Judith. A. Scott

My work revolves around vocabulary acquisition and blending vocabulary instruction with effective teacher education within the context of language, literacy and culture. I am the Director of Undergraduate Programs in the Education Department at UCSC, former Graduate Director for the Ph.D. program in Education and a member of Teaching and Learning and Language, Literacy and Culture Ph.D. specializations. My teaching covers all program areas, mentoring undergraduate, credential/MA and doctoral students. In 2006, I won the John Chorlton Manning Award from the International Reading Association for my work with public schools.

I was the Chair of the Vocabulary Special Interest Group within the American Educational Research Association for several years. I was also part of the Urban Network in Teacher Education (UNITE) project at Simon Fraser University, helped found the British Columbia Early Literacy Network, and have worked extensively with inner-city and EL teachers in both the Vancouver area and in California. I am currently involved with an Improving Teacher Quality grant in conjunction with the Central California Writing Project, district staff and middle and high school teachers in Pajaro Valley Unified School District, the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, and the UCSC Writing Program.  In 2000-03, I was the Co-Director of a Professional Development Institute in California that served over 350 new and veteran teachers for three years, focused on English Language learning using teacher inquiry and coaching.

Education

Recent studies and papers examine the concept of word consciousness, scaffolding academic language learning for multicultural and multilingual students, vocabulary assessment, and vocabulary learning in the context of computers.

  • 1991 – Ph.D., Educational Psychology with a Learning and Instruction emphasis, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • 1986 – M.A., Curriculum and Instruction, University of California, Davis.
  • 1983 – Specialist Instruction Credential-Reading, University of California, Davis
  • 1981 – Single Subject Teaching Credential in Social Science, UC Davis
  • 1977 – Multiple Subject Teaching Credential, University of California, Davis
  • 1977 – B.A., American Studies, University of California, Davis

Recent Awards and Grants

  • 2011-2013 – Principal Investigator (with L. Pease-Alvarez and L. Baker),  Alliance for Language and Literacy Instruction Effecting Standards (ALLIES).  California Post Secondary Commission. Improving Teacher Quality Grant ($ ($499,965 )
  • 2008-present – Co-Principal Investigator (with L. Pease-Alvarez), Central California Writing Project. University of California, Office of the President. ($300,000)
  • 2009-2013       Principal Investigator, Measuring vocabulary knowledge with testlets:  A new tool for assessment. United States Department of Education: Institute of Education Sciences National Center for Educational Research. Reading and Writing Education Research Grant –Goal 5: Measurement and Assessment. ($2,036,502)
  • 2008-12 – Principal Investigator (with Y. Zhang),, Explicit Scaffolding for Word Learning in Context through Multimedia Multilingual Word Annotation. The tecWAVE project (TEaching with Computers: Word Annotations for Vocabulary Education). U.S. Department of Education: Institute of Education Sciences /National Center for Educational Research. Educational Technology Research Grant. ($1,493,113)
  • 2006-09 – Principal Investigator (with K. Samway),Vocabulary Development through Writing: A key to academic success. The VINE project (Vocabulary Innovations in Education). U.S. Department of Education: Institute of Education Sciences /National Center for Educational Research. Reading and Writing Education Research Grant. ($1,402,553)
  • 2006 – John Chorlton Manning Public School Service Award. International Reading Association ($10,000)
  • 2000-03 – Co-Director. Instructional Partners of English Language Learners. California Professional Development Institute. University of California, Office of the President. ($343,000)

Selected Publications

  • ·Scott, J. A., Miller, T. F., & Flinspach, S.L. (2012). Developing word consciousness: Lessons from highly diverse fourth-grade classrooms. In J. Baumann & E. Kame’enui (Eds.) Vocabulary instruction: From research to practice (2nd Ed. New York: Guilford Press.
  • ·Flinspach, S.L., Scott, J.A., & Vevea, J.L. (2010).  Rare words in students’ writing as a measure of vocabulary. In Jimenez, R. T., Risko, V.J., Rowe, D. W., Hundley, M (Eds.) 59th Annual Yearbook of the National Reading Conference. Oak Creek, WI: National Reading Conference.
  • ·Miller, T. F., Gage-Serio, O., & Scott, J. A. (2010). Word consciousness in practice: Illustrations from a fourth grade teacher’s classroom. In Jimenez, R. T., Risko, V.J., Rowe, D. W., Hundley, M (Eds.) 59th Annual Yearbook of the National Reading Conference. Oak Creek, WI: National Reading Conference.
  • ·Scott, J., Flinspach, S., Miller, T., Gage-Serio, O. & Vevea, J. (2009). An analysis of reclassified English learners, English learners and native English fourth graders on assessments of receptive and productive vocabulary. In Y. Kim, V. Risko, D. Compton, D. Dickinson, M.Hundley, R. Jimenez, K. Leander, D. Rowe (Eds.) 58th Annual Yearbook of the National Reading Conference. Oak Creek, WI: National Reading Conference.
  • Scott, J. & Nagy, W. (2009).  Developing word consciousness. Reprinted in M. Graves (Ed.). Essential readings on vocabulary instruction. (pp. 106-117) Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
  • Scott, J., Skobel, B. & Wells, J. (2008). The Word Conscious Classroom: Building the Vocabulary Readers and Writers Need. New York: Scholastic- Theory and Practice series.
  • Scott, J., Nagy, B. & Flinspach, S. (2008). More than merely words: Redefining vocabulary learning in a culturally and linguistically diverse society. In A. Farstrup & J. Samuels (Eds.). What Research Has to Say About Vocabulary Instruction. (pp.182-210). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
  • Scott, J., Hoover, M., Flinspach, S. & Vevea, J. (2008). A multiple-level vocabulary assessment tool: Measuring word knowledge based on grade-level materials. In Y. Kim, V. Risko, D. Compton, D. Dickinson, M.Hundley, R. Jimenez, K. Leander, D. Rowe (Eds.) 57th Annual Yearbook of the National Reading Conference. (pp. 325-340). Oak Creek, WI: National Reading Conference.
  • Scott, J., Lubliner, S. & Hiebert, E.H. (2006). Constructs Underlying Word Selection and Assessments Tasks in the Archival Research on Vocabulary Instruction. In C M. Fairbanks, J. Worthy, B. Maloch, J. Hoffman, & D. Schallert, (Eds.) National Reading Conference Yearbook.
  • Scott, J.A. (2005). Creating opportunities to acquire new word meanings from text. In E. H. Hiebert and M. Kamil (Eds.). Teaching and learning vocabulary: Bringing research to practice. (pp. 69-91). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbuam.
  • Nagy, W. E. & Scott J. A. (2004). Vocabulary Processes. Reprinted in R. Ruddell and N. J. Unrau , (Eds.), Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading, Fifth Edition. (p.574-593) Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
  •  Scott, J.A. (2004). Scaffolding vocabulary learning: Ideas for equity in urban settings. In D. Lapp, C. Block, E. Cooper, J. Flood, N. Roser, and J.Tinajero (Eds.) Teaching all the children: Strategies for developing literacy in an urban setting. (p. 275-293) NY: Guilford
  •  Scott, J., Jamieson-Noel, D. & Asselin, M. (2003). Vocabulary instruction throughout the day in 23 Canadian Upper-Elementary Classrooms. Elementary School Journal, 103(3), 269-286.
  •  Nagy, W. E. & Scott J. A. (2000). Vocabulary Processes. In M. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr, (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research, Volume III.(pp. 269-284). Muhwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  •  Henry, S., Scott, J, Wells, J., Skobel, B., Jones, A., Cross, S., Blackstone,T. (1999). Linking university and teacher communities: A “think tank” model of professional development. Teacher Education and Special Education, 22(4). 251-267.
  •  Scott, J.A. & Nagy, W. (1997). Understanding the definitions of unfamiliar verbs. Reading Research Quarterly. 32(2), 184-200.
  •  Nagy, W., & Scott, J. (1990). Word schemas: What do people know about words they don’t know. Cognition & Instruction, 7(2), 105-127.
  • Nagy, W., Anderson, R.C., Schommer, M., Scott, J., & Stallman, A. (1989). Morphological families in the internal lexicon. Reading Research Quarterly, 24(3), 262-282.

Recent Presentations at Peer-Reviewed Conferences.

  • Scott, J. & Flinspach, S. (2012). How do You Measure That? Lessons Learned from Goal 5 Projects. An invited panel discussion.  At the annual IES Principal Investigator Meeting.  National Center for Educational Research/Institute of Education Sciences Conference. Washington, D.C.
  • Scott, J., &  Zhang, Y. (2009).  Teaching with Computers: Word Annotations for Vocabulary Education.  Poster at the 4th annual Institute of Education Sciences Research Conference. Washington, D.C.
  • Scott, J.A., Flinspach, S., & Vevea, J. (2011). Identifying and teaching vocabulary in fourth-a dn fifth-grade math and science. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Reading Conference/Literacy Research Association.  Jacksonville, FL
  • Scott, J.A., Vevea, J. & Flinspach, S., (2010). Vocabulary growth in fourth grade classrooms: A quantitative analysis. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Reading Conference/Literacy Research Association.  Fort Worth, TX
  • Flinspach, S., Miller, T., Zeamer, C., Gage-Serio, O., & Scott, J.A. (2010). Comparative case studies: Raising word consciousness in classrooms. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Reading Conference/Literacy Research Association.  Fort Worth, TX
  • Gage-Serio, O., Miller, T., Scott, J.A., & Flinspach, S. (2010). Cognate connections: Another dimension of word consciousness. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Reading Conference/Literacy Research Association.  Fort Worth, TX
  • Miller, T., Flinspach, S. & Scott, J.A.(2010). Fostering word consciousness through metacognitive awareness. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Reading Conference/Literacy Research Association.  Fort Worth, TX
  • Scott, J.A. & Scott, D.G. (2010), Developing word consciousness: Adaptable strategies that students (especially ELs) and teachers like and use.  Presented at the 23nd International Reading Association World Congress on Reading, Auckland, New Zealand
  • Scott, J.A., Flinspach, S., Miller, T., Vevea, J., & Gage-Serio, O., (2009). Vocabulary growth over time: Results of a multiple level vocabulary assessment based on grade level materials. Paper presented at the National Reading Conference, Albuquerque, NM.
  • Flinspach, S., Scott, J.A., Gage-Serio, O., Miller, T., & Vevea, J. (2009). Rare words in students’ writing as a measure of vocabulary. Paper presented at the National Reading Conference, Albuquerque, NM.
  • Miller, T., Gage-Serio, O., Flinspach, S., & Scott, J.A., (2009). A case study of one teacher’s developing word consciousness and classroom practice. Paper presented at the National Reading Conference, Albuquerque, NM.
  • Scott, J.A.,  Miller, T., Flinspach, S., Gage-Serio, O., & Vevea, J., (2009). Reading, Word Consciousness and Family Funds of Knowledge:  Contributions to the vocabulary growth of highly proficient English language learners Poster at the 4th annual Institute of Education Sciences Research Conference. Washington, D.C.
  • Scott, J.A. & Skobel, B.J. (2009). Word Consciousness Across the Curriculum: Scaffolding Vocabulary Learning for All Students. Presented at the International Reading Association Annual conference. Minneapolis, MN.
  • Scott, J.A. (2009). Invited discussant for symposium entitled: Vocabulary: A multidimensional construct.  Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.

Linking Research to Practice -Teacher Professional Development presentations

  • Scott, J.A. (2011). Word consciousness:  A powerful tool for raising students’ achievement and their use of academic and literary vocabulary. A professional development workshop for teachers in school districts willing to give the VASE tests in Grade 4 and 5 classrooms.
  • Scott, J.A. (2010). Word consciousness:  A powerful tool for raising students’ achievement and their use of academic and literary vocabulary. Public Lecture sponsored by the Faculty of Education, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
  • Scott, J. A. (2010). Word Consciousness as a tool to increase students’ knowledge and use of academic and literary vocabulary. Graduate Student Colloquium. School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies. Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
  • Scott, J., Miller, T., & Thompson, A. (2007). Closing the achievement gap – Vocabulary is the key! Half-day workshop to all K-8 teachers in Soquel School District.
  • Scott, J. (2007). Vocabulary Connections:  What do we know that can help English language learners. Presentation to PVUSD Migrant Teachers in Watsonville CA
  • Scott, J.A. (2007). Featured Speaker:  Why Words: The importance of teaching word consciousness in multicultural classrooms. Oregon Reading Conference. Portland, OR.
  • Scott, J.A. (2007). The power of language: Building vocabulary learning and word consciousness across the curriculum. Santa Clara County Reading Council. Asilomar, CA
  • Scott, J.A. & Gage-Serio (2010). Developing word consciousness in classroom instruction.  The Saroyan Chapter of CATESOL conference. Fresno State University, Fresno, CA.
  • Hutson, D., & Scott, J. (2009) Integrating Word Consciousness: How to use Books as a Springboard. VINE Teacher Institute, University of California-Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA.