Dr. Leticia De León is currently teaching in the EC-4 Program in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and has been at the University of Texas Pan American since 2001.  She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and a Master of Arts degree in Reading from UTPA.  Her Doctor of Education degree in Curriculum and Instruction was earned from the University of Houston.

During the transition into the new teacher preparation program, she developed the syllabus, course objectives, and activities for two reading classes, READ 3325 and READ 3329, as well as produced the alignments to the TExES language arts and reading competencies in the EC-4 Generalist and EC-4 Bilingual Generalist exams.

Before she worked at UTPA, she was a high school English and Reading teacher for ten years, working with students in grade levels nine through twelve.  Her greatest experiences during those years included coaching UIL Prose and Poetry Interpretation, as well as the One Act Play.

Her research interests include reading and motivation, the best ways to encourage intrinsic motivation for reading, and the adverse effects of extrinsic motivation upon reading.  Another research interest involves the uses of instructional technology and how it can be useful to promote literacy learning experiences for both children and adults.

Teaching Philosophy
I am a firm believer in constructivism as part of instruction.  I know that if a teacher is able to implement learner-centered, cooperative learning activities into constructivist practices, the students gain not only in knowledge but in increased motivation to learn.  Voice and choice are essential components of instruction, both of which can provide the most interesting and challenging classroom situations where all children learn.

What I like about teaching at UTPA
 The UTPA community is both diverse and interesting.  Our students are largely from our own communities, and I enjoy the connection to their experiences that allows me to better understand them as people and students.  Most of our students have modest beginnings, much like me, and I feel that being a part of a university whose main task is to educate them fills me with both a sense of pride and a very real awareness of my place in their continued betterment, which is humbling and extremely gratifying.