About Us

M. Carrol Tama, Professor, Portland State University, has taught at the elementary, middle, high school and university level. She has been an elementary Title 1 teacher and secondary reading coordinator.  Her speciality areas are language arts and social studies. She has written, consulted and given national and international presentations exclusively on adolescent literacy and cooperative learning. She has been an active member of the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English. She now teaches distance learning classes for Read Oregon: An Oregon Collaborative for Improvement of K-12 Literacy http://readoregon.org/.

Anita McClain Haley, Professor, Pacific University, has taught at the elementary and university levels.  She has partnered with local schools in developing and teaching elementary methods courses in the schools where preservice teachers can implement them on site. She has written on literacy issues as well as visual problems and how they relate to comprehension.  She has been active in the International Reading Association on the national and state levels and also presented at  the International Reading Association’s national and international conferences on adolescent literacy and children’s literature.

Both authors have a particular interest in building sustainable classroom communities where all students develop the ability to learn  through cooperative activities that integrate content knowledge with literacy. Their books emerged from the many interactions with preservice and practicing educators about how to make these communities happen.  These interactions gave breath to the authenticity of their writing.