We are a group of educators from across the state who have been collaborating as a research group to support disciplinary literacy in middle and high schools in South Carolina. Our goal is to help middle and high school educators address literacy and support all learners in their classrooms.
We believe that literacy:
- Is communication
- Requires participants to consume, curate, and create content
- Requires, but is not limited to, reading and writing print text specific to and within the discipline
- Includes digital and/or multimodal in nature and therefore requires participants to utilize a wide range of literacy skills to make sense of various text forms
- Is a social, co-constructed practice
- Is contextualized by an individual’s identity, culture, experience, and prior knowledge
- Is most effectively constructed through authentic spaces and when used for authentic purposes
We believe all educational stakeholders — students, teachers, administrators, parents, community members, and policymakers — bring expertise, experience, and perspectives that enrich our shared understanding of literacy, literacy learning, and literacy instruction.
We believe all adolescents, from striving to accelerated learners, deserve high quality disciplinary instruction that embeds literate practices across all subject areas.
Click here to access LiD’s Bylaws:
To connect with us, feel free to contact us at hello@literacy6-12.org.
Rachelle Savitz
President
Rachelle S. Savitz is an associate professor of reading/literacy at East Carolina University. She was previously a K-12 literacy coach/interventionist and high school reading teacher. She values working with graduate students and teachers and learning with and from them. She explores the intersections of critical inquiry, culturally sustaining pedagogy, trauma-sensitive practices, and teacher self-efficacy related to disciplinary literacy and equitable literacy materials and curricula. She received the 2019 Association of Literacy Educators and Researcher’s Jerry Johns Promising Researcher Award and the 2018 Early Career Literacy Scholar Award from the American Reading Forum. Dr. Savitz spotlights the necessity of teacher collaborators in her upcoming co-edited book, Teaching the "taboo": Diverse and inclusive literature is the way, with Routledge, where teachers highlight their classroom practices. She emphasizes teacher instruction with over 15 snapshots in her book with Teachers College Press, Trauma-sensitive literacy instruction: Building student resilience in English language arts classrooms. This is an extension of Teaching Hope and Resilience for Students Experiencing Trauma: Creating Safe and Nurturing Classrooms for Learning, coauthored with Drs. Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey.
Jennifer Morrison
Vice President
Dr. Jennifer D. Morrison is an Associate Professor at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. She was previously at the University of South Carolina. Her experiences include being a middle and high school English teacher, gifted education resource teacher, and instructional coach. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Nevada, Reno, in Language, Literacy & Culture. She is a National Board Certified Teacher (AYA/ELA) and supports National Board candidates across the country. Additionally, she is an alumnus of the Teaching Shakespeare Institute at the Folger Theater in Washington, D.C. and has won multiple awards for teaching and writing include NCTE’s Paul and Kate Farmer English Journal Award and AERA’s Dissertation Award in Research on Teacher Induction. She has been published in a range of journals including English Journal, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Educational Leadership, and Reading Research Quarterly. Currently, her research focused on adolescent, digital, multimodal, and disciplinary literacies as well as narrative and qualitative methodologies.
Heather Hall
Secretary
Heather Hall began her education career as a graduate of the College of Charleston’s Teacher Education Program and taught in a variety of special education settings in the local area. She pursued her Master’s in Education at The Citadel, where she explored culturally relevant literacies. She is a certified literacy specialist, accredited in ESOL and gifted and talented education. Heather completed her doctoral program in Spring 2023 at the University of South Carolina by examining growth in pre-service teacher beliefs about culturally relevant literacies as a result of curricular intervention.
Charlene Aldrich
Treasurer
Charlene Aldrich is an educator and content area literacy advocate; her expertise is the ability to incorporate a literacy model of instruction into every content area, with Welding as her latest success! In 2014, she partnered with the College of Charleston and its Office of Professional Development to write, design, and deliver Read to Succeed literacy courses at the graduate level. Charlene shares her life with her husband, grown children, and a dog, PluffMudd. She also dabbles in acrylics as wearable art.
Calvernetta Brown
Board Member
Calvernetta Williams Brown is an assistant principal at a suburban middle school in Columbia, South Carolina. She is a former middle and high school science teacher; Calvernetta holds National Board certification in two different areas, as well as ten different areas of state certification. She has completed three undergraduate degrees and a Master's of Education with a concentration in Education Administration and will complete her second Master’s of Education with a concentration in ESOL in May 2024. She is a lifelong learner who believes her educational niche lies in the areas of discipline, teacher advocacy, and learning across the curriculum. She shares her life experiences with her military veteran husband, college son, and a little fur baby. Her hobbies include reading and traveling.
Brooke Hardin
Board Member
Wanda Littlejohn
Board Member
Dr. Wanda Littlejohn is a native of North Augusta, SC, and has 22 years’ experience in the field of education with a background in science. Currently, she is an Instructional Specialist at Carolina High School where she provides professional development for teachers. Her passion is working with educators to provide engaging and equitable learning experiences for students. Additionally, she enjoys spending time with her 15-year-old son and shopping.
Kavin Ming
Board Member
Dr. Kavin Ming is a Professor at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. She is currently serving as the Department Chair in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy. She teaches undergraduate literacy methods courses and graduate content area literacy and practicum courses. Kavin’s research interests include at-risk student populations, culturally responsive pedagogy, content area literacy instruction, and multisensory teaching of literacy skills.
Olivia Moore
Board Member
Olivia Moore works at East McDowell Middle School as a Reading Specialist. Her undergraduate and Master's degrees are from East CarolinaUniversity - Go Pirates!! Her passion is reading, and she is determined to help all of her students feel confident with reading. Those who don't enjoy reading just haven't found the right book yet!
Vanessa Murphy-Rogers
Board Member
Vanessa L. Murphy-Rogers is an Instructional Coach for Pitt County Schools in Greenville, North Carolina. As a Michigan native who does not like the cold, she loves the warm weather, southern barbecue, and the easy access to both mountains and beaches North Carolina has to offer.
Having spent over a decade in education, Vanessa has taught 8th grade English Language Arts (ELA) and co-taught 6th and 7th grade ELA, Science, and Social Studies. She is committed to equitable teaching and the implementation of culturally sustaining pedagogy. In her current role, she is able to capitalize on her influence by incorporating effective literacy instructional strategies and research based teaching practices across multiple disciplines and grade spans.
Beyond Vanessa’s role as an educator, she actively collaborates with state and county specialists, higher education professionals, and community representatives in efforts aimed to increase student literacy, foster professional collaboration among educators, and provide guidance to teachers and community members on their paths to greatness.
Dr. Fran Rogers
Board Member
Dr. Fran Rogers is an experienced educator in Greenville, SC with a diverse background in middle school and high school education. She has served in various instructional positions at the school and district levels, including classroom teacher, instructional coach, and Secondary Academic Instructional Specialist. Regardless of her role, Dr. Rogers remains committed to fostering a supportive, inclusive, engaging and literacy-rich academic environment for all learners, whether K-12 students or Adult Learners. She finds immense joy in staying connected to and advocating for students and educators, continually seeking new ways to inspire and elevate educational outcomes.
Anna Stuart
Board Member
Ms. Anna Stuart is an 8th-grade science teacher in Lexington, SC. Anna earned her bachelor’s degree in middle-level sciences and her master’s degree in Language and Literacy from the University of South Carolina. As the lead science teacher at her school, she is passionate about creating curiosity in her classroom and helping students see themselves as scientists.
