IRA President Victoria Risko and P. David Pearson, chair of the Literacy Research Panel, have added three new members to the IRA Literacy Research Panel. The new members are Amy Correa, a Chicago teacher; Linda M. Phillips, University of Alberta, Canada; and Peter Freebody, University of Sydney, Australia. Brief background information on each of these individuals is set out below.

The Panel has been working diligently since its formation last fall. One of its first major work products, namely its vision statement, will be distributed and discussed on Monday April 30, 2012 at 10:30 a.m. during the panel’s presentation at IRA’s Chicago Convention.

Amy Correa

Amy Correa is a teacher in the Chicago Public Schools and a doctoral student at National-Louis University. As a Millennium Scholar, she assisted Senior Consultant Donna Ogle on the collaboration between the National College of Education of National-Louis University and the Chicago Public Schools on its federal Striving Readers Grant to improve the literacy instruction of middle school readers. 

Amy, Donna, and Camille Blachowicz also codirected the Reading Corporate Cohort Model. In partnership with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Office of Literacy and supported by CPS and The Chicago Community Trust, this program seeks to connect literacy leaders, NLU-NCE master's candidates, and participating school teachers in a literacy-endorsement training program that will build a scalable model for sustained support of graduate study for CPS teachers. 

Linda M. Phillips

Linda M. Phillips is Professor and Director of the Canadian Centre for Research on Literacy in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta. Her current research projects include: 

• the development of a Test of Early Language and Literacy (TELL) for children ages 3 to 8 years with corresponding intervention modules; 
• the study of children’s reasoning when reading in conventional and dynamic assessment contexts; the exploration of scientific literacy (reading when the content is science);
• the study of emergent and family literacy; and 
• the use of fMRI studies in understanding reading development.

Linda has been an invited research scholar at the Center for the Study of Reading at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and King's College London. 

Linda’s awards include:

• the Outstanding Reading Teacher Award, International Reading Association 1978;
• Undergraduate Teaching Award, Memorial University of Newfoundland 1989;
• Graduate Teaching Award, University of Alberta 2012; 
• President’s Award for Outstanding Research 1991 (Memorial University of Newfoundland) for reading research that provided the missing link in order to describe more precisely the constructive rather than reproductive process of reading; 
• The JRST Award (The National Association for Research in Science Teaching) for best article, “Interpreting pragmatic meaning when reading popular reports of science”1994;
• McCalla Research Professorship for outstanding scholarship and research in reading 2002; 
• Killam Annual Professorship for outstanding research and contributions to the community 2004;  
• Beauchamp Laureate for excellence in research 2007; and 
• Canadian Leader in Literacy Research, Canadian Graduate Students’ Association 2009.

Most recently, Linda has been appointed Centennial Professor at the University of Alberta for an outstanding record of scholarly research, teaching, and service.

Linda is a founding member and first President of the Language Arts Researchers of Canada / Chercheurs Canadiens en Arts Langagiers. She has served as the national Literacy Leader for the centre of excellence, Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network, as well as on several editorial boards including Reading Research Quarterly. She was selected to be the senior editor for the international refereed Handbook of Language and Literacy Development: A Roadmap from 0 to 60 Months. Linda has published books, chapters and articles nationally and internationally on language and literacy. 

Linda’s disciplinary knowledge is in cognition and reading. She has focussed her research and professional development on the difficulties experienced by readers from preschoolers to adults. She has a strong research methodology background and the combination of these skills results in high demand for her expertise. 

Given the growing emphasis on literacy development as the foundation to participation in a global and technological world, there is an increasing call to collaborate in order to help to explain how literacy affects many aspects of life such as educational, health, financial, language, and poverty concerns. Linda is honoured to serve on the Literacy Research Panel of the International Reading Association and is delighted to bring her expertise and knowledge of Canadian perspectives to the Panel.  

Peter Freebody

Peter Freebody is a Professorial Research Fellow in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at The University of Sydney and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Peter has a Bachelor’s degree with First Class Honors in Education and a teaching qualification from the University of Sydney, and a Doctorate from the Center for the Study of Reading at the University of Illinois. He has taught high school English and French. In Australia he has worked at the University of New England, Griffith University, and the University of Queensland. He was also a co-founder of the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice at the National Institute of Education, Singapore. 

Peter’s research interests are in literacy education, educational disadvantage, classroom interaction and research methodology. He has contributed numerous invited entries in international handbooks and encyclopedias on literacy and research methodology. He has also published in many journals including Reading Research Quarterly, Reading Psychology, Harvard Educational Review, Language in Society, Language and Communication, Curriculum Inquiry, The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, International Journal of Inclusive Education, and Language and Education.  He has also authored or edited 10 books with publishing houses such as Blackwell’s at Oxford, Routledge and Sage at London, Hampden at New Jersey, and Springer Scientific at Dordrecht. 

Peter has written more than a dozen research reports for government on topics such as an evaluation of adult literacy programs and assessment, classroom interaction and disadvantage in early literacy learning, and online curriculum and digital learning objects. His most recent project for government is a study of teachers in disadvantaged settings researching school-community relations.

Peter has served on several Australian state and national advisory groups in the area of literacy education and curriculum design. He was lead author of the framework paper for the Australian English Curriculum. He is currently a member of the New South Wales State Ministerial Advisory Group for Literacy and Numeracy and the Australian Federal Government’s Digital Education Advisory Group. He is the Australian Federal Government’s nominee on the National Literacy and Numeracy Expert Group. 

Literacy Research Panel Formation Announcement

IRA Annual Convention Program Grid with Details about Speakers and Sessions

About the Annual Convention

About the International Reading Assocation