Deborah A. Wooten, Ph.D.

Deborah Wooten is an assistant professor of reading in the Theory and Practice in Teacher Education Department at The University of Tennessee . Before joining the faculty at Tennessee in 2002, Dr. Wooten taught elementary school for 23 years. Her resume includes experience in the rural schools of Mississippi and in the urban classrooms of New York City . After earning her Ph.D. at New York University in 1992, she used her final 10 years in the elementary classroom to research practical new methods of using children’s literature to foster connections across curriculum boundaries. Results are published in her book Valued Voices: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Teaching and Learning (International Reading Association).

Currently she is a reviewer for the International Reading Association’s Children’s & Young Adult Book Award as well as editor of and contributor to the Continuum Encyclopedia For Young Adult Literature (2005). She has served as co-chairperson as well as regional co-leader of Children’s Choices (IRA, 2003-05). She is a member of the review board for Kid’s Insight Book Publication (IRA) and The New Educator as well as a reviewer for professional books, videos and DVDs for School Library Journal’s Curriculum Connections.

Her research focuses on helping students think metacognitively through Writing and Sharing Connections. Other areas of her classroom research have been highlighted numerous times in various publications including editions one through six of Literature and the Child (Cullinan & Galda, 1989; 2005) and Language, Literacy, and the Child (Galda, Cullinan, & Strickland, 1993; 2004). She is the author of a number of articles and chapters dealing with reading, children’s literature, and elementary teaching methodology. She served as chairperson as well as regional leader of Children’s Choices for the International Reading Association.

Contact Information

Dr. Deborah A. Wooten
Assistant Professor
Reading Education

A224 Jane and David Bailey Education Complex
1126 Volunteer Boulevard
Knoxville, Tennessee
37996-3442

Phone: 865-974-0334
Fax: 865-974-6302
dwooten1@utk.edu

Contact CEHHS

335 Claxton Complex 1122 Volunteer Boulevard
Knoxville, Tennessee 37996

Phone: 865-974-2201
Fax: 865-974-8718