether you are are teacher looking for information on best literacy practices, or a parent seeking literacy tutoring for your child, I know you will find the information you are looking for here!

How Did This Journey Begin?

I was a teacher in the public school system for 18 years.

During my time in the classroom, reading was taught using Balanced Literacy. In fact, I was even part of a cohort for 5 years to hone my skills in these practices, and even became a mentor teacher for others to come observe my Balanced Literacy expertise.

Balanced Literacy sounds great, right? After all, the word “balance” is right there in the title.

The problem was, year after year, I had a significant percentage of my first grade class still struggling to read at the end of the year.

I knew something wasn’t working…but I didn’t know how to fix it.

Enter David Liben into my pedagogical life in 2017. I was at a teaching conference listening to him talk about systematic phonics and decodable readers- the very things that were in opposition to all of my Balanced Literacy training.

But, I decided to give it a shot. I think my Balanced Literacy heart was secretly hoping it wouldn’t work so I could confidently boast it’s superiority, but alas, that was not the case.

After using structured literacy strategies for a full school year with my students, every single one of them was meeting or exceeding the benchmark for the end of the year. Every. Single. One.

It was after this experience that I became passionate about the Science of Reading, and learning about how the brain best learns to read. Throughout the past 5 years, I have done a lot of self driven professional development, and have since become trained in the Orton-Gillingham method of reading instruction.

Why Playful Pursuits?

In 2021, I left the classroom and began creating resources to support other teachers.

What I realized very quickly, is that I missed the kids!!

Playful Pursuits was born out of the knowledge that there is such a high need for literacy tutoring for young students, and I am a passionate believer that intervention doesn’t have to be boring!!

Research based literacy practices can be fun!! I use multisensory activities, songs, and play to get students closer to becoming proficient readers.

Thanks for coming along with me on this journey!

One Response

  1. Mrs. Feller is absolutely an amazing educator. She taught my daughter and I was thrilled to see how my own child learned so much in a fun way. I am so grateful for Mrs. Feller’s learning strategies and tips. I would highly recommend Mrs. Feller!

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Hi, I'm Veronica!

I support teachers and families with structured literacy intervention using Orton-Gillingham methods. I offer in-person tutoring in the Reno, Nevada area. I am passionate about helping students become avid readers through multisensory, engaging, and research based practices.