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Cynthia McCallister

Associate Professor of Literacy Education

Teaching and Learning

(212) 998-5416

Cynthia McCallister is Associate Professor of Literacy Education in the Department of Teaching and Learning. Professor McCallister's scholarship focuses on social-constructivist approaches to instruction and the influence of culture on children's academic and intellectual development. She has investigated social constructivist literacy instruction methods in the college classroom. She has worked extensively as a classroom teacher, staff developer, and school reform consultant in elementary, middle, and high schools in New York City and rural Maine. She is the creator of Learning Cultures ®, a comprehensive school reform model that has been implemented in more than 20 K-12 public schools in NYC (see LearningCultures.net). McCallister is the developer of Cooperative Unison Reading, a social-constructivist approach to group reading instruction.

Selected Publications

  • McCallister, C & Gordon, E. W. (September, 2017). The landscape of classroom education. Sciencia. 
  • McCallister, C. (2017, February 22). Fostering selfhood and inspiring student writers using ‘Metropolitan Diary.’ The New York Times.
  • McCallister, C. (October, 2017). A sufficiency-based model of education: Toward “an education on equal terms.” Journal of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. pp. 49- 64.
  • McCallister, C. (October, 2017). Exploring successful teachers’ conceptions of student achievement through a relational theory of teaching: Applications for practice. Journal of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. pp. 65-74.
  • McCallister, C. (2011). Cooperative unison reading: Socially inclusive group instruction for equity and achievement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Programs

English Education

Foster classroom environments where literacy flourishes, reading comes alive, and students develop personally and socially significant ideas.

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Literacy Education

Build on your experience as a teacher to become a literacy specialist and integrate the teaching of reading and writing into your curriculum or research.

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Courses

Dissertation Proposal Seminar

Course focuses on the development of the doctoral dissertation proposal. Emphasis is placed on understanding and defining the logical relations between elements in a proposal including the problem statement, conceptual/theoretical framework, literature review, research design and methodology. Teaching-learning strategies are design to promote critical/analytical thinking and scholarly discourse.
Course #
RESCH-GE 3001
Credits
3
Department
Applied Statistics, Social Science, and Humanities

Literacy Assessment

Survey of principles and practices of formative and standardized literacy assessments. Review of measurement concepts, psychometric principles, and the communication of test results to school personnel, caregivers, and other stakeholders. Practical experience applying a variety of assessments to inform, monitor, and evaluate instruction in classroom, intervention, or special education setting.
Course #
LITC-GE 2011
Credits
3
Department
Teaching and Learning