About

The Author

Karen Tankersley

PhD | Literacy & School Reform Expert | Author | Educator

Karen Tankersley, a long-time educator, author, and literacy expert, resides in Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband and Yorkie baby. With an extensive background in language and language acquisition, she holds a BA in French, minors in German, English, instructional technology, and special education.  In addition to expertise in these areas, Karen also holds a Master of Arts in Reading and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. 

Over her career, Karen has worked with students in grades 2 through 12. She also taught postgraduate Master’s and Doctoral students as an Associate professor at Arizona State University. Karen has worked with school districts across the U.S. to raise school performance, improve literacy, implement instructional technology, and improve student performance.  

During her teaching career, Karen worked as a classroom teacher, a foreign language teacher, a reading specialist, and a teacher of the gifted and talented in affluent and high-risk communities. At the district level, she served as an instructional coach and a technology coach. 

Karen served as a building principal for 13 years in schools recognized nationally for their outstanding achievement and high academic performance. She also held district leadership positions for eleven years, where she provided professional development to teachers and district administrators.  

Karen is a prolific writer and has published articles in several educational journals, including ASCD’s Educational Leadership. She is the author of Threads of Reading: Strategies for Literacy Development (ASCD, 2003); Literacy Strategies for Grades 4-12: Reinforcing the Threads of Reading (ASCD, 2005), Tests that Teach: Using Standardized Tests to Improve Instruction (ASCD, 2007); Childhood Obesity: Helping Children Lead Fit and Healthy Lives (Little John, 2011); and Coaching the Threads of Reading: Helping Teachers Build Reading Success (Little John, 2012).

She has also published a line of informational books for intermediate-aged children in grades 4-8. Her adolescent books center around Exploring Nature and include Kangaroos Down Under, When Wood Turns to Stone/ The American Black Bear, The Story of the Arizona National Petrified Forest, Sea Turtles, Discover the Koala, and Amazingly Awesome Snails!

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    • FAQs:

    Questions you would like to ask Karen Tankersley

    I graduated from college with degrees in French, German, and English, with a goal of becoming a high school foreign language teacher. My first job was to teach four periods of German language in a local high school. Since the full schedule consisted of six periods, the administration asked me if I could teach two additional periods of Remedial Reading to qualify for a full-time teaching assignment. Since I was eager to be hired for the job, I told them I was sure I could do that. With a degree in English, I figured teaching high school students to read couldn’t be that difficult.

    Little did I know then that the students assigned to these two classes would be reading at the pre-primer to third grade level! Fortunately, my mother-in-law, a special education teacher, helped me get started and showed me how to support these students.

    I immediately began a Master’s program in Reading at the local university to learn more about how to help my students succeed. Armed with the knowledge I needed to teach my students to become effective readers, I saw them begin to make progress in learning to read—albeit slowly.

    In 2000, when the National Reading Panel published its report on the five pillars of reading (Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension) was published, I was already using all five of these pillars with my students, having learned their importance in my Master’s program. In the evening, I also taught several levels of reading development classes at a local community college and worked with adults who struggled with reading. While I agreed that the “Big Five,” as the NRP called them, were vital, my experience told me how highly interdependent they were. Young children (and my remedial students) needed a firm foundation in the sounds of letters and sounds before they could move on to become fluent readers.

    It was also evident that the size of a student’s vocabulary played an essential part in understanding the meaning of the text. Students with larger vocabularies learned to read more quickly, so adding new vocabulary was vital to teaching students to read. 

    I also realized that just because someone could understand simple text didn’t mean they could understand complex text. Understanding complex text requires a more complicated foundation and additional instructional strategies. In addition to the five “pillars,” I added “Higher-order Comprehension” as a sixth important element of areas teachers must teach directly. The six Threads of Reading support a comprehensive approach to teaching reading skills to students of all ages.

    Since the pandemic, I have found that I can provide high-quality professional development for more teachers through my books and online course offerings rather than spending time traveling to local schools or districts. For this reason, I no longer offer workshops or seminars.

    You will find a list of my current books and educational courses on this website. On the course page, you will find courses on reading, working with students with special needs, and using technology in instruction (specialties I have developed over my teaching career). I am always happy to respond to educators’ questions about reading instruction on my blog.

    I have written several books for educators. They include: The Threads of Reading: Strategies for Literacy Development for teachers in grades K-12. Colleges and universities often use this book for reading courses. While the book was published in 2003, the instructional strategies are still effective and used in successful classrooms nationwide. At the request of teachers working with older struggling readers, in 2006, I wrote Literacy Strategies for Grades 4-12: Reinforcing the Threads of Reading.This book is also used for professional development for middle and high school teachers with students who need reading support. It also has time-tested strategies for teachers to improve reading in older students. These books can be found at your favorite online booksellers and on the ASCD website.  

    My most recent Threads of Reading book (2012) is: Coaching the Threads of Reading: Helping Teachers Build Reading Success. This book is for school-level instructional Coaches on how to help teachers improve their skills in the six threads of reading instruction. 

    It can be purchased at your favorite online booksellers. Another book that parents and educators may enjoy is Childhood Obesity: Helping Children Lead Fit and Healthy Lives, also available at your favorite online booksellers. In addition to the books for adults, I have also written several books in the Exploring Nature Series for students ages 8-12.

    You can learn more about my books in this website’s Books section.

    If you have questions about reading instruction, please comment on a relevant blog post or contact me directly at karen@threadsofreading.com. I will respond to your question.  (Maybe put the email address as a link instead of direct so it isn’t scraped by bots for email lists?)

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