Students at Massachusetts’ Dighton Elementary make huge strides in literacy thanks to reading interventionist Leigh Beson. She uses data to optimize targeted student learning and designs instructional activities tailored to each child’s unique needs. Beson employs a wide range of assessments to monitor student progress and fine-tune her methods. Her objective: ensuring that all students progress towards their full potential.
Beson held the same focus on student growth in her previous role as a first grade teacher. She covered the walls of her classroom with interactive color-coded anchor charts studded with sticky notes, placeholders for questions raised as the class worked, and offered students choice in writing assignments, keeping a box of prompt words on hand to offer ideas as they wrote, edited and revised. On Fridays, Beson led craft projects that tied together lessons from the week—a unit on weather, for example, ended with students making wind chimes. She emphasized collaboration in helping students reach their potential, making sure every student in her classroom succeeded with organizers, checklists, scaffolding and differentiation. During the pandemic, Beson’s interactive Google Classroom included both asynchronous and synchronous instruction, weekly assignments and suggestions for time management. By the end of each school year, most of Beson’s students met grade-level expectations, regardless of where they started.
Beson has participated in the district’s literacy academy and served on curriculum, writing implementation and district literacy teams. Teachers who have observed her in action see a leader not unlike the conductor of an orchestra, always aware of what everyone in the class is doing and who needs help at any moment. Everything Beson does at Dighton has a singular purpose: to make a difference in the lives of students, colleagues and the community.
Beson earned a bachelor’s in English from Fordham University in 2009 and a master’s in elementary education from Northeastern University in 2012.
"It's my favorite thing in the world — I love teaching..." (read more)
2012 M.A., MAT Teaching, Elementary Education, Northeastern University
2009 B.A., English, Fordham University
