Vita

Career in Education

  • Classroom teacher, Regina Public Schools, 1976-1994
  • K-12 Language Arts Consultant, 1994-2003
    • Coordinated professional development and curriculum implementation
    • Conducted research and supported teacher leadership in 64 elementary and secondary schools
    • Coordinated annual Writing Benchmarks Assessment in Grades 4, 8 and 10
    • Spearheaded Beginning Reading initiatives in Grades 1 and 2, including system-wide reading assessment
    • Coordinated evaluation, selection, purchase and in-service of Language Arts resources, K-8
    • Developed curriculum support materials
    • Served on Curriculum Reference Committee, English Language Arts 1-5
    • Served on Evaluation Committee, Saskatchewan Professional Development Unit, 1998-99
  • Reading Assessment Specialist, Saskatchewan Department of Education, 2003-2005
    • Led the development of the Provincial Reading Assessment
    • Developed scoring guides and coordinated scoring sessions
  • Sessional Instructor, University of Regina
  • Educational Consultant, High Interest Publishing, 2005-present
  • Developed Teachers’ Guides for HIP Sr, HIP Jr, Hip Edge novels

Professional Accomplishments

  • International Reading Association
    • Elected to Board of Directors, International Reading Association, 1999 -2002.
    • Founding member, Canadian Network of IRA Councils (CNIRAC) and recipient of 2007 CNIRAC Award of Excellence
    • Facilitated �Language to Literacy� Program in Belize , 1996
    • Chaired International Development in North America Committee, IRA, 1996-98
  • Saskatchewan Reading Council
    • Recipient, Honorary Lifetime Membership, 2010
    • President South Saskatchewan Reading Council, 1993-95
    • Co-Chaired Saskatchewan Reading Conference, 1996
    • Edited Query: Journal of the Saskatchewan Reading Council, 1996-98

Published Books

  • Marvelous Minilessons for Teaching Intermediate Writing, Grade 4 -6. International Reading Association, 2010
  • HIP Reading Assessment. High Interest Publishing, 2007
  • HIP Readers Theatre. High Interest Publishing, 2007
  • Marvelous Minilessons for Teaching Beginning Writing, K-3. International Reading Association, 2006
  • The Write Genre , co-authored with Paul Kropp.  Pembroke/Stenhouse Publishers, 2004
  • Guided Reading Basics.  Pembroke/Stenhouse Publishers, 2003
  • Early Literacy Instruction in Kindergarten. International Reading Association, 2001
  • Moms’ and Dads’ Guide to Helping Your Child with Spelling. Chapters, Inc. 2000

Other Published Writing

  • “Matching the Reader to the Text: Leveling Reading Materials for Early Literacy Instruction” The Reading Teacher, December-January 2002 (co-written with Wilfred Burton)
  • “Literature circles” School Libraries in Canada, Fall 1996
  • “Hooking Struggling Readers with Books they CAN and WANT to Read” Reading Rockets, 2001. http://www.readingrockets.org/article/374 (co-written with Paul Kropp)

Speaking

  • Featured speaker at International Reading Association International, Regional, State and Provincial conferences, including Michigan State, Colorado State, Illinois State, Reading for the Love of it (Toronto) and Arkansas State.
  • Featured speaker at Canadian Reading Recovery/Early Literacy Conferences
  • Former presenter for BER, SDE and SDR
  • Consultant for districts and professional development events across North America, including Chicago Public Schools, Orlando Public Schools, Loudoun County, VA Public Schools, Coquitlam, BC Public Schools, Cypress-Fairbanks (Houston) Public Schools