As a 35-year veteran of the International Reading Association, Judith Scott has seen a lot come and go. What have been constants, however, are themes close to her heart, like the building of vocabulary and the establishment and use of mentorships in the education field.

Scott wanted to be a teacher since elementary school and has spent more than a decade educating educators and researching topics, in addition to working as a member of the educational review board for Reading Research Quarterly.

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

My third grade teacher inspired me to become a teacher and circumstances fell into place that led me to become a professor.  I had come back to university to get an MA and Reading Specialist credential at the University of California, Davis with Linnea Ehri when my then boyfriend (and current husband) decided to get his MA in Recreational Administration. The Center for the Study of Reading (CSR) was in its heyday at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, which had the program he wanted to attend.  At the time, they were laying off teachers in the local school districts so I entered the doctoral program and became a graduate student researcher with Dick Anderson working on Becoming a Nation of Readers.  The rest is history.  I was an associate professor at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia when this position opened up in 2000.  My family is in California and, with aging parents and two young children, I decided to return home.  I've been here in the department of education at the University of California, Santa Cruz for 14 years.

How long have you been a member of IRA? How has membership influenced your career?

I've been a member of IRA for about 35 years.  I joined as a student teacher following the advice of my teacher supervisor. IRA has had a profound impact on my career.  My decision to move to Illinois was strongly influenced by an IRA preconvention institute presented by CSR researchers in 1983. Then, when I moved to Canada, I became heavily involved in the Lower Mainland Council of the International Reading Association (LOMCIRA) where I served on the executive committee for many years.  My position as a member of the RRQ Editorial Review Board allows me to help maintain the high standard of outstanding research for this journal and to mentor new authors. I've presented at numerous IRA conferences and preconvention institutes, and I've served on several IRA committees, including a position as the co-chair of the IRA publications committee.

What do you consider to be your proudest career moment?

My proudest career moment was when I received the 2006 IRA John Chorlton Manning Award for Outstanding Public School Service.   This award was developed to “encourage and support reading professors by recognizing the importance of integrating teacher preparation, professional development, and related research with the work of public schools, classrooms, teachers, and students.”  I was particularly honored that the teachers and district personnel with whom I worked initiated the process, solicited letters, and put forth my nomination. 

Vocabulary is such a hot topic. Why is that and what discoveries in your research have surprised you?

Vocabulary is a hot topic because knowledge of word meanings is a cornerstone of all communication. The words a speaker or author choose makes a difference in communicating meaning. Word choice becomes particularly important in written language because the words an author choose carries the weight of meaning when people are removed from each other in distance and time.
Learning words is often a difficult, frustrating struggle, particularly for English Learners, and vocabulary lessons in schools are often tedious, uninspired, and boring. I've been surprised at how easily this can turn around in word-conscious classrooms when students develop a sense of purpose for learning words and ownership of academic language.  We've had students spend their play dates looking for cognates and interesting words. When word learning becomes a fun activity for meaningful purposes, classrooms sparkle.
What role does mentoring play in your career?

I believe learning is sociocultural, and all people learn best when they are involved in communities of learners.  The strong mentorship I received as a graduate student was incredibly important, as neither of my parents went to university and I was the first female in our large extended family to get either an undergraduate or an advanced degree. 
I have tried to develop communities of learners in all of my research projects, with doctoral students, practicing teachers, leaders in professional development, and university colleagues. Each of us adds expertise of value to the collective projects, and part of my mentorship style is to bring people together in joint ventures so that we can learn from one another.

What are you reading (personal, professional, or even children's/YA)?

I teach an undergraduate course on using multicultural children's literature in K-8 classrooms from a critical perspective.  One of my great joys is finding books with themes of social justice that I use to let undergraduates experience literature circles. Current books include Ryan's Esperanza Rising,  Alexie's  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, Erskine's Mockingbird, Howe's Totally Joe, Jimenez's, The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child, Nye's Habibi,  Resau's  Red Glass, Uchida's  Journey to Topaz, Williams-Garcia’s, One Crazy Summer and Yang's American Born Chinese.  I'm always on the lookout for these types of books.

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

When you interview for a job, ask questions about the pedagogical orientation of the administration and support for new teachers at the school. Many new teachers drop out of the teaching profession because teaching is incredibly hard work, and both appropriate and sustained mentorship and a supportive network of colleagues and administrators can make the transition to teaching so much easier. 
Pay attention to students as people with lives, interests, and experiences beyond the walls of school.  Draw on these funds of knowledge in your classrooms and help students become apprentices in academic settings. Keep focused on the big picture in addition to the goals for each lesson. As a teacher, you don't need to know all the answers.  If you help students learn how to do the research to find answers, to think critically, to have compassion for others and the world, to read widely, and to write well, you are giving them a solid foundation for life.

April Hall is editor of Reading Today Online. She can be reached at ahall@/.