The Missouri Reader
• Is YOUR teacher magazine
• Is a peer reviewed professional journal
• Has been publishing for over 40 years
• Has articles on the latest literacy issues
Want to submit an article? See the last page for details about submissions. We especially welcome joint articles by teachers & professors collaborating on literacy projects. We try publish articles that will help teachers with their everyday teaching. We want to help you become that teacher we all wish we had had when we were in school.
In Memoriam:
Dr. Linda Dorn
Dr. Linda Dorn passed away on September 18, 2019, after a brief struggle with cancer. Linda touched many of our lives as the director of the University of Arkansas
Center for Literacy and author of 14 books and book chapters that shaped our teaching, including Apprenticeship in Literacy, Shaping Literate Minds, and Teaching for Deep Comprehension. Linda also created the Comprehensive Literacy Model—a systemic design for continuous school improvement. Many Missouri teachers went to the Center for Literacy to become Reading Recovery teachers. Tributes to Linda have poured in from across the country and around the world. We would like to share two from Reading Recovery Teacher Leaders (RRTL), Connie Choate and Tammy Jones, who were in her first RRTL class and became lifelong learners with Linda, and one tribute from Bill Kerns from the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, home of the University of Arkansas Center for Literacy founded by Linda Dorn. Their tributes give us insight into the kind of literacy leader Dr. Linda Dorn was and give us direction as teachers.
Memories of Dr. Linda Dorn
by Connie Choate
I am one of the thousands of teachers that Dr. Linda Dorn touched throughout her career. I will never forget the leadership she provided, the knowledge that she shared, and her contagious passion for literacy. It was never about Linda. It was always about helping us be better teachers so our children could find learning literacy easier. It is hard for me to imagine this fiery redhead sick for a day, much less dealing with the horrors of cancer.
I will never forget the day that I met Linda Dorn in August of 1995. I had just been hired as a Reading Recovery Teacher Leader in training for the Mills Education Service Cooperative. I had gone to Little Rock early to purchase the books and meet with Ann Allen, Linda, and the other new Teacher Leaders. It turned out to be a life-changing, whirlwind of a year with a very steep learning curve. Every time I went to class, I left with the feeling of, “How have I been teaching 12 years and not known this?”. Linda was so passionate and obviously brilliant about teaching and learning that I wanted to know everything she did. I dreaded the first time that she was coming to observe me teaching students and then teachers. I knew I could not reach her expectations. I should not have worried. She was so supportive and encouraging, and if she was disappointed in my performance she was too gracious to let it show.
I continued to study with Linda for many years and always left my time with her encouraged that I had learned a little bit more of what she knew. I was a bit more prepared to help children develop the reading and writing skills they needed. Her first book, Apprenticeship in Literacy, written with my colleagues, Tammy Jones and Cathy French, became the primary text that we used in developing and teaching Early Literacy Learning in Arkansas (ELLA). I have worn out two copies as I wrote and taught from it for many years. When I spent a week with Linda after she and Carla Soffas had written Shaping Literate Minds and Scaffolding Young Writers, I knew that I had found the text to use in teaching our Arkansas Reading Excellence coaches. We continued to use all of these texts in developing our Arkansas Reading First coaches.
Linda’s work ethic, her knowledge and her passion to help us all be better teachers will never be surpassed. It seems impossible that she has transitioned to another life already. I will always be indebted to her for sharing her knowledge with me and the world, for her unending support and belief in me. Rest in peace, Linda. Your work continues through the thousands of teachers and colleagues that you have touched.
Apprenticeship in Literacy:
Working with Dr. Linda Dorn
by Tammy Jones
In remembering Linda, my first thought is that, I, like many others, apprenticed myself to Linda. Linda supported me with her insights, knowledge, and genuine understanding of teaching and learning. I can truly say that I would not be the educator that I am today without her leadership, support, encouragement, and enthusiasm. I will always be grateful for her commitment not only for my learning, but her commitment to her own continued learning. Linda instilled in each and every teacher that came across her path that “Every child has a right to literacy!” Linda was dedicated to teaching teachers how to observe the knowledge, skills, and strategies that children bring to the table, so that we as educators could create a learning environment and learning opportunities that capitalize on children’s strengths as a means of supporting them in learning to read.
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By David L. Harrison
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