Luzmilla Chu Joy

Luzmilla Chu Joy is an ESL teacher, an ESL curriculum developer for DE-DOE, and a volunteer elementary mentor. She holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, and a master’s degree in business management from La Católica University and an educational technology certificate from Del Tech. She taught elementary school for 18 years and was a DE practitioner leader for three years. She is affiliated with the Delaware Association for Adult and Community Education, the Delaware Coalition for Literacy, and TESOL. She has given various presentations, including Back to Basics, Connection between Practice and Research, New Ways to Work with ESL Learners, Contextualized Applications for Student Transfer, and Oh My ESL Curriculum Development.

Chu Joy says, “I strongly believe that starting an ESL learner with a phonics program can make a person successfully literate in English. I believe phonics is a critical subject that needs to be learned well. For me, ‘back to basics’ is the foundation for my ESL classes’ success. I have found that the sounds of the language have to be taught one at a time, in a clear sequence. (With Discover Intensive Phonics, the students) know decoding skills, and they amaze themselves by reading multi-syllabic words with ease.”