
Ruth Wharton-McDonald
Courses Taught
- EDUC 506: Mentoring Readers and Writers
- EDUC 706/806: Literacy in the Elem Classroom
- EDUC 734: Critical Children's Lit
- EDUC 734/834: Critical Children's Lit
- EDUC 834: Critical Children's Lit
- EDUC 902: Doctoral Pro-seminar
Education
- Ph.D., Education, University at Albany
- Ed.M., Harvard University
- A.B., Psychology, Brown University
Research Interests
- Children's Literature
- Classroom Instruction
- Early literacy development
- K-12 literacy
- Social justice education
Selected Publications
Erickson, J. D., Condie, C., & Wharton-McDonald, R. (2020). Harnessing the Power of Young Readers' Perceptions to Support Motivation. READING TEACHER, 73(6), 777-787. doi:10.1002/trtr.1895
Erickson, J. D., & Wharton‐McDonald, R. (2019). Fostering Autonomous Motivation and Early Literacy Skills. The Reading Teacher, 72(4), 475-483. doi:10.1002/trtr.1750
Wharton-McDonald, R. M. (2018). The Role of Word Recognition in Beginning Reading: Getting the Words off the Page. In C. Cassano, & S. Dougherty (Eds.), Pivotal Research in Early Reading: Foundational Studies and Current Practices (first ed., pp. 142-159). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Wharton-McDonald, R. M. (2017). Reading Comprehension in the Middle Grades: Characteristics, Challenges, and Effective Supports. In S. Israel (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Reading Comprehension, Second Edition (pp. 353-376). New York, NY: Guilford Publications.
Wharton-McDonald, R. M., with Pressley, M., & with Allington, R. (2015). Expert Literacy Teaching in the Primary Grades. In Reading Instruction that Works: The Case for Balanced Teaching (4th ed., pp. 277-313). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Wharton-McDonald, R. (2011). Expert classroom instruction for students with reading disabilities: Explicit, intense, targeted . . . and flexible. In R. Allington, & A. McGill-Franzen (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Disabilities Research (1st ed., pp. 265-272). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Wharton-McDonald, R., & Swiger, S. (2009). Developing higher order comprehension in the middle grades. In S. Israel, & G. Duffy (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Comprehension (pp. 510-530). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Wharton-McDonald, R. (2008). The dynamics of flexibility in effective literacy teaching. In K. Cartwright (Ed.), Flexibility in literacy processes and instructional practice: Implications of developing representational ability for literacy teaching and learning (pp. 342-358). New York, NY: Guilford.
Wharton-McDonald, R., & Williamson, J. (2002). Focus on the real and make sure it connects to kids' lives. In R. Allington, & P. Johnston (Eds.), Reading to learn: Lessons from exemplary fourth-grade classrooms (pp. 78-98). New York: Guilford.
Pressley, M., Wharton-McDonald, R., Raphael, L., Bogner, K., & Roehrig, A. (2002). Exemplary first grade teaching. In B. Taylor, & P. D. Pearson (Eds.), Teaching reading: Effective schools, accomplished teachers (pp. 73-88). Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum & Associates.