Teaching Beginning Writers

David L. Coker Jr., EdD, is Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. His research focuses on writing development, early writing assessment, and effective approaches to writing instruction. A former classroom teacher, Dr. Coker is coauthor of Developing Strategic Writers through Genre Instruction and has published articles in leading journals of literacy, educational psychology, and learning disabilities.

Kristen D. Ritchey, PhD, is Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. Her research focuses on assessment and intervention for elementary-age students with reading and writing disabilities. Dr. Ritchey's recent work includes the development of screening and multi-tiered interventions for fourth- and fifth-grade students with reading disabilities, and the development of early-writing curriculum-based measures. She has published articles in several leading journals.