Assistant Professor, Brandon University Faculty of Education
Literacy Consultant
stoufferj@brandonu.ca
Dr. Joe Stouffer brings over 25 years experience as a classroom teacher and literacy specialist to empower and engage classroom literacy teachers. Joe currently holds the position of Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Brandon University.
Through his career, Joe has taught English Language Arts at primary and Middle School levels in urban and rural settings. He brings a broad base of teaching experience, having also worked as a Resource, French, and Music teacher, university sessional instructor, Reading Recovery teacher and Teacher Leader, Literacy Coach and Literacy Consultant.
As a Reading Recovery Teacher Leader for the Southwest Manitoba Region, Joe worked alongside teachers and administration of several school divisions. Following highly successful work as a division-wide Literacy Coach for the Rolling River School Division in Manitoba, Joe has led professional development initiatives in K-8 literacy for the Frontier School Division, Manitoba and Middle Years literacy in Western School Division, MB and the Rocky View School Division, Alberta. As a Literacy Coach, Joe’s work centres on the development of K-8 teachers’ capacity to design and deliver effective and appropriate literacy instruction to a wide variety of learners.
Joe has been tremendously received as a consultant from coast to coast in Canada and has presented at National and International conferences in both Canada and the U.S. Most recently, he has enjoyed meeting and working with Canadian teachers in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, the Northwest Territories, and Newfoundland. In 2017, Joe’s consulting work has taken him as far as the American School in Bello Horizonte, Brazil. His popular sessions are frequently lauded for their practicality and their basis in the reality of classroom instruction.
Dr. Stouffer completed his PhD at University of British Columbia’s Department of Language and Literacy Education. His research interests include children’s literacy development and teacher pre-service training and professional development in literacy education. Joe is the winner of the International Reading Association’s 2012 Stephen A. Stahl Memorial Research Grant.
Joe is equally comfortable presenting to groups or working alongside teachers in their classrooms. He is available for single or multi-day sessions. Joe is well regarded for his knowledge of classroom literacy instruction and his ability to work positively and productively with teachers of varying experiences and approaches. Professional and academic references available on request.
Joe currently resides in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada.
email: stoufferj@brandonu.ca
As part of his Brandon University service, Dr. Stouffer is pleased to offer the following sessions to schools at cost of travel and accommodation:
What Every Teacher K-12 Needs to Know about Reading Instruction
This full day session provides teachers at every level an easy to understand theory tosupport literacy instruction. A much needed answer to the far too common question in our profession:
“How do you teach someone to read?”
Seeking Middle Ground:
Analyzing Running Records from the top and bottom
Responding to recent challenges and debate in the profession of competing approaches to reading instruction, this half day sessions includes a copy of Joe's Running Record and Analysis prompting guide for participating teachers.
Supporting Adolescent Literacy:
Reading Instruction in Content Areas
This full day session encourages teachers at upper elementary, middle, and high school grades to examine their role as literacy teachers in the context of content areas. Building on foundational knowledge of how reading develops, this session examines how teachers can continue to support reading comprehension for a wide range of adolescent learners.
Instructional Leadership in Reading:
Schools that Read
This full day session supports principals in their role as instructional leaders in literacy. Without strong leadership, school improvement is difficult to foster and sustain. During this day, Joe will add to principals’ understanding of reading development, research-based best practices, and their role in leading and supporting both teacher and student learning.
Fostering Reading Comprehension
This half day session looks at how teachers can support and deepen comprehension throughout different types of reading (independent, guided, shared, teach read-alouds) in the classroom.
Coaching the Coaches:
Supporting Literacy Coaches and Instructional Leaders
This half day session is designed to offer support for both new and experienced Literacy coaches in their roles supporting classroom literacy instruction. It is recommended that
coaches have attended other sessions with Joe or that this sessionis offered in conjunction with other sessions.
Writer’s Workshop:
Getting Starting & Ongoing Support
This half-day session lays out the structure of a Writer’s Workshop program and offers many ideas to organize and support students’ writing development.
What are the Other KidsDoing While I’m Teaching Literacy?
Getting Literacy Stations Started
A half day session to prepare teachers to implement independent literacy stations as a component of a balanced literacy program.
Custom School Residency:
Reading and Writing Support
Joe will work with teachers and students in their classrooms either model teaching or coaching teachers in guided reading and writing instruction. Other teachers and administration are encouraged to observe these sessionsand join in post-session professional conversation.
The following professional development and materials are available for purchase
(contact Joe for information on school and divisional licensing)
Proficiency Assessment of Writing support - PAWs
Joe will lead teachers at the school or division level to implement a writing assessment that can be used simply to assess any piece of classroom writing. Using PAWs, teachers co-develop a multi-dimensional view of writing assessment and have clear indicators not only for assessment, but to lead their writing instruction and help students plan their writing.
For a sample package, please contact Joe.
Selected Publications:
Stouffer, J. (2021). Seeking middle ground: Analyzing running records from the top and bottom. The Reading Teacher, 74(6), 769-784.
Stouffer, J. (2016). A palette of excellence: Contextualizing the reported benefits of Reading Recovery training to Canadian primary classroom teachers. The Journal of Reading Recovery, 15(2), 31-48.
Stouffer, J. (2011). Listening to yourself reading: Exploring the role of auditory input to literacy processing. The Journal of Reading Recovery, 11(2), 15-28.
Purcell-Gates, V., Duke, N., Stouffer, J. (2016). Teaching literacy: Reading. In Drew H. Gitomer & Courtney A. Bell (Eds.), The Handbook of Research on Teaching 5th Ed (1217-1268). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.