Tanya S. Wright

Tanya S. Wright is an associate professor of language and literacy in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University (MSU). She is a former kindergarten teacher whose research and teaching focus on curriculum and instruction in language and literacy during the early childhood and elementary years.

In addition to numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, Wright is an author of several books including Nurturing Knowledge: Building a Foundation for School Success by Linking Early Literacy to Math, Science, Art, and Social Studies (Scholastic), All About Words: Increasing Vocabulary in the Common Core Classroom: PreK–2 (Teachers College Press), and A Teacher's Guide to Vocabulary Development Across the Day: Grades K–3 (Heinemann).

Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Institute of Education Sciences, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, OpenSciEd, and the CREATE for STEM foundation at MSU.

Wright was the winner of the International Literacy Association’s Outstanding Dissertation of the Year Award in 2012 and the Jerry Johns Outstanding Teacher Educator in Reading Award in 2022. She is currently the senior editor of The Reading Teacher.