
Denise Morgan
Goodnight Distinguished Professor of Early Literacy Western Carolina University
- Cullowhee NC
Denise Morgan has provided services to school-aged students and adults with reading and reading-related difficulties since 2010.
Biography
Industry Expertise
Areas of Expertise
Education
University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa
B.S.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
M.Ed.
Ohio State University
Ph.D.
Media Appearances
Denise Morgan named Goodnight Distinguished Professor of Early Literacy
WCU College of Education and Allied Professions Campus Life Blog online
2024-04-30
After nearly 20 years at an institution, it would be hard to pick everything up and move to a new school and a new state. Denise Morgan, Western Carolina University’s newly announced Goodnight Distinguished Professor of Early Literacy did just that.
Rowing in the Same Direction
WCU Stories online
2023-10-17
The WCU Board of Trustees in July approved the appointment of Denise Morgan, director of the Reading and Writing Center and professor of literacy education at Kent State University, as the inaugural Goodnight Distinguished Professor of Early Literacy effective Jan. 1.
Articles
A 20 Year Guided Reading Research Synthesis: Examining Student Data
Literacy Research and Instruction2023
Guided reading is a teaching practice many teachers utilize to provide differentiated reading instruction to small groups of learners. During guided reading, students read instructional leveled texts with teacher support.
Learning in Practice: What Preservice Teachers Report Learning about Writing in a Middle School Role Based Field Experience
Literacy Research and Instruction2022
Despite the importance of learning to teach writing, many preservice teachers do not take a writing course as part of their teacher preparation. For those universities that do offer a writing methods course, teacher educators face challenges in designing responsive and rigorous clinical experiences especially since writing is often under taught in middle and high schools.
Supporting Students' Construction of Themes When Reading
International Literacy Association2022
Helping students learn how to interpret themes in text can be, without a doubt, challenging. Students benefit from knowing different aspects/textual elements within stories to look for when constructing themes.
The role of observation in advancing the science of reading and instruction
KALMANOVITZ SCHOOL OF EDUCATION FACULTY WORKS20021
Errors that occur during text reading reflect how a novice reader is drawing from multiple sources of information including meaning (M – a range of story content and features), language structure (S – syntax and grammar) and visual (V – “letter-to-sound and sound-to letter links” (Clay, 2016, p. 129) that is, the reader’s stored graphemic and phonological knowledge.
“Theme Doesn’t Just Jump Out”: Teaching for Theme Comprehension
International Literacy Association2021
Teaching for theme is one aspect of reading comprehension that is often elusive for both teachers and students. Specifically, teachers are challenged with elevating students’ thinking from the plot level to a more abstract level when teaching for theme understanding