Literacy Now

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.

When students at New Castle’s Pleasantville Elementary School return for the 2023–2024 school year, they’ll have access to a completely reimagined and redesigned library. A large donation from the International Literacy Association (ILA), made possible through a Delaware Community Foundation grant, will help fund the much-needed capital improvements.

“We know that a great school library is the true heart and center of a school building,” said Pleasantville’s Principal Renee Griffith, who will help manage the grant. “These resources will help unlock the full potential of our school library and provide our school librarian with the tools needed to do what she does best: spark curiosity and foster a love of learning and reading in our students.”

Fresh paint is just one of Pleasantville’s many planned upgrades, which also includes an influx of new books and materials, new shelving to house the collection, and even new flexible learning seating and tables.

“This grant will truly help provide our students with the space they deserve to help inspire both curiosity and learning as well as helping to remove outdated books and providing our students with new and engaging books to access,” said Tom Gavin, supervisor of Instructional Technology & Libraries for Colonial School District. “It will also help us with our goal of making our school library an even stronger resource center for our students.”

District Superintendent Jeff Menzer expressed his appreciation for the funding, adding, “In Colonial School District, we believe in the ‘Power of WE,’ the importance of partnerships and working together in our community to help provide access and opportunities for the students and staff of Colonial Nation.”

ILA’s headquarters are in Newark, Del., and this donation marks one of several local initiatives the global organization is undertaking to support Delawareans.

“We set the standard for quality literacy instruction around the world,” said Nicola Wedderburn, ILA executive director. “We are and will remain committed to offering high-quality resources and professional development that benefits Delaware schools and educators.”