Sandra Martin-Chang studies reading and writing development in children and adults. She is currently a professor at Concordia University. She studies how reading in context, (especially reading storybooks and novels), influences cognitive development. She is additionally interested in the role of teacher knowledge and parent knowledge in children's learning.
About
Professor
Sandra Martin-Chang
Cognitive Development with respect to:
Preschool Children:
Emergent Literacy
Story Book Reading with Parents
Primary Children:
Reading Fluency
Academic Achievements in Home-Schooled Children
The Development of Spelling
Developing the Writing process
Young Adults:
Print Exposure (Reading for Pleasure)
Reading comprehension
Spelling Development
Adults:
Reading-Related Knowledge in Parents and Home Educators
Concordia literacy lab
At the Concordia Literacy Lab, we are dedicated to unlocking the door to literacy one student at a time; once children have crossed the threshold, we aim to make the world of print as inviting as possible. We do this because we believe that having a facility with print improves children’s lives: it makes school easier to navigate, social connections easier to form, and knowledge easier to acquire.
Our beliefs are grounded in science. We define success as each student’s ability to know, and be known, by way of the printed word. In order to promote students’ ability to read and write freely, we work with parents, teachers and researchers at the local, national, and international levels. We study a myriad of topics including parent knowledge, teacher knowledge, print exposure, spelling, and contextual facilitation. Although these topics seem diverse, they are all united under the scientific process.
The members of our lab support each other fiercely. We learn from each other and complement each other’s strengths. We push one another. We play hard and we play for keeps, but we do so with the knowledge that we all play for the same team. Present and past members of the Literacy Lab take pride in “living the brand.” This means we read, write, learn, and teach on a daily basis. We are always on the lookout out for people who share these same passions (although space is limited to 1 or 2 new students a year).