Literacy Now

Sandy Shacklady-White

Consultant, Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network
Coatesville, PA

How did you begin your career, and what led you to your current position?

I started my career in education as a special education teacher in 1989, working for an approved private school (APS) that is a residential facility west of Philadelphia for youth with emotional disorders and other disabilities ages 6 to 21. In my last year and a half at the APS, I was both a classroom teacher and a lead teacher. During my tenure at the APS, I completed my graduate degree as a reading specialist at West Chester University. I spent six years at the APS before obtaining a position in a public middle school, also west of Philadelphia. I was a learning support teacher for grades 6–8, teaching English language arts along with other core content areas, to students with IDEA services and periodically cotaught science and social studies with gen-ed colleagues. During that time, I earned my supervisor of special education certification from Penn State at the encouragement of the director of pupil services. After 11 years in the classroom in the district, I became a supervisor of special education in the district when the school board created a supervisor of secondary special education position as the result of a growing number of youth being in need of special education. After two years in that role, I was hired by a public school district closer to home as one of three supervisors of special education. I remained in that position for 9.5 years when I decided to apply for my current position as an educational consultant with the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network, which is part of the Bureau of Special Education in the state Department of Education. I have been in my current role since May 2017.

What are you reading (personal or professional)?

I read all sorts of texts! I thoroughly enjoy children’s literature, middle school books, and young adult books. I also read many educational and psychological type books. Currently, I am reading Dacher Keltner’s Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life (Penguin Press) and Karina Evans’ Audrey Covington Breaks the Rules (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), a middle school book. In addition, I read educational journals, magazines, and websites such as Literacy Today, NCTE’s Council Chronical, Learning for Justice, Teaching Exceptional Children, ASCD’s Educational Leadership, and KSLA’s Pennsylvania Reads.

How long have you been a member of ILA, and how has membership influenced your career?

I first became involved in my local chapter in Pennsylvania when in graduate school, so probably in 1990, when one of my professors shared with the class information about the organization. I greatly admired her, and she was the local chapter’s president at that time. I know my membership lapsed a couple of years but then I rejoined and have remained a member ever since. I guess all together I have been a member for over 30 years. I have been on my local chapter’s board, KSLA Brandywine Valley Forge, for nine or so years. I am currently the vice president and will assume the presidency role in July 2023. I have been active the past two years on our state literacy association’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee.

By being a member, I have had the opportunity to continue to learn about current research and trends in the field. Over the years, I often attended after-school and Saturday morning workshops hosted by three of the area chapters of KSLA. It has been a fantastic way to learn about new literacy methods to apply to the classroom, to learn about new books, to meet local authors of children’s literature, and to network with fellow educators. My time on the board has allowed me to expand my network and to help bring high-quality programming to learners including current teachers, preservice teachers, retired educators, and really anyone passionate about helping kids improve their literacy skills to meet the demands of our world and future world. To me, it is all about what we can do to prepare our youth for now and beyond.

What do you like to do when you’re not wearing your educator hat?

When not working, I am frequently involved with many volunteering efforts. I am a U.S. figure skating judge and am an ice dancer. I am a member of my county’s suicide prevention task force and provide suicide prevention and awareness training. I volunteer with a county nonprofit family grief center called A Haven. I am on the board of Pennsylvania’s Council for Exceptional Children and Council of Administrators of Special Education.

Additionally, I enjoy participating in a shared reading group that has been meeting via zoom since the pandemic began. It is modeled after the United Kingdom’s shared reading approach. In a shared reading group, we gather to read anything: novels, poems, short stories. A reader leader will bring the literature to share and others in the group may make suggestions too. There is no reading in advance except by the reader leader who facilitates the sessions. It is done in real time together. Group members are encouraged to respond to the text in a personal way by sharing feelings, thoughts, or memories elicited by the text. The approach allows for a shared language to help us understand ourselves and each other better.

What advice would you give a new teacher that either you received or wish you had?

I tell new teachers that they must remember becoming a good teacher will take time and to always be on the watch for ways to gain new skills and perspectives on how to teach students. I encourage them to join organizations such as ILA and KSLA to keep up with the field, to network, to keep learning—to be a role model as lifelong learners who are constantly curious about life and the world.

What can literacy educators do to motivate kids to want to read?
Teachers need to start by making personal connections with each student and establishing an environment that is safe, inviting, and one in which the student feels that they belong, are valued, and respected. Teachers need to make what is being studied authentic and relevant to the students, and design lessons that eliminate barriers to learning while taking into consideration that each student brings a varied learning profile to the classroom community. I honestly can’t emphasize enough the need to make healthy connections with each student as a whole student. They are someone’s child, a grandchild, a sibling, a friend, involved in scouts or other clubs of interest, a kid who is good at certain sports, the arts, STEM, and so forth. Take time to know them, let them have a voice in the learning process, listen to them, and honor them.

What has changed the most in education since you first started in the field?

Oh my. So many things have changed in both positive and not-so-positive ways. I will provide my perspectives on the positives that have emerged and evolved since 1989 when I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in special education. I think the level of family engagement has increased significantly with their children’s educational experiences. And the science of making education more accessible—whether it is via design and frameworks and/or with actual devices—to many students with significant learning challenges due to their “diverse abilities” is magical. The shift in focus on helping youth become more critical readers, writers, and thinkers is a major plus and needs to continue to forge ahead so that we equip our youth with the skills they need to be productive, successful adults who contribute to their communities in positive ways. Education has finally begun to truly see students for who they are as individuals and as a collective. It’s about time.

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Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in blog posts on this website are those of the individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of ILA. We have taken reasonable steps to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in blog posts but do not warrant the accuracy or completeness of such information.

 

The International Literacy Association (ILA) announced today that Diane Lapp, distinguished professor of education at San Diego State University, is the recipient of its 2023 William S. Gray Citation of Merit—the highest individual honor awarded by the organization.

Akin to a lifetime achievement award, the William S. Gray is reserved for those who have made truly outstanding contributions to multiple facets of literacy development, including research, theory and practice.

Lapp was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame in 2005. She began her career as an elementary school teacher in Kalamazoo, MI, before attending Indiana University for her doctorate (where she served as a research assistant for Roger Farr). She joined San Diego State University in 1978 following an eight-year stint at Boston University. Throughout her career, she has taught elementary, middle and high school, and she currently serves as an instructional coach at Health Sciences High and Middle College, a charter school in San Diego.

Lapp’s areas of research and instruction focus on readers who struggle (as well as their families and teachers), particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. She has authored, coauthored and edited hundreds of articles, columns, texts, handbooks and curriculum materials. One coedited book, Handbook of Research on the Teaching of the English Language Arts, is considered one of the most comprehensive works in the field. A fifth edition from Lapp and Douglas Fisher is in press.

She is also the coauthor of Literacy in the Disciplines: A Teacher’s Guide for Grades 5–12, Teaching Reading to Every Child, Teaching Reading: A Playbook for Developing Skilled Readers Through Word Recognition and Language Comprehension, and Close Reading of Complex Texts.

“When I learned I had received the William S. Gray award, I felt many emotions. I was honored, humbled, excited, and also very appreciative to my nominators who believed in me,” Lapp said. “I also thought about my numerous students and hoped that as their teacher, I had exemplified Gray’s philosophy of planning instruction based on observance of student performance. Finally, I reminisced that my career has afforded me many professional opportunities to engage in research and publishing, but my greatest pride is that I continue to be a teacher of many ages.”

Many of Lapp’s contributions to the field were done in collaboration with researcher James Flood—so many in fact that ILA has an award in their name: the Diane Lapp & James Flood Professional Collaborator Award.

In addition to decades of service to the field at large, Lapp is a longtime member of and contributor to ILA. She is the former chair of ILA’s Literacy Research Panel, and she has served regularly as a conference presenter, digital events speaker, committee member and author.

She is a previous coeditor of The California Reader, the journal of ILA affiliate California Reading Association, and she currently serves on the review board for ILA’s The Reading Teacher and Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy.

The William S. Gray Citation of Merit is named in honor of one of literacy education’s foremost pioneers and the first president of the International Reading Association (now ILA). Past recipients include P. David Pearson, Steve Graham, Nell K. Duke, and Jeanne S. Chall.

Joining Lapp in this year’s ILA awards and grants program are 12 other educators and literacy leaders:

• Lori Bruner, Michigan State University | Timothy & Cynthia Shanahan Outstanding Dissertation Award for “Word Learning Opportunities in Preschool Storybook Apps”
• Rachel F. Knecht, University of Nevada, Reno | Steven A. Stahl Research Grant for “The Effects of a Syntax-Focused Reading Intervention on Middle-School Students’ Syntactic Knowledge”
• Jan Lacina, Texas Christian University | Jerry Johns Outstanding Teacher Educator in Reading Award
• Kyley Pulphus, Louisiana State University | Helen M. Robinson Grant for “The Writer Is the Sun: A Case Study of a Culturally Responsive and Antiracist Writing Workshop”
• Marianne Rice, Florina Erbeli, Christopher G. Thompson, and Melissa Fogarty, Texas A&M University, and Mary Rose Sallese, University of Alabama at Birmingham | Dina Feitelson Research Award for their Reading Research Quarterly article “Phonemic Awareness: A Meta-Analysis for Planning Effective Instruction”
• Chase Young, Sam Houston State University, and Timothy Rasinski, Kent State University | Diane Lapp & James Flood Professional Collaborator Award
• Mai W. Zaru, Southern Methodist University | Jeanne S. Chall Research Fellowship for “Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies With Immigrant Families”

More information can be found on ILA’s awards and grants page.

The International Literacy Association (ILA) announced today the next editor team to lead the organization’s most popular journal, The Reading Teacher (RT)—and the group is the largest, most diverse team named in the publication’s history.

The editor team includes

	Rachael Gabriel, Professor of Literacy Education and Director, Reading and Language Arts Center, University of Connecticut, United States
	Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica, Associate Professor of Teaching, School of Education, University of California, Davis, United States (effective July 1)
	Allison Briceño, Associate Professor and Coordinator, Multilingual and Multicultural Literacy M.A. Program, San José State University, United States
	Navan Govender, Lecturer, Applied Language and Literacy Studies, University of Strathclyde, Scotland, United Kingdom
	Eliza Braden, Associate Professor of Elementary Education, University of South Carolina, United States
	Sanjuana Rodriguez, Associate Professor of Literacy Education and Codirector, Academy for Language and Literacy, Kennesaw State University, United States
	Roberta Price Gardner, Associate Professor of Literacy Education, Kennesaw State University, United States
	Melissa Derby, Senior Lecturer and Codirector, Early Years Research Centre, University of Waikato, New Zealand

New editors to focus on inclusive, equity-oriented literacy education

Gabriel is a former member-at-large on the ILA Board of Directors and was serving in 2020 when the ILA journal editors issued a joint call to action on how the literacy and research community must contribute to overcoming racial injustice. The application statement prepared by her team of editors show that they are poised to carry on that call.

They outlined a vision that builds upon RT’s strengths and seeks further avenues for creating united global communities through the journal’s authors, reviewers, and readers.

“Our team includes diverse expertise, experience, and perspectives, yet we share a similar goal for RT: to ensure it not only reflects but leads the field in inclusive, equity-oriented literacy education,” the team wrote. “Together, we bring with us insights from practice, research, lived experience, and diverse approaches to scholarship, allowing us to tap into the productive force of our differences to help push the field forward.”

The team’s combined research interests include early literacy, the role of family in building foundational literacy skills, equitable practices for multilingual students, critical literacies, discipline-specific literacy instruction, diverse children’s literature, and the intersections among literacy, language, race, ethnicity, gender, and culture.

Unique to this team: They plan to alternate through the role of senior editor so they each have the opportunity to take the helm during their tenure. Gabriel and Rodriguez-Mojica are first up as senior editors.

“We are all limited by what we can imagine and that to which we have been exposed,” the team wrote. “By convening the largest and most diverse editorial team in the journal’s history, we aim to expand what is possible for practitioners and researchers alike.”

The incoming team’s four-year term begins June 15, 2023, and concludes June 30, 2027.

Their first year overlaps with the final year of outgoing editors Tanya Wright, Michigan State University; Patricia Edwards, Michigan State University; Laura Tortorelli, Michigan State University; John Z. Strong, University at Buffalo, New York; and Emily Phillips Galloway, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee.

Nicola Wedderburn, executive director of ILA, said there were multiple high-quality teams considered during the application process, but the seamless collaboration of this group was unmatched.

“Their geographic differences were anything but a barrier. In fact, the varying perspectives and region-specific knowledge that they bring to the table is one of the aspects that makes them a perfect team for this role,” Wedderburn said. “Their vision and mission for the journal strongly aligns with ILA’s vision for the future. Our organization is committed not only to serving but also to representing educators around the globe.”

RT is the leading global journal for educators of literacy learners up to age 12, offering high-quality, evidence-based teaching tips, and ideas plus the teacher perspective. The reach and influence of the journal is extensive. RT had 1.2 million article views in the last year and has a circulation of more than 6,700 academic institutions.

J. Helen Perkins, a professor of literacy at the University of Memphis in Tennessee, is the newly elected vice president of the ILA Board of Directors. Perkins has been serving as a Board member-at-large since 2020. Her new term begins July 1, 2023, and she will assume the presidency of the Board on July 1, 2024.

An ILA member since 1998, Perkins has more than 43 years of experience in education, having served as a reading specialist, classroom teacher, literacy coach, and various other roles. She has been at the University of Memphis since 2005, where her scholarly work focuses on children of poverty, their literacy acquisition and enhancement.

She has also served ILA in multiple capacities prior to her Board service, including coeditor of The Reading Teacher journal and a lead writer for Standards for the Preparation of Literacy Professionals. Currently, she serves as a member of the Membership Committee and cochair of the Anti-Racism, Social Justice, and Equity Committee, and she is chair of ILA’s National Recognition Commission, which oversees the organization’s National Recognition program—a seal of approval for college and university literacy professional preparation programs.

“I have had the pleasure of serving as a literacy advocate for the majority of my life. As vice president, I will continue to support ILA’s mission, strategic plan and goals as we advocate for students, families, educators and all stakeholders globally,” Perkins said. “My vision is for ILA to enhance our membership and global work, and to continue to advance diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in all that we do.” 

Three new Board members-at-large were also elected for the 2023–2026 term:

• Young-Suk Kim, professor and senior associate dean, School of Education, University of California Irvine. Kim, an ILA member since 2022, is a regular contributor to ILA—having written multiple articles for Reading Research Quarterly, presented during digital events, and served as guest editor of the membership magazine. Her scholarship focuses on oral language, reading, writing, dyslexia, and higher-order cognitive skills.
• Zoi Traga Philippakos, associate professor in literacy education at the University of Tennessee. Philippakos has been an ILA member since 2004. In addition to contributing to all three of ILA’s journals, she has presented during digital events and served as a member of ILA’s Writing Task Force. Her research interests include reading and writing instruction in K–12 classrooms as well as postsecondary strategy instruction with self-regulation, motivation, and teacher professional development.
• James Darin Pope, deputy superintendent, Tuscaloosa City Schools, and adjunct instructor, University of Alabama. Pope, an ILA member since 2008, is focused on foundational reading skills and literacy across the content areas. An educator for 26 years, he has served on the Strategic Planning Committee on Teaching Reading and the Literacy Task Force of the State of Alabama.

Kim, Perkins, Philippakos, and Pope were elected by ILA’s membership during the ILA 2023 Board Election, which was conducted online between March 27, 2023, and May 5, 2023. The new vice president and members-at-large will begin their terms on July 1, 2023.

Educators and school leaders from across the United States and from as far away as Trinidad and Tobago came together for “Advancing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Through Literacy,” held at Delaware State University (DSU) in Dover, DE. The event, developed by the International Literacy Association (ILA) in partnership with DSU, focused on literacy teaching and learning practices that create inclusive sites of belonging and yield more equitable student outcomes.

The face-to-face event, ILA’s first since COVID-19, featured an impressive slate of Delaware educators and administrators in addition to literacy leaders from across the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond. Among them: DSU alumnus Jahsha Tabron, Delaware’s 2022 Teacher of the Year.

Tabron, like fellow keynote speakers Michele Myers, an author and Wake Forest University professor, and Stephen Peters, education consultant and past president of the ILA Board of Directors, delivered the message that what students need more than anything is to be seen.

“We tend to notice everything we think [students] are missing instead of the wonderful things they are coming with,” Tabron said. “We don’t need to change our students to see their assets and visualize their success. We don’t need to change students to teach them. We don’t need them to fit into our boxes. We need to get them to see themselves and be proud of themselves and live and grow beyond their boxes so they don’t continue to fit into small expectations.”

“It’s good to know pedagogy and curriculum, but it’s better to know your students,” Peters noted, while Myers encouraged educators to reflect on why they had chosen the profession in the first place: “It’s not just what we do; it’s not just a job. It is our purpose.”

Topics covered during the all-day event included planning lessons that centers today’s diverse student population; building foundational literacy skills through diverse, authentic children’s literature that honors backgrounds, identities, and cultures; using think-alouds to better understand students and promote comprehension growth; and coaching as a means of supporting equitable outcomes for students.

Kenneth Kunz, president of the ILA Board of Directors and a session presenter, was thrilled to see the room filled with attendees who share in ILA’s mission of equitable access to literacy around the world.

“When literacy changemakers intentionally enhance teaching to prioritize equity through access, [affirm] students’ identities, and [design] inclusive lessons, it is not at the expense of others,” he said. “In fact, we all become better together in this beautiful, diverse and globally connected world.”

For more information about the event, visit literacyworldwide.org.