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Vermont Reads Institute at UVM
250 Main Street, Suite 202
Montpelier, Vermont 05602
Tel: 802-828-0520
Fax: 802-828-1632
541 Waterman
University of Vermont
85 South Prospect Street
Burlington, Vermont 05405
Tel: 802-656-0730
Mary K. Grace, Director
Marjorie Y. Lipson, Principal Investigator, Professor
Marge Lipson is a professor at the University of Vermont and principal investigator of a cluster of projects sponsored through VRI. Marge teaches both graduate and undergraduate students and co-directs the reading clinic at UVM. Marge has an undergraduate degree
from the University of Wisconsin , her M.Ed. from UVM and her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
She is deeply committed to improving student performance and school effectiveness - especially among high-poverty students. She began her career in a bilingual school in Milwaukee , Wisconsin and taught for several more years in Washington , D.C. For many years she has conducted research on and provided instructional support for students with reading disabilities. She is co-author of the text, Reading and Writing Difficulties: An
Interactive Perspective , currently in its 3 rd edition.
Marge has also been involved in research on comprehension and writing instruction, assessment, and policy mandates. Most recently, she has worked with her colleague Jim Mosenthal and others to study successful schools. The lessons learned from that research are being applied to the school improvement projects of VRI.
Marge has also published in many journals, including The Reading Teacher, Reading Research Quarterly, The Elementary School Journal and Language Arts . She is just completing a new
book on teaching reading in grades 3-6. In addition, she has served on the editorial review boards of many journals, was on the Board of Directors of the National Reading Conference and has made several trips to Ghana and Tanzania as a volunteer for the International Reading Association.
Marge has loved being in Vermont because of the deep commitment of Vermont educators and the opportunities to collaborate that its size affords her. She has had the pleasure of working with pre-service teachers who have gone on to become her colleagues as teachers, principals, curriculum coordinators, and literacy leaders. In her "spare" time she reads, travels, bikes, spends time on the lake, and enjoys her family and friends.
Cynthia Snyder, Business Manager
Pam Chomsky-Higgins, Co-Director and Literacy Consultant
533 Waterman · Burlington, VT 05405
Pam Chomsky-Higgins attended undergraduate school at Syracuse University after growing up in South Barre, Vermont. Upon receiving her Masters degree from Boston College, she began her teaching career in Reading, Massachusetts as a special educator. After thirteen years, she made a move to teaching first grade and then was able to loop between first
and second grade. While still in the classroom, Pam began planning and offering professional development experiences for teachers in Massachusetts. She also traveled to California, Washington, and other locations to present Train-the-Trainer seminars for Rigby Education's Professional Development Program. Beginning in 1998, Pam developed and taught graduate courses at UVM during the summer session each year.
After twenty-five years in the classroom, Pam became a Literacy Specialist in Medford, Massachusetts. She worked at two elementary schools, managing all aspects of a Reading Excellence Grant and then a BayState Grant.
In the summer of 2003, Pam returned to the Vermont and became the Professional Development and Technical Assistance Provider for the Vermont Reading First Grant. She was also the Reading Coordinator for the Reading First Grant at John F. Kennedy
Elementary School in Winooski. In July of 2005, Pam became the Co-Director of the Vermont Reading First Grant. She is continuing to provide professional development experiences to educators in Reading First schools, in addition to her responsibilities as
Co-Director. Pam is also a literacy consultant with the Bridging Project that is part of the Vermont Reads Institute at UVM. She works on a weekly basis with teachers in grades
3-5 at Malletts Bay School in Colchester. This position involves professional development
as well as a research component.
Pam has taught several graduate and undergraduate courses at UVM during the past two years. She is very happy to be back in Vermont despite her vow never to return and is looking forward to continued enriching experiences in her home state.
Janet Harwood, Co-Director
Vermont Department of Education · 120 State Street · Montpelier, VT 05602
Janet Harwood has been with the Department of Education since January of 2005, following 25 years as a multi-age 1-2 teacher in Stowe and Morrisville. She is the Early Literacy Coordinator and co-director of the Reading First grant.
She holds a master's degree in reading from UVM, where she received her undergraduate teaching degree. At Stowe, she was involved in a number of early reading initiatives,
among them chairing the K-12 Language Arts Curriculum Development Committee.
Most recently, she has been an adjunct professor at Johnson State College. While there
she also served as a supervisor to pre-service education students in the field and was an instructor in several education courses.
Her primary responsibilities at the Department of Education have been facilitating the Early Literacy Team, a cross-agency team that carries out Vermont's Comprehensive Plan for
Early Reading Success, which is required under Act 60.
In addition, Janet is the co-director of the statewide Reading First grant with Pam Chomsky-Higgins of the Vermont Reads Institute. Along with administering grants to school districts and supervisory unions, Janet is involved in providing statewide professional
development to teachers and administrators sponsored by Reading First and Vermont
Reads Institute.
Another part of her work is as a member of the Professional Development Team, at the Department of Education. She is also a participant in the newly created literacy workgroup
at the DOE to help determine how to achieve a well-coordinated literacy approach.
Janet received her BS from UVM in 1977 and her M.Ed. from UVM in 1988.
Sue Biggam, Literacy Consultant
Sue Biggam is a seasoned educational consultant in the area of reading, with experience
at a variety of levels. She completed her doctorate at the University of Vermont in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, and focused her research on classroom based assessment. Sue has been a teacher, administrator of Title 1, reading consultant at the VT Department of Education and a frequent provider of professional development within Vermont as well as nationally and internationally. Currently an educational consultant with the VT READS Institute, Sue serves as Associate Director of Research and Development
and Coordinator of the Literacy Leadership Initiative. She also works with schools through the Bridging Project. Sue is president-elect of the New England Reading Association, has been a member of the NAEP Reading committee, and is currently working on a publication for Pearson-Merrill Prentice Hall on the topic of literacy profiles. Sue's particular interests
involve reading comprehension, classroom based assessment, and working with teachers and administrators to take next steps.
Recent publications have included a chapter in Richard Allington's book No Quick Fix and a chapter in Rasinski's Parents and Reading.
Recent presentations have included:
* "Opportunities Abound; Promising Practices and Teachable Moments for Strengthening
Vocabulary and Language Development in the Early Years" : New England Reading
Association ( 2005),
* Classroom Based Assessment of Reading Grade Level Expectations" VT READS Institute
at UVM's Summer Institute. (2005)
* "Seminar on Diagnostic Teaching" Mkuranga, Tanzania (2005)
* "Swimming Upstream: Supporting Teachers as they Expand Classroom Based
Assessment" , National Reading Conference (1997)
plus numerous workshops in VT and neighboring states
Maureen Fitzgerald-Riker
Kathleen Harrington, Research Associate
Kathleen Harrington has been working in Vermont schools for the past eighteen years.
She has taught kindergarten, high school and everything in between. For the past twelve years the has been a literacy/reading specialist in a K-8 school in southern Vermont. Much of her time was spent working with classroom teachers, specialists, administrators, parents and students to develop and implement an effective, balanced literacy program. Most recently she has joined the Vermont Reads Institute at the University of Vermont as a research associate/literacy consultant for schools in southern and central Vermont.
Mary Beth Monahan, Literacy Consultant
Mary Beth Monahan is a literacy consultant / research associate working with the Bridging Project for VRI at the University of Vermont. Her experiences as an educator span various grade levels, positions, and states. She began her career teaching fifth and sixth grade
for eights years in central New Jersey. During that time, she earned her doctoral degree in English / Language Arts Education from Rutgers University. After relocating to Vermont,
she taught writing at Southern Vermont College, worked with at-risk middle school students at the Vermont Tutorial Center, and coordinated the Book Buddy Program—a literacy initiative that recruited and trained volunteers to support local Head Start programs by engaging children in varied reading activities. Mary Beth then served as the Language Arts Professor for the Middle Grades Program at the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill. In that role, Mary Beth helped prepare pre-service teachers to meet the special challenges of providing sound literacy instruction at the middle-school level. She taught courses on Young Adult Literature, Content Area Literacy, Teaching Language Arts in the Middle School, Action Research, and supervised student teachers. She also worked closely with local middle schools to develop curriculum and taught graduate courses on action research. She then returned to her home state of New Jersey and served as the Language Arts Supervisor for her former district’s two middle schools and as a literacy professor at Rider University. Settled in Vermont, Mary Beth is working with teachers in the south west corner of the state to boost student achievement in literacy. Her areas of interest include using writing to support and extend reading, thinking, and learning, content-area literacy, poetry, teacher research, and critical literacy.
Her publications include:
Monahan, M. B. (2003). “On the lookout for language”: Children as language detectives. Language Arts, 83(3): 206-214.
Monahan, M.B., Majors, Y.J., Mershon, C., Baroz, R., Schneider, D., & Trier, J. (2003). Announcing the Alan C. Purves Award Winner (Volume 36). Research in the Teaching of English, 37(3): 278-280.
Monahan, M. B. (2000). Raising voices: Inviting sixth graders into the essay. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.
Diamondstone, J., & Monahan, M. B. (1998). Situating college English: Lessons from an American university. Mind, Culture, and Activity: An International Journal, 5 (3), 225-228.
Penkethman, M. B. (1997). Teacher research: Living with the stranger. Teacher Research, The Journal of Classroom Inquiry, 5(1), 109-115.
Gayle Moskowitz
Gayle Moskowitz first started her teaching career in New Mexico on the Navajo Reservation after completing her masters at Lesley College. Her first position was a volunteer second grade classroom that consisted of 12 boys and 6 girls! After that, she moved to Shiprock, NM where she worked as a literacy teacher, special educator, first grade teacher and a CLIP trainer (Collaborative Literacy Intervention Project- similar to Reading Recovery). Gayle moved to Vermont in 1999 and started working part-time as a Literacy Coordinator at Thatcher Brook Primary School where she continues to work. She has been on the Vermont Council of Reading for four years. Gayle has presented at conferences, taught graduate courses, and facilitated in-services for a number of school districts around the state.
Cathy White, Research Associate, Literacy Consultant
Cathy White has 20 years of elementary classroom experience in central Vermont. In 2002, Cathy worked as an early literacy intervention specialist for Vt. Reads Institute, implementing SIG (Statewide Initiative Grant), in 4 Vermont schools. In this role, Cathy guided administrators and teachers toward developing Literacy Action Plans, based on current research on best practice. Cathy supported teachers in grades K-3, through professional development workshops, and ongoing classroom coaching and modeling. In 2004, Cathy joined the Bridging Project team at VRI@UVM, as a research assistant. In this capacity, Cathy has continued to provide Literacy professional development through workshops, coaching, and modeling for teachers in grades 3-6. Since 2003, Cathy has presented the pre-K and Kindergarten strand at the VRI Summer Institute, and presents Literacy workshops throughout Vermont.
Nancy Woods, Research Associate, Literacy Consultant
Nancy Woods was a classroom teacher for 24 years. She has been a full-time literacy consultant for the past 6 years. As a classroom teacher, she had the fortune of working
with colleagues who were as enthusiastic about literacy teaching as she. From this experience Nancy realized that the most important factor in being a successful teacher is
the support and interaction she had with those passionate about literacy. It is her hope to encourage others in this way through her work.
She has presented numerous workshops and instructed many courses around Vermont on reading and writing. Nancy is also on the Vermont Council on Reading Board of Directors
and she is Director of the Northeast Kingdom School Development Grade 3 and Beyond Literacy Project. She is a frequent contributor to the VCR Newsletter. She co-presented at
the International Reading Association Convention and at the National Reading Conference.
Kathleen Brinegar, Co-Coordinator
Kathleen Brinegar is currently research associate/co-coordinator of the Vermont Adolescent Literacy and Learning Initiative at the University of Vermont. Prior to serving in this capacity, Kathleen spent the past three years teaching courses related to literacy, curriculum development, assessment, and school organization and pedagogy to both undergraduate and graduate students in UVMs Middle and Secondary Teacher Education Programs. In addition, she served as a literacy consultant for the Vermont Strategic Reading Initiative.
Kathleen is currently certified to teach both 7-12 English/Language Arts and Social Studies and taught middle school language arts/social studies prior to leaving the classroom in
2004 to pursue her doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Vermont. Both her BA in history and English and MEd in Curriculum and Instruction were also completed here at UVM.
Her research interests include presentations and publications related to the education of immigrant and refugee populations in rural states, young adolescents’ perceptions of engagement in school, intervention strategies for struggling adolescent readers, literacy
and standardized test taking, and content area literacy strategies.
Geof Hewitt, Co-Coordinator
Vermont Department of Education · 120 State Street · Montpelier, VT 05602
Geof Hewitt, Writing/Secondary English Consultant for the Vermont Department of
Education, is Co-director with David Liben of the Vermont Strategic Reading Initiative.
While still in high school, Geof started writing poems, a habit he has maintained for forty-five years. As an alienated teenager who was drawn to academic work through what he calls "the lawlessness of poetry," Geof believes that the rule-breaking/invent-it-as-you-go nature of poem writing can work magic with teenagers. Much of his work at the Department of Education and as writer-in-residence in Vermont schools and beyond centers on this belief. Vermont's reigning slam poetry champion, Geof's most recent book for teachers is Hewitt's Guide to Slam Poetry and Poetry Slam, available from Discover Writing Press. He has
published two other books for teachers, both with Heinemann Publishing: A Portfolio Primer: Teaching, Collecting, and Assessing Student Writing and Today You Are My Favorite Poet: Writing Poems with Teenagers. Geof has also published three collections of his own poetry: Stone Soup, Just Worlds (both from Ithaca House) and Only What's Imagined (The Kumquat Press). He edited the VSRI's 2004 book for teachers, Reading to Learn.
Carol Huntington
Carol has been working in the field of education for the past 25 years in several capacities. She has been a 4/5 grade classroom teacher, special educator for grades K-5, Title I Reading teacher for grades 2-5, and is currently a Literacy Coordinator for grades K-8.
Carol holds a Master's Degree in Education, has completed over 30 additional hours in education courses, and is eligible for a license in Educational Administration. She is interested in how children learn to read and write, the critical importance of literacy skills throughout the curriculum, and in working with teachers to create learning environments
that foster and encourage optimum growth in literacy skills for all students.
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