MONDAY: Meet the Author of "Teaching Children to Read" by Ray Reutzel

This course that I'm taking with Ray Reutzel is absolutely fabulous.  I'm learning about evidence based practices that make a difference in the process of teaching reading to young children.  It is specific enough to take straight into any classroom, knowing I'm using processes that have been studied are are BEST practices for the teaching of reading in the preschool, K, and first grade.  Ray is a phenomenal teacher, researcher, university professor, a member of the...  OK here is his biography.  I'll let it speak for itself.  If you are a teacher or getting your teacher's license-degree, he is a must have professor and the University of Utah and the extensions as well.



D. Ray Reutzel
D. Ray Reutzel, Emma Eccles Jones Endowed Chair Professor of Early Childhood Education at Utah State University in Logan, will serve on the Board of Directors of the International Reading 
Association until 2010. Reutzel currently serves on IRA’s Early Literacy Commission, and has served on a number of IRA committees, including the Basal Adoption and Review Committee, Comprehension and Learning Committee, Nominating Committee, and both Annual Convention and World 
Congress Program Review Committees. He was an editor of The Reading Teacher from 2002–2007. In Utah, he served as state reading coordinator and is a past president of the Utah Council of the IRA. Reutzel is the 2007 recipient of IRA’s John Chorlton Manning Public Schools Service Award. He works closely with public school teachers and children as a technical assistant for several federal reading reform 
projects, from Goals 2000 to Reading First. While a professor, he took his first sabbatical leave
to return to teach first grade in a local public school classroom.
Reutzel received his BA from the University of Wyoming in Laramie in early childhood and
elementary education and his MA in elementary education, with an emphasis on reading
instruction, from Utah State University. After teaching kindergarten, first, third, and sixth grades
in Wyoming and Utah public schools, he returned to the University of Wyoming in Laramie
where he completed his PhD in curriculum and instruction.

Reutzel’s research focuses on young children’s literacy development, especially on those
children living in poverty and attending at-risk schools. He has published numerous articles and
chapters in academic journals and professional books. He has also authored or coauthored
several books including Teaching Children to Read: The Teacher Makes the Difference, 6th Edition; Strategies for Reading Assessment and Instruction: Helping Every Child Succeed, 3rd Edition, and Your Classroom Library: New Ways for Giving It  More Teaching Power. He is currently studying grade 1-3 teacher knowledge of reading and writing instruction under the Teacher Quality Research Program of the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

Statement of philosophy:
“First, IRA should help to provide every child in every nation the opportunity to learn to read and have access to quality books. Second, IRA must continue to walk a fine line giving the
organization a seat at the table of policymaking discussions at the national and international level. The tent of IRA must be big enough for everyone to feel that his or her views can be
respectfully expressed and considered. Finally, IRA needs to go back to its roots and aggressively cultivate a new core of future IRA leaders by reinvesting in state, provincial and
local councils.”

Presentation topics
Evidence-based early literacy instruction
Effective fluency instruction and practice for young learners
Explicit teaching of literacy essentials in at-risk schools
Comprehension instruction in the primary grades
Creating and sustaining print rich literacy classroom
Effective schools and effective reading instruction