Mar 19 2025 47 mins 2
Foundational Skills in Adolescent Literacy with Drs. Sarah Sarah Lupo, Dianna Townsend, Rachel Knecht, and Dixie Massey
In today’s episode, host Matt Sroka welcomes Drs. Sarah Lupo, Dianna Townsend, Rachel Knecht, and Dixie Massey, guest editors of a special issue of The Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy on Foundational Skills in Adolescent Literacy. They discuss the motivation behind the special issue, the collaborative process of putting it together, and key themes that emerged. This conversation centers on their introductory commentary, Recognizing Complexity and Taking Action: Supporting Adolescents' Foundational Literacy Skills in Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining Ways
Sarah M. Lupo, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Literacy Education in the Middle, Secondary, and Mathematics Department at James Madison University. Prior to working at JMU, she worked as an English teacher, ESL teacher, reading specialist, and literacy coach in Washington D.C., Istanbul, Turkey, Phoenix, AZ, and Charlottesville, VA. Her research strives to put theory into practice to find practical ways teachers can improve comprehension and disciplinary learning for K-12 students, while positioning all learners’ as capable and bringing cultural and linguistic assets to the reading experience.
Dr. Dianna Townsend’s research centers the language development of adolescents, with specific attention to vocabulary. She examines both the unique language demands of the disciplines and effective instructional strategies to help students understand and use the language of the disciplines. Her most recent book is Words Worth Using: Supporting Adolescents’ Power with Academic Vocabulary, published by Teachers College Press in 2022. Dr. Townsend’s research has been funded by the Spencer Foundation and the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education. She is also a member of the Reading Standing Committee for the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). In Nevada, Dr. Townsend is the co-founder and President of the Nevada Adolescent Literacy Network (NALN) and a lead author of the Nevada State Literacy Plan. Dianna is a winner of the University of Nevada Reno’s Tibbetts Distinguished Teacher Award. She created the innovative Virtual Reading Clinic in the online M.Ed. Program in Reading Curriculum & Instruction to support remote and rural teachers in a graduate-level practicum experience. Within the College of Education and Human Development at UNR, Dr. Townsend is the Program Coordinator of the Literacy Studies Program.
Dr. Dixie Massey teaches at Seattle Pacific University. Her research interests include the role of motivation in literacy learning, the history of literacy instruction, and teacher decision making. She is co-author of Teaching with children’s literature: From theory to practice and Overcoming Reading Challenges: Kindergarten through Middle School. She is a contributing author for the Social Studies Schools Services. She has served as historian for the Literacy Research Association and the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers and currently chairs the History of Literacy ICG for the Literacy Research Association.
Rachel Knecht is an Assistant Professor of English Teaching at Brigham Young University. A former middle and high school ELA teacher, Rachel’s research focuses on supporting upper elementary and secondary students' reading comprehension, particularly through metalinguistic development. Rachel is also interested in cultivating dialogical spaces and instructional approaches in which students can draw on their cultural and linguistic resources and further develop metalinguistic awareness to comprehend and critically examine text. She is also committed to research-practice partnerships with public schools.
Resources:
Special Issue: Foundational Skills in Adolescent Literacy
