Early Literacy Instruction and Intervention: The Interactive Strategies Approach

Donna M. Scanlon, PhD, is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Literacy Teaching and Learning at the University at Albany, State University of New York, where she served as director of the Child Research and Study Center. Dr. Scanlon has spent most of her career studying children’s reading difficulties and helping families and schools address the needs of students who struggle with literacy development. Her research contributed to the emergence of response to intervention as a process for preventing reading difficulties and avoiding inappropriate and inaccurate learning disability classifications. In recent years, her work has focused on the development of teacher knowledge and teaching skill to help prevent reading difficulties in young children and remediate reading difficulties among older children. Dr. Scanlon has served on the Literacy Research Panel, Response to Intervention Task Force, and Response to Intervention Commission of the International Literacy Association.

Kimberly L. Anderson, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Literacy Studies, English Education, and History Education at East Carolina University. Her research focuses on improving teacher preparation for early literacy instruction and on the development of literacy tutoring protocols that can be used by tutors with limited expertise. Dr. Anderson contributed to research on the Interactive Strategies Approach (ISA) in her past role as a research associate and director of professional development at the Child Research and Study Center, University at Albany, State University of New York. Dr. Anderson has a particular interest in the role of strategy instruction in word solving and has studied the differential impact of professional development that emphasizes the combination of alphabetic decoding and meaning-based strategies, one of the main tenets of the ISA.

Erica M. Barnes, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Literacy Teaching and Learning at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Her research investigates teacher–child interactions in preschool and early elementary classrooms that promote language and literacy growth, with an emphasis on the developmental trajectories of children with varying levels of language abilities from underserved populations. Dr. Barnes is interested in how language facilitates literacy development, and how teachers may differentiate instruction for students to prevent literacy-learning difficulties. She has worked as a special education teacher, a teacher consultant, and a progress-monitoring consultant in K-12 settings.

Joan M. Sweeney, MSEd, is a reading specialist in a Capital District public school in New York State. Previously, she was a research associate in the Child Research and Study Center, University at Albany, State University of New York, where she provided intervention for struggling readers, supervised intervention teachers, and coached classroom teachers utilizing the Interactive Strategies Approach to support children’s literacy development.