I am currently an assistant professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Texas at Arlington in the College of Education where I teach graduate and undergraduate courses in Literacy Studies.
Research Profile: http://www.uta.edu/ra/real/editprofile.php?pid=2555
Education: Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction/Language and Literacy Studies from the University of Texas at Austin (2008); M.Ed. in Reading Education from Texas State University, San Marcos (2004); B.A. in Philosophy from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1996). Teaching Certificate from Westmont College (1997), Santa Barbara, CA.
I am certified in Texas to teach: early childhood-grade 12, reading specialist (EC-12), Master Reading Teacher (EC-12), bilingual/ESL (EC-12), Special Education (EC-12), and Secondary Reading (6-12).
Prior to my academic career, I taught elementary school and was a reading specialist for a total of eight years in Southern California and Central Texas. I taught bilingual education and ESL in both urban and rural settings (all Title 1 schools).
Research and Writing Agenda
My active research agenda includes projects that focus on my primary research interest of students who face challenges in literacy learning. I am interested in the concept of social-collaborative literacy learning models(Rogoff, 1991; Gregory, 2001) and studying literacy sponsors, social supports, and networks that take place in families and communities (Brandt, 2001) as well as teacher professional development programs that support teachers as they develop knowledge to help students in in-school and out-of-school learning contexts. I primarily draw on narrative research and naturalistic inquiry traditions within qualitiative research. I am also interested in methods of discourse analysis.
Related to this line of inquiry, I am also examining the historical contexts of literacy learning for students who face challenges in reading, e.g., the work of seminal scholars like Jeanne Chall. The historical and social contexts of struggling readers represent my main focus and line of inquiry.
Finally, I also have a professional interest in studying the ways that we can use digital pedagogies to engage pre-service and in-service teachers to most effectively help them to teach literacy in their current and future classroom contexts. Within this area, I am interested in knowledge sharing that takes place online, distributed cognition, and video-mediated (e.g., YouTube) discussion and dialogue.
I love listening to various sub-genres of Electronic music such as: techno, trance, house, freestyle, Eurodance, and 80’s synth-pop and new wave. My favorite DJ’s are George Acosta, Armin van Buuren, and Paul van Dyk. I am a child of the 80’s. I was born in Austin, Texas, grew up in the wilds of Alaska (Kodiak Island, Fairbanks, and Anchorage) as well as Southern California (the borderlands of San Diego) and Santa Barbara. I have called Texas home for 13 years (2000 to present).
Contact info: peggys@uta.edu
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Dr. Simingson,
I am registered for your summer course LIST 5373 and I’ve been reading your blog. I’m very intersted in your dissertation study. I hope you will be sharing some of your articles with us in class. This school year I invited the moms of my students to come in and share traditional poems, songs or stories they remembered from their early school years. It was really neat. I would like to do that again next year and as well as a couple of other ideas I’ve been considering. I hope I will have a chance to get your opinion on those ideas and get your input. I feel that there is a need to strenghten the home school literacy connection and acknowledge the value of native traditions and tales.
I found you through trying to find more information about Jeannie Chall. I subscribed to your youtube channel and will be following your posts here.
Great! 🙂 –Peggy
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