Reaching and Teaching Middle School Learners

Penny A. Bishop is Assistant Professor and Director of Middle Level Teacher Education at the University of Vermont, Burlington. She earned a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Vermont, and her dissertation on middle grades partner teams received the 1998 Distinguished Dissertation Award from the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Before joining the field of teacher education, Penny was a middle school teacher and an assessment consultant for the Vermont Department of Education. She currently consults with teachers and administrators in the areas of school organization, interdisciplinary and partner teaming, and school change. She is the coauthor of The Power of Two: Partner Teams in Action and coeditor of Living and Learning in the Middle Grades: The Dance Continues. Her articles have appeared in Middle School Journal, Research in Middle Level Education Online, Current Issues in Middle Level Education, and Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy.

Susanna W. Pflaum began teaching in Newton, Massachusetts, in 1959 and has taught Grades 3, 4, and 6 as well as undergraduate- and graduate-level teacher education in various locations. She earned degrees at Radcliffe College (AB), the Harvard Graduate School of Education (MEd), and Florida State University (PhD). She was a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago; Professor and Dean of the School of Education at Queens College CUNY; Dean of the Graduate School, Bank Street School of Education; Fulbright Professor in Namibia, Africa; and full- and part-time faculty at Vermont College. She authored The Development of Language and Literacy in Young Children, edited Aspects of Reading Education, and coedited two Corwin books, Experiencing Diversity: Toward Educational Equity and Celebrating Diverse Voices: Progressive Education and Equity. She is the author and coauthor of thirty-five articles and chapters. She has led workshops and given many presen­tations over the past forty-five years. Recently, she cofounded a nonprofit organization that works to support African projects for vulnerable and AIDS-orphaned children, CHABHA: Children Affected by HIV/AIDS.