Language & Literacy

Faculty

Please click on each faculty name to read a full profile:

• Vicki A. Jacobs
• Jacy Ippolito
• Nonie K. Lesaux
• Pamela Mason
• Lolly Robinson
• Catherine E. Snow
• Jennifer Thomson
• Paola Uccelli

Selected Faculty Work

Catherine Snow

Catherine Snow is director of the Boston Field Site of the Strategic Education Research Partnership [SERP; www.serpinstitute.org], which is an effort to understand the literacy problems facing middle school students in the Boston Public Schools, to develop ways to assess these problems, and to design and test effective teaching practices for various student populations. A major initiative launched within the BPS Field Site has been Word Generation, an intervention to promote academic language knowledge and use in middle school classrooms.

With the rapid growth of English Language Learners (ELLs) in today's schools, best practices for educating ELLs is a heated topic in both academic and popular discourse. The current research of Language and Literacy faculty reflects the importance of generating useable knowledge in this area.

Nonie Lesaux

Related to links between research, instruction and policy for ELLs, Nonie Lesaux leads the Language Diversity & Literacy Development Research Group, which aims to investigate the reading development of language minority learners and their classmates in urban schools from preschool through the middle school years. In collaboration with five districts across the U.S., the team, comprised of HGSE faculty, graduate students, alumni, and staff, is pursuing a range of projects designed to inform instructional efforts to prevent reading difficulties and enhance reading comprehension outcomes among learners from linguistically diverse backgrounds. HGSE doctoral students play a key role in each of the projects and, together, have published papers and given presentations for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.

On the research end Nonie Lesaux is working on a three-year project funded by the Head Start Bureau, “Tracking Vocabulary Development of English Language Learners.” The goal of the project is to pilot, refine, and validate instruments to be used to track children’s vocabulary skills in English and Spanish over time, as well as their changing exposure to and use of each language at home and school. Program-friendly tools to track toddlers’ and preschoolers’ exposure to, use of, and skill in two languages are crucial if preschool programs are to identify children in need of intensive developmental intervention prior to kindergarten entry.

Jenny Thomson’s research group is currently investigating reading disabilities from a variety of angles. In collaboration with the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University, Jenny is working on a project to improve the accuracy of pre-school assessments for reading difficulty risk. Her work particularly focuses on the potential of assessments of rhythm sensitivity to predict reading sub skills. With her newly established neuroscience (ERP) lab, projects are also underway exploring the neural correlates of reading-related learning with a view to understanding individual differences in response to intervention.

Pamela Mason’s research interests are in the areas of informational text features and their role in promoting reading comprehension and the role of school leaders in supporting student achievement in literacy. Collaborating with researchers and teacher educators in Brazil, she is helping to develop literacy professional development for principals. As the Chair of the Studies and Research Committee of the Massachusetts Reading Association, Pamela conducted a research project on how teachers, Reading Specialists, and Literacy Coaches used assessment data to inform instruction.

With a background in linguistics, Paola Uccelli’s research focuses on sociocultural and individual differences in academic literacy, in particular how different language skills (at the lexical, grammatical, and discourse levels) interact with each other to either promote or hinder advances in language expression and comprehension. She has conducted research on the design and analysis of an innovative reading comprehension assessment and a computer-mediated reading and vocabulary intervention, with special design features for Spanish-speaking English learners. She is particularly interested in the challenges and possibilities faced by struggling students as they try to learn the academic discourse valued at school. Her current research addresses questions such as how struggling students expand their academic vocabulary and how they learn to use a variety of discourse structures flexibly and conventionally in writing.

L&L Faculty Research

Mason, P. & Ippolito, J. (in press). What Is The Role of Reading Specialists in Promoting Adolescent Literacy? In Lewis, J. (Ed.), Essential Questions in Adolescent Literacy: Teachers and Researchers Respond Together on What Works in Classrooms, New York: Guilford Press.

Mason, P. & Dobbs, C. (2008). Classroom assessment strategies: Who uses what and when. Massachusetts Reading Association www.massreading.org

Catherine Snow

"Middle Ground: Shattuck Professor Catherine Snow's Project on Adolescent Literacy", Ed. Magazine, September 1, 2005.

"The ESL Advantage: A Lift-Off to Literacy", Ed. Magazine, April 1, 2004.

"Initiating a Global Research Bank: The Development of the Strategic Education Research Project", March 1, 2004.

"The New Head Start: From Cradle to Classroom", Ed. Magazine, August 1, 2003.

"Strategic Education Research Partnership", An Interview with Shattuck Professor Catherine Snow, June 1, 2003.

"Looking Closely at Second Language Learning", An Interview with Shattuck Professor Catherine Snow, October 1, 2002.

Jeanne Chall Reading Lab

The Jeanne Chall Reading Lab (JCRL) is named for a well-respected Harvard professor who made significant contributions to the field of reading research. Housed on the ground floor of Larsen Hall, the JCRL provides students and faculty with many opportunities to exchange ideas and knowledge. Whether they are conferring on research, discussing effective instruction, or planning for practicum assignments, students have access not only to an abundance of carefully chosen resource materials but also to personal guidance on best practices in effective language and literacy instruction.