Positions

Associate Professor, Literacy Studies, English Education, and History Education, College of Education

Contact Info

christt24@ecu.edu

Publications in VIVO

Co-author Network

Co-investigator Network

Tanya Marie Christ

member of

American Educational Research Association 2024
International Literacy Association 2024
Literacy Research Association 2024
North Carolina Reading Association 2024

selected publications

article
- Effects of emergent bilingual students' and their teacher's talk-turns on students' comprehension during read-aloud discussions
  
  . Journal of Research in Childhood Education. 39:151-172. 2025
- Recognizing emergent bilingual parent-child dyads' funds of identity through their discussions about culturally relevant text
  
  . Journal of Language, Identity & Education. 23:527-542. 2024
- Literacy teacher preparation for technology integration: A design experiment
  . Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education. 40:21-40. 2024
- Learning to use app book features during buddy reading
  . Journal of Literacy and Technology. 25:1-47. 2024

presentations

presentation

principal investigator on

Center for Early Literacy and Responsible AI (CELaRAI): Innovating Beginning Reading Instruction for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners awarded by State University of New York System (SUNY) 2024 - 2025

professional service activities

Camp Read, Explore, and Thrive: ECU Pirates Battle the Summer Slide Developed a cross-disciplinary summer camp proposal and budget at the request of Dean Green. 2024
Comprehension Instruction Progression for Grades K-3. Workshop at ECU Community School, Greenville, NC. Created a database with all the NC standards related to comprehension instruction across grades K-3 and added other research-based potential comprehension teaching objectives.
Facilitated a conversation with K-3 teachers to identify the teaching progression for these at the ECU Community School and how instruction progresses across the grades.
This yielded a K-3 Comprehension Instruction plan for grades K-3. 2024
Comprehension Strategy Instruction. In-Class Coaching and Support at ECU Community School, Greenville, NC. To follow up after the teacher and teaching assistant PD sessions, I visited classrooms during literacy instruction to observe, support, and provide feedback on the implementation of the strategies and practices presented in the PD workshop. 2024
Comprehension Strategy Instruction. Workshop for TAs at ECU Community School, Greenville, NC. ECU Community School teachers and teaching assistants are unavailable to engage in PD simultaneously because one or the other needs to be in the classroom with their students. So, I re-run every workshop that is provided to teachers at a different day/time for the teaching assistants. The sessions maintain the same objectives. 2024
Comprehension Strategy Instruction. Workshop for teachers at ECU Community School, Greenville, NC. Engage with continuous improvement for 5 focal comprehension strategies:

Comprehension monitoring
Question-Answer Relationships (QAR)
Inference
Spiraling comprehension strategy instruction
Building background knowledge 2024
Grade 3 Literacy Instruction. Planning Meeting at ECU Community School, Greenville, NC. Met with Ms. Edwards and Ms. LeBarre to discuss continuous improvement for literacy instruction in grade 3. 2024
Journal of Research in Childhood Education Review and provide feedback on a manuscript for potential journal publication. 2024
Rooted in Reading: Spring Fling for Literacy Leaders Participate as a panel discussant at the ECU Rooted in Reading Spring Fling 2024
10 Things to Do When Reading Aloud to Young Children. Presentation for Family Night at P.W. Moore School, Elizabeth City, NC. I provide multiple rounds of this presentation at family night. It incorporates video models of parent-child read-aloud practices and discussion. 2024
Comprehension Strategies with Reading Aloud. Family Night Table at ECU Community School, Greenville, NC. I brought a wide assortment of diverse books to set up on the table and prepared comprehension strategy bookmarks for children across grades K-5 to distribute and discuss with families. 2024
Continuous Improvement for Grade 3 Literacy Instruction. Planning Meeting at ECU Community School, Greenville, NC. 1. I observed literacy instruction in Ms. Edwards' grade 3 classroom.2. Then I met with Ms. Edwards and Ms. LeBarre (the literacy specialist) to discuss continuous improvement ideas. 2024
Continuous Improvement for Grades K-2 Literacy Instruction. Planning Meeting at ECU Community School, Greenville, NC. 1. I observed classroom teaching in each grade k, 1, and 2.2. I met with the K, 1, and 2 teachers to ask them about their literacy teaching strengths and needs.3. We co-constructed a literacy professional development plan for the year. 2024
Handwriting Research to Inform Kindergarten Instruction. Planning Meeting at ECU Community School, Greenville, NC. Synthesized research on early handwriting at the request of Ms. Hall, the kindergarten teacher at the ECU Community School. Then, I met with her and her TA, Ms. Eley to discuss it and implementation ideas. 2024
ILA Dina Feitelson Research Award and Albert J. Harris Award Committee Reviewed three applications for the Albert Harris Award and 10 applications for the Dins Feitelson Award. Each application requires reading and reviewing a manuscript. The committee also has 6 hoiurs of meetings and deliberations. 2024
Phonics Instruction Progression for Grades K-3. Workshop at ECU Community School, Greenville, NC. Created a database with all the NC standards related to phonics instruction across grades K-3 and added other research-based potential phonics teaching objectives.
Facilitated a conversation with K-3 teachers to identify the teaching progression for these at the ECU Community School and how instruction progresses across the grades.
This yielded a K-3 Phonics Instruction plan for grades K-3. 2024
Phonics Instruction. In-Class Coaching and Support at ECU Community School, Greenville, NC. To follow up after the teacher and teaching assistant PD sessions, I visited classrooms during literacy instruction to observe, support, and provide feedback on the implementation of the strategies and practices presented in the PD workshop. 2024
Phonics Instruction. Workshop for TAs at ECU Community School, Greenville, NC. ECU Community School teachers and teaching assistants are unavailable to engage in PD simultaneously because one or the other needs to be in the classroom with their students. So, I re-run every workshop that is provided to teachers at a different day/time for the teaching assistants. The sessions maintain the same objectives. 2024
Phonics Instruction. Workshop for teachers at ECU Community School, Greenville, NC. Workshop objectives included the following:

Identify phonics skills progression
Learn how to support encoding and decoding during literacy rotations
Learn how to use echo and choral (not round robin) reading and why 2024
Project-Based Literacy Learning in Kindergarten. Planning Meeting at ECU Community School, Greenville, NC. Met with Ms. Hall to discuss and support planning for literacy integration across year-long project-based learning. 2024
Roots to Reading Collaboarative In collaboration with Jill Turner at P.W. Moore School, I launched the Roots to Reading Collaborative in early December 2024. Since, we have added Dr. Kindel Nash from App State and Ms. Hall from the Community School as additional founding partners. We meet weekly via videoconference and engage in independent work to support the collaboration. Since our inception have the following accomplishments: (1) reach out to school districts and public libraries to identify more collaborative partners via surveys, email, and personal contacts; (2) survey families at P.W. Moore and ECU Community School to identify program interests; (3) sketch and pilot program materials; (4) draft a project proposal and budget; (5) meet with the foundations office to identify potential funders, (6) submit a letter of inquiry to the Belk Foundation, and (7) create a promotional video for the collaborative. 2024
UNC Spangler and Goodnight Early Child Literacy Team I meet regulary with other Early Child Distinguished professors across the state to learn about statewide early literacy strengths and needs and inform action. We have gathered twice in person, for 10 hour and 5 hour retreats, respectively. We have met with representatives from the UNC system and DPI. We met twice in Sepetember and since January meet weekly via videoconference. We have created an agenda for our collaborative work, and drafted a Spencer Vision grant proposal to potentially fund some of this work. 2024
International Dyslexia Association Webinar Empirical insights into talk-turns during read-alouds: What they
suggest teachers should do to promote engagement and meaning-building conversations.
Presentation for the International Dyslexia Association Northern New England Branch. 2023
Guest Reviewer for Journal of Literacy Research Review and provide feedback on a manuscript for potential journal publication. 2023

education and training

Ph.D. in Literacy Education, State University of New York at Buffalo

preferred title

Spangler Distinguished Professor of Early Child Literacy