Sandy Hoffman

Sandy Hoffman is a Title 1 reading teacher at Roosevelt Elementary School in Hubbard, Ohio. She holds a bachelor’s degree in education from Youngstown State University and a master’s degree in learning disabilities and behavior disorders and supervision certification from Kent State University. She began her career in public education in 1972 in Hubbard, where she taught children with perceptual and motor skills difficulties. It was at that time that she noted the extreme importance of addressing all of the modalities when teaching. She was trained at Purdue University in Illinois under Newell Kephart. In 1983, she began teaching children with reading problems. She has used the Intensive Phonics program with her students for many years and has been thrilled to see their remarkable progress. She has also trained many of the parents of her students. She feels that the carryover at home is an important step in integrating the Intensive Phonics system into the students’ overall way of looking at words in any educational setting. Hoffman also teaches a reading course, Phonics in Reading Instruction, at Youngstown State.

She says, “It is amazing to witness the impact that Intensive Phonics has on my adult students and the benefit that they gain from the direct, multi-sensory, hands on approach. They are constantly telling me, ‘I never knew that! Why didn’t I learn this when I was in school?’ The program has opened their eyes to the understanding of phonics.”

Hoffman is certified in phonics instruction and has conducted many Intensive Phonics workshops throughout the United States. In 2004, Hoffman was a recipient of the “Fulfill a Need to Educate” grant. She has been a member of numerous committees in Hubbard, including the Technology Curriculum, Language Arts, and the Textbook Committees and the Hubbard Education Association’s Executive Board.