Biography

Dr. Michael Smith's research and teaching focus on adolescent literacy, an interest he developed in his eleven years of teaching high school English. More specifically, his research and teaching have centered on how experienced readers read and talk about texts as well as on what motivates adolescents’ reading and writing both in and out of school. He has used what he has learned to think about how to devise more effective and engaging reading and writing instruction. He has reported his research and the instructional ideas derived from them in a variety of articles and chapters and in 17 books or monographs, including Reading Don't Fix No Chevys and Reading Unbound, both of which won the David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English.

Research Interests

  • Literacy
  • Reading
  • Writing

Courses Taught

Number

Name

Level

EDUC 0809

Race and Diversity in Children's and Young Adult Books: Reading Between the Lines

Undergraduate

EDUC 8279

Found Theor Res Writing

Graduate

MGSE 2111

Applications of Teaching and Learning Theories to Classroom Practice (grades 4-12)

Undergraduate

Selected Publications

Featured

  • Wilhelm, J.D. & Smith, M.W. (2017). Diving Deep Into Nonfiction Transferable Tools for Reading Any Nonfiction Text. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Publishers.

  • Smith, M.W., Appleman, D., & Wilhelm, J.D. (2014). Uncommon core: Where the authors of the standards go wrong about instruction—and how you can get it right. Thousand Oaks, CA, US: Corwin Press. Retrieved from http://libproxy.temple.edu/

  • Wilhelm, J., Smith, M.W., & Fransen, S. (2013). Reading unbound: Why kids need to read what they want and why we should let them. New York: Scholastic. Retrieved from http://lccn.loc.gov/

  • Smith, M.W., Fredricksen, J.E., & Wilhelm, J.D. (2012). Get it done!: Writing informational text to make things happen.

  • Fredricksen, J.E., Wilhelm, J.D., & Smith, M.W. (2012). So, What's the Story? Teaching Narrative to Understand Ourselves, Others, and the World. Boynton/Cook.

  • Smith, M.W., Wilhelm, J.D., & Fredricksen, J.E. (2012). Oh, Yeah?!: Putting Argument to Work Both in School and Out. Heinemann. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/