Reading and Language Arts
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Our faculty represent a diverse range of expertise and experience, from reading in preschool, elementary, middle-school, and secondary-school settings to literacy in college and the workplace. The faculty of the Reading and Language Arts Center publish frequently in the major literacy and special education journals. Several have written and edited major textbooks. Faculty members serve on numerous editorial boards including: Language Arts; The Reading Teacher; Journal of Literacy Research; Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy; Reading Research Quarterly; Discourse Processes; Research in the Teaching of English; Journal of Educational Psychology; Elementary School Journal; Journal of Learning Disabilities; Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in the Schools; and the Learning Disabilities Quarterly.
Faculty
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Benita Blachman
Trustee Professor
315-443-9644
blachman@syr.edu
Ph.D. University of Connecticut, 1981
Benita Blachman, Trustee Professor of Education and Psychology, is a specialist in reading and learning disabilities. Her research, supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), focuses on factors that predict reading achievement and on early intervention to prevent reading failure. She recently completed an investigation of the influence of intensive reading instruction on patterns of brain activation in young poor readers, reporting the results in the scientific journals Biological Psychiatry and the Journal of Educational Psychology. She is the author of the popular, evidence-based program for kindergarten children titled Road to the Code: A Phonological Awareness Program for Young Children. Her research was widely cited in the National Reading Panel Report (2000) that helped to establish an evidence-based model for early reading intervention. She serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of Educational Psychology and Scientific Studies of Reading and on the scientific advisory board for the National Dyslexia Research Foundation.
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Marlene Blumin
Associate Professor, Reading and Language Arts
Director of University Study Skills Program
315-443-5185
mfblumin@syr.edu
Ph.D. Cornell University, 1988
Marlene F. Blumin is currently the Director of the All-University Study Skills Program and Associate Professor. She received her undergraduate and master’s degrees from Syracuse University and her Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from Cornell University. Her professional interests are cognitive strategies, technology and curriculum in undergraduate education as well as learning models in post-secondary settings. Dr. Blumin’s teaching interests at SU include learning strategies for undergraduates, technology in strategy acquisition and utilization of undergraduate teaching assistants. On campus, Dr. Blumin teaches a college learning strategies course and supervises additional course offerings. She is also a member of the faculty in Project Advance at Syracuse University, which is a concurrent enrollment program for high school seniors. Currently she supervises the instruction of the college learning strategies course in high schools in New York and New Jersey and is developing a model for teaching learning strategies in grades 7-12. Dr. Blumin has extensive teaching and administrative experience in public schools and higher education. She was a former HeadStart, elementary and secondary teacher as well as administrator at both levels in urban and rural settings. Also, she has teaching and administrative responsibilities at a community college and university. She is the author of So This Is College Too (Kendall Hunt,1993) and It’s All About Choices (5th edition Kendall-Hunt, 2008).
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Rachel Brown
Associate Professor
Director of Master's Programs in Literacy Education, Birth to Grade 6 and Literacy Education, Grades 5-12
315-443-5672
rfbrown@syr.edu
Ph.D. University of Maryland, 1994
Rachel Brown is an assistant professor in the Reading and Language Arts Center at Syracuse University. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in literacy education, is an affiliate of the preservice Inclusive Elementary Program and is Director of the Literacy Master’s Programs, Birth–Grade 6 and Grades 5-12. Brown received two Master’s degrees from Teachers College, Columbia University, and her doctorate from the University of Maryland. Brown’s work focuses on elementary and middle school literacy instruction. Her specific areas of expertise include comprehension strategies instruction, self-regulated learning, teacher professional development, and technology and literacy. Over the years, Brown has published in research and practitioner journals, including The Reading Teacher, Reading Research and Instruction, The Journal of Educational Psychology and The Elementary School Journal. She also has contributed chapters to edited texts such as Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy Instruction, Comprehension Instruction: Research-based Best Practices and Self-regulation of Learning and Performance: Issues and Educational Applications. An active member of the National Reading Conference, Brown currently serves as a member of the Ethnicity, Race, and Multilingualism Committee.
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Kelly Chandler-Olcott
Associate Professor and Department Chair
Director of Undergraduate and Master's Programs in English Education Grades 7-12
English Education
315-443-5183
kpchandl@syr.edu
Ed.D. University of Maine, 1998
Kelly Chandler-Olcott is an associate professor and chair of
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Marcelle Haddix
Assistant Professor
English Education
315-443-4755
mhaddix@syr.edu
Ph.D. Boston College, 2008
Marcelle Haddix completed her PhD in Education with an emphasis in Literacy, Language, and Learning at Boston College. Her background includes work as a secondary English language arts teacher, college administrator, composition instructor, and teacher educator. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in literacy and English education. Her scholarly interests center on the study of literacy, language, and culture in the context of K-12 and teacher education. Her most recent research project involves the examination of the language practices of Black and Latino/a pre-service teachers. She has published in Language and Education and is a frequent presenter at conferences for the National Council for Teachers of English and the American Educational Research Association.
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Kathleen Hinchman
Professor
Director of Doctoral Programs
315-443-5186
kahinchm@syr.edu
Ph.D. Syracuse University, 1985
Kathleen A. Hinchman is a Professor in the Reading and Language Arts Center at Syracuse University. Once a middle school teacher, she teaches undergraduate and graduate classes in childhood and adolescent literacy. Her research explores youths’ and teachers’ perspectives toward literacy. She has published in many journals and co-authored or edited such texts as Reconceptualizing the Literacies in Adolescents’ Lives and Teaching Adolescents Who Struggle With Reading. She has served as President of the Central New York Reading Council and the New York State Reading Association, and as a member of the Board of Directors and 2009 president of the National Reading Conference.
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Zaline Makini Roy-Campbell
Associate Professor
Director of Master's Program in Teaching English Language Learners PreK-12
315-443-8194
zmroycam@syr.edu
Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1992
Dr. Zaline M. Roy-Campbell has taught in Uganda, Jamaica, England, Tanzania, Zimbabwe as well as in the United States. Since 2003, she has been on the Advisory Editorial Board of the Journal of Linguistics and Language in Education, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Her teaching focuses on the impact of culture on teaching and learning and her research focuses on how to penetrate the barriers to the academic success of disenfranchised students. She is interested in questions of what counts as knowledge that is to be valued and how to shift the source locus of that knowledge. Her current research interests include language and literacy issues in education, preparing effective teachers of English language learners and the intersections between knowledge production and language of instruction.
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Louise C. Wilkinson
Distinguished Professor of Education, Psychology and Communication Sciences
315-443-7677
lwilkin@syr.edu
Ed.D. Harvard Graduate School of Education, 1974
Louise Wilkinson has focused her scholarship on language and literacy learning among school-age children. An internationally-recognized leader in education, Wilkinson is best known for her extensive research on children's language and literacy learning and has been published in 132 articles, chapters and volumes. She co-authored Communicating for Learning (1991); edited Communicating in the Classroom (1982); and co-edited The Social Context of Instruction (1984), Gender Influences in Classroom Interaction (1985), The Integrated Language Arts (1994), Language and Literacy Learning in Schools (2004), and Literacy Leadership in Urban Teacher Education (2008). She teaches courses on literacy learning for first/second English language learners and on comparative urban teacher education. She has served on the editorial boards of major research journals and on the advisory/governing boards of: The
Emeriti
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Harold L. Herber
Hannah Hammond Professor Emeritus
315-443-4755
Ed.D., Boston University, 1959
Harold L. Herber was a faculty member in Reading and Language Arts from 1963-1992, serving the department as chair and the School of Education as interim dean. His professional focus was on reading instruction across the curriculum. His professional service and awards included: director of the Reading Commission for the National Council of Teachers of English, membership on the Board of Directors for the International Reading Association, co-editor of Journal of Reading; election to the Reading Hall of Fame, recipient of the Teacher of the Year Award, and recipient of the William S. Gray Citation of Merit Award. He is the author of professional texts and instructional materials for teachers and students. Since his retirement in 1992, he has been “reading without guilt,” taking photographs, playing golf and six-wicket croquet, playing bridge and traveling.
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Susan Hynds
Professor Emeritus
315-443-4755
sdhynds@syr.edu