AMP Up Interventions

Hi, my name is Ann Marie Pettis and the acronym of my name creates the word "AMP" so that is how I came up with the name for my TPT Store: AMP Up Interventions! To "AMP Up" something means "to increase the power of" or "to excite, or energize" something. My goal is to provide you with intervention resources to "AMP up" your time working with students and your impact on their reading progress! I completed a 30 year career working at the early elementary level with students who required extra support and interventions in the area of reading. My roles included teaching students with identified special education supports and IEPS, and working as a Reading Interventionist with students who qualified for extra support through at-risk funding and IRIPS.

I understand first hand the amount of teacher preparation that takes place behind the scenes in every teacher's classroom. I also understand that teachers are often mandated to teach certain standards or implement specific programs without being provided all of the resources required for those mandates. After receiving Orton Gillingham training and certification in November of 2021, I discovered that it was difficult to find quality decodable text to use with students that first of all, made sense, but secondly, followed a systematic sequence in simple progressive steps. Since I couldn't find what I needed, I started to create some of my own supplemental resources. Since retiring in August of 2025, I have been able to fully dive into creating a complete decodable text curriculum to support students transitioning from single syllable decoding to multisyllabic decoding. These word work resources and decodable texts were designed to be supplemental resources for extra practice and will align nicely with other Science of Reading Resources. Even students with strong visual memory skills, will eventually hit a brick wall in their progression of reading skills if they don't master the reading code. All students need to learn the 7 different syllable types, how those syllables can be combined into multisyllabic words, and the division rules for decoding and spelling larger words. The decoding resources I have created provide the repeated step by step practice of syllable division and decoding larger words, not just in isolation, but also within connected text.

I will always hold dear in my heart those moments when I witnessed students make astonishing progress with reading and build stronger confidence in themselves. I will also remember the "magic" that took place at my teacher table during intervention time, where students felt safe, experienced success with big smiles, and stated how much they loved coming to reading groups! That is the part of teaching that I will always miss.

I received my bachelor's degree for teaching from Western Michigan University, and my master's degree for the area of learning disabilities from Grand Valley State University.

Now that I am retired from education, I still get to share my passion for reading and books, by working part time at a public library in the children's section. It is the best of both worlds! In my spare time, I love to read, exercise, and travel with my husband of 31 years, especially anywhere with sunshine, sand, and palm trees!