Dr. Ness is an assistant professor of Childhood Education in the Division of Curriculum and Teaching at Fordham University. A former Teach For America corps member, Dr. Ness taught 6th and 7th grade Social Studies and English Language Development in California. She has extensive clinical experience in the assessment and diagnosis of reading difficulties, and ran the University of Virginia’s McGuffey Reading Clinic. She has taught preservice and inservice education courses at the University of Virginia and James Madison University. She holds a Masters in English Education and a PhD in Reading Education from the University of Virginia.
Dr. Ness focuses her research on reading comprehension instruction in elementary grades. She is also interested in the effectiveness of word study instruction and vocabulary acquisition. She is currently engaged in research projects studying teachers’ knowledge of dyslexia as a language-based reading disability and the impact of community family literacy projects. Additional research interests are the diagnosis and remediation of reading difficulties.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
Ness, M. (2007). Increasing inclusion of reading comprehension strategies in content-area classrooms. Phi Delta Kappan, 89.
Ness, M. (2007). Increasing the inclusion of reading comprehension strategies in secondary
content-area classrooms. The Language and Literacy Spectrum. 17, 3-13.
Ness, M. (2004). Lessons to learn: Voices from the front lines of Teach For America. New
York: Routledge Falmer.
RECENT NATIONAL PRESENTATIONS:
Ness, M. (2007, December). Supporting struggling readers: Content-area teachers providing the 'what', not the 'how'. Paper presented at the 57th meeting of the National Reading Conference, Austin, TX.
Ness, M. (2006, December). The frequency of reading comprehension strategy instruction in secondary content-area classrooms. Paper presented at the 55th meeting of the National Reading Conference, Los Angeles, CA.
Ness, M. (2005, December). Preservice teachers tutoring struggling high school readers: A
public school partnership. Paper presented at the 56th meeting of the National Reading
Conference, Miami, FL.
