Sharon
Madsen (at age sixty-three) continues to add to
her thirty-nine-year teaching, research and curricula
analyst career.
Daughter of an itinerant preacher in the
Cumberland Plateau, she recalls her father’s ability to
teach and his devotion to sharing the gospel—how Mom,
six children, plus ten others (put in their safekeeping
by the state of Tennessee), an accordion, and drinking
water were arranged in and on the back of a Ford flatbed
truck (weather permitting) for the ten-mile trip to the
head of Alardt Hollow.
“Dad parked
the truck; Mom looked to the water supply; the older
children collected the younger ones. As we hiked up
the only trail to the first meeting site, we fine-tuned
our renditions of Amazing Grace, What a Friend
We Have in Jesus, When the Roll Is Called up
Yonder and quite a few southern gospel
favorites.
We knew we’d sing a lot that day, because before
its end we would hold three
meetings.
“People
couldn’t pay Dad in cash but they gave him canned goods,
eggs, chickens (often on the hoof), smoked pork, and
flour in cloth sacks (from which Mom made us
girls skirts).
They called this form of payment a
‘pounding’.
As dusk settled in, our weary but still-singing
band, now carrying food goods that included several
chickens, now quiet inside a burlap bag, tramped down
the path to the truck and went
home.
“When I
think about it, it seems like another world. How superbly it
shaped my soul, and of course, my ideals. I always wanted
to be a teacher like my Dad. But the road to
becoming a ‘good teacher’ disappeared for a time in a
swamp: I
found my university teacher training had not equipped me
to produce students with independent language arts
proficiencies.
At Dad’s advice, I looked backwards to the time
when America was
nearly 100% literate: How did teachers do it then? What materials
did they have?
How did they administer instruction?
“The
historical record is a lifesaver! Like a beacon,
it shows the way.
Teaching philosophies and practices have become
polluted; we don’t want to think or do
like some now think and do. I love to share
how—in spite of much ‘clamoring’—we still can teach
integrated language arts with the same noticeable
proficiency our forefathers did. Here’s
how.”
Research
& Curriculum Development
Director of
Research & Development, Curricula & Methods of
Instruction Analyst and
Curriculum Writer for Line & Precept
Education Foundation, working with over 200 teachers
(most of whom are home educators), 13 schools, and 700
plus students, researching, scripting and field-testing
the now available, non-consumable,
explicit phonics based, fully scripted, completely
integrated (penmanship, spelling, written composition,
grammar, reading—all of it) language arts series called
English for Life®-The Madsen
Method®.
(1988-present)
Teaching
National
Presenter of
history’s confirmed and up to now untitled and little
known but unequaled method for
teaching the Language Arts, Neurological Response
Instruction (NRI).
(1992-present)
Instructor
& Language Arts Teacher-Trainer of Home
Educators and Public School Teachers and Language
Arts Teacher & Private Tutor of home schooled
and public schooled students, those labeled as Learning
Disabled, Autistic, ADD, HADD, ESL, Gifted, and students
considered “regular,” age 4 through adult.
(1988-present)
National
University Language Arts Teacher-Trainer
of 10, 15
and 30-hour continuing education undergraduate and
graduate courses, offered through the University of Montana, University of Oregon at Portland, and Northwest Nazarene College.
(1988–present)
Super
Spelling Camp Instructor & Teacher-Trainer
for the
National Spelling Centre, grades 2-Adult.
(1990-present)
Practicum
Supervisor & In-Service Teacher for Special
Learning Disabilities (SLD) Teachers for the
University of
Wisconsin
(grades 5-9) and Program Developer & Teacher
of Special Learning Disabilities Compensatory
Education Programs for the state of Wisconsin, grades
5-9.
(1970’s)
Pilot
Teacher of
a court-ordered, multi-media social science/language
arts junior high school course for Milwaukee
Public Schools inner city schools called The
American, grades 7-8, as well as the
experimental program, Occupational Orientation,
grades 7-9.
(1966-1970; 1975-1976)
Public
School Teacher;
Language Arts, U.S. History, Speech, Economics,
Geography, Creative Writing, Spelling,
Reading, SLD students, grades 5-12: Private School
Teacher & Teacher-Trainer; Language Arts, grades
K-12.
(1966-1988)
Author;
Composer
A Complete
Course in English Grammar (a
cross-referenced teaching guide published 1992):
The Reading Acts: An Individual Diagnostic and
Prescriptive Teaching Test (based on Hilde
Mosse’s Clinical Method: published 1991): A Tale
of a Duck (published 1982): Spice Up the
World with His Love (a Christmas Cantata [SATB]
published 1977).
Volunteer
Activities
Alto 1
(Helena
Symphony Chorale):
Pianist (by request): Choir
Director (Junior Choir; First Presbyterian Church;
Helena, MT):
Organizer/Fund-Raiser (Kiwanis Volleyball
Camps):
Secretary (Lewis & Clark County Cancer
Committee):
4-H Leader (English Horsemanship): Mother’s
Helper (Youth Sales Opportunity and Summer Camp Food
Service Provider).
Degrees
Earned
Master of
Arts: Special
Education—K-12 Learning Disabilities Specialist &
Resource Teacher; May 1977; Cardinal Stritch College: Milwaukee,
WI. Bachelor of
Science: Secondary Education—English Language Arts
& History; June 1966; Indianan Wesleyan University: Marion,
IN. Teacher
Preparation, Biblical Studies, Voice & Music
Theory: May 1963; Kentucky Mountain Bible College; Van
Cleave, KY.
English for Life®—The Madsen Method®
Line
& Precept Education Foundation ● P. O. Box
4298 ● Helena, MT 59604
800-640-3607
info@madsenmethod.com
