Short, Kathy G. - Professor


Ph.D., Indiana University

Teaching: Children's literature, reader response, literature and literacy instruction, inquiry-based curriculum, and teacher research.

 Kathy G. Short is a professor in the Department of Language, Reading and Culture and director of Worlds of Words (www.wowlit.org), an initiative focused on encouraging thoughtful dialogue around children’s literature to build bridges across cultures.  WOW includes ICCAL, the International Collection of Children’s and Adolescent Literature, which is currently housed in Room 104 in the College of Education. The goal of this collection is to encourage the development of intercultural understandings and global perspectives through children’s and adolescent literature. Many components are being developed, including a collection of international literature, a web site with data bases and several electronic journals of classroom vignettes and book reviews, professional workshops for educators, and sponsorship of international distinguished scholars.  Current funded projects include a grant from the Tohono O’odham Nation to identify and purchase international and indigenous books for the collection, a grant from CERCLL to develop professional workshops and study groups for K-8 teachers involving the use of Language and Culture Kits on specific cultural groups and languages, and a three-year NCTE research grant at a local elementary school focused on building intercultural understanding through inquiry and literature.  There are many opportunities for graduate students who are interested in interculturalism, global perspectives, and children’s and adolescent literature to be involved with the collection or the related projects. 
 
Kathy works with the graduate teaching assistants for LRC 480, the undergraduate course on children’s literature that is taken by preservice teachers in elementary education. She organizes an annual Conference on Literature and Literacy for Children and Adolescents on the first Saturday in March that features well-known authors and illustrators and has breakout sessions given by local educators and LRC graduate students.  She is active in NCTE, NRC, CLA, and IBBY/USBBY and serves on a range of committees in these organizations. She is currently on the award committee for Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts and regularly writes reviews of children’s books for various publications. 
 
Kathy has worked extensively with teachers to develop curricula that actively involve students as readers and inquirers. Her research has focused around dialogue and inquiry, particularly as connected to curricular frameworks, and includes studies on children’s talk about literature, the role of the teacher in discussion, responses to literature across sign systems, intertextuality, inquiry-based curriculum, teacher study groups, and teachers’ curricular thinking about reading instruction. Her courses include reader response, literature-based curriculum, the art of the picture book, multicultural and international literature, influential readings in literacy and culture, and teacher research.  She is co-author of many books, including Creating Classrooms for Authors and Inquirers, Learning Together through Inquiry, Literature as a Way of Knowing, Talking about Books, Teacher Study Groups, and Stories Matter: The Complexity of Cultural Authenticity in Children’s Literature.