Sharan A. Gibson

The most enjoyable moments in teaching occur when a teacher leads a child to new, transformative understanding for how language and language in print work, allowing children's immersion into the joys of written communication and knowledge building. This wonderful accomplishment requires that teachers have a strong knowledge of both the transitions that occur in young children's literacy development, and powerful instructional activities and teacher-student interaction. Barbara Moss and I have built these understandings into our new book, "Every Young Child a Reader."

My 40-year career in education centers on teaching children and supporting teachers. I have served as a classroom teacher, mentor teacher, classroom literacy coach, reading specialist, early literacy consultant, and teacher educator. I am currently professor emeritus at San Diego State University, where I served as as graduate advisor for the MA in Reading and Reading Specialist Credential programs, Director of the SDSU Community Reading Clinic, and Director of SDSU's Reading Recovery University Training Center. I have extensive expertise and experience in early literacy instruction and intervention, and am a member of the North American Trainers Group and a Reading Recovery Trainer of Teacher Leaders. I have been lead editor of the Literacy Teaching and Learning journal and section editor of the Journal of Reading Recovery, and have published numerous articles and presented at local, state, national, and international conferences. I am passionately interested in teacher development and support, and have conducted research focused on teacher expertise, teachers' professional noticing ability, literacy coaching, and children's writing development and instruction. My colleague, Pamela Ross, and I have analyzed how what teachers notice about each child's cognitive, literacy, and affective behaviors directly supports their ability to provide effective instruction that is well adapted to the needs of children.