Content Area Reading: Teaching and Learning in an Age of Multiple Literacies

Dr. Maureen McLaughlin, professor and chair of the Reading Department at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania has been elected vice president of the International Reading Association (IRA) for the  2011-2012 term.  She will assume the board presidency of the organization in two years’ time under IRA’s succession rules. Dr. McLaughlin was also named the 2010 recipient of the IRA Outstanding Teacher Educator in Reading Award, which honors an outstanding university professor  engaged in teacher preparation in reading at the graduate level.

            Dr. McLaughlin has been a professor in the ESU Reading Department for more than 20 years and has served as chair for the past three years. During her tenure she has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses in her field and developed an endorsement in literacy coaching and a program for reading supervisor certification in collaboration with faculty colleagues. In addition, Dr. McLaughlin is an educational consultant at the local, state, regional, national, and international levels. She is also a profilic writer. She earned her doctorate at Boston University in reading and language development, and received her bachelor of arts and her master of science degrees from Marywood University.  Prior to her tenure at ESU, she spent fifteen years as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, and department chair in a public school system. 

             Dr. McLaughlin has authored numbers articles, chapters, and books throughout her distinguished career.  She is the author of two of the of the IRA’s best-selling titles, Guided Comprehension in the Primary Grades and Guided Comprehension in Grades 3-8., as well as “Critical Literacy as Comprehension: Understanding at Deeper Level,” a chapter in The Handbook of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts by  D. Lapp & D. Fisher (Eds.) (Philadelphia, PA: Erlbaum, 2010).