In this session, Dr. Tanya Wright of Michigan State University will help us understand the latest research on early literacy. In particular she will help us make sense of the criticism of readers/writer's workshop, in light of the science regarding teaching reading. This workshop will give us the skills and vocabulary to better guide teachers, support children, and speak authoritatively with parents.
Facilitated by Tanya Wright
Tanya S. Wright is an associate professor of Language and Literacy in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. Wright is a former kindergarten teacher whose research and teaching focus on curriculum and instruction in language and literacy during the early childhood and elementary years.
Wright is an author of several books for teachers and parents including: "A Parent's Guide to Reading With Your Young Child" (Scholastic), "Nurturing Knowledge: Building a Foundation for School Success by Linking Early Literacy to Math, Science, Art, and Social Studies" (Scholastic), "All About Words: Increasing Vocabulary in the Common Core" Classroom: PreK-2 (Teachers College Press), "A Teacher's Guide to Vocabulary Development Across the Day: Grades K-3" (Heinemann) and "Literacy Learning for Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers: Key Practices for Educators" (NAEYC).
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Her work has been published in journals such as American Educator, The Elementary School Journal, The Reading Teacher, Reading and Writing, Reading Research Quarterly, the Journal of Literacy Research and the Journal of Teacher Education. Wright's work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Institute of Education Sciences, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, OpenSciEd and the CREATE for STEM foundation at MSU. Wright was the winner of the International Literacy Association Outstanding Dissertation Award in 2012 and the Jerry Johns Outstanding Teacher Educator in Reading Award in 2022.
She is currently the senior editor of The Reading Teacher, the International Literacy Association's peer-reviewed journal for educators working with children up to age 12. Wright led the content development for a series of 55 open access professional development videos of classroom literacy instruction for PreK and K-3 teachers (videos available at: literacyessentials.org). She is the lead author of the SOLID Start curriculum (Science, Oral Language, and Literacy Development from the Start of School), which is an open access science and disciplinary literacy curriculum for grades K-2 (solidstart.msu.edu). Wright leads the literacy integration team and is co-lead of the K-2 instructional design team for the OpenSciEd Elementary curriculum development project. Wright is an affiliated faculty member with EPIC (The Education Policy Innovation Collaborative) at MSU.