Rebecca Wheeler

professor, English & literacy, CNU

Rebecca Wheeler is an expert on teaching Standard English in dialectically diverse classrooms. Wheeler works with literacy coaches, communication specialists, and classroom teachers K - 14 who want to know what to do about all those missing -ed's, -s's in their students' writing. While her work currently focuses on helping teachers respond to African American student writers, the insights and strategies she brings extend to any group of students who speak and write an Everyday English differing from Formal Standard American English. Wheeler shows teachers how to build on what students do know Community Engl*ish as they add Standard English to their linguistic repertoires. Her book Code-Switching: Teaching Standard English in Urban Classrooms*, written in partnership with elementary educator Rachel Swords, offers teachers linguistic insights and practical strategies for the urban classroom. Wheeler has served as consultant for public schools K 14 from New York to New Orleans, and from Chicago to Arkansas. For 2007 - 2008, Wheeler is Principal Investigator on a grant, Technology Enhanced Learning of English and Science in Middle School, VA funded through the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia under the federal Title II, Part A - Improving Teacher Quality State Grants. She is a literacy consultant and spokesperson for the National Council of Teachers of English.