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Karin Ma has been a primary classroom teacher for 10 years. She has trained with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, Columbia University, and now mentors new teachers. Ma currently teaches first grade in New York City. Aside from teaching, she enjoys paddling in dragon boat competitions and training for marathons and ultra-marathons.

Nancy Mack is a veteran classroom teacher who has won several teaching awards and has taught in middle school, high school, and college. In addition to her work with new teachers as a professor of English and Education at Ohio State University, she coordinates the college’s Summer Institute on Writing and Teaching and works with local PBS stations to develop multi-media support programs for teachers. Her publications include chapters in books from Heinemann and NCTE and articles in English Journal, The Writing Instructor, and Pretext.

John N. Mangieri, Ph.D., a Fulbright Scholar and co-author of Powerful Vocabulary for Reading Success (Scholastic, 2005) and coeditor of The Vocabulary-Enriched Classroom (Scholastic, 2006), is the director of the Institute for Literary Enhancement. He is the author/coauthor of 87 professional articles and books. He has served as the chairman of the reading department at the University of South Carolina and as dean of the School of Education at the Texas Christian University.

Ruth Manna is a Massachusetts-based teacher with 20+ years of classroom experience. She has been a member of the Teacher National Advisory Board for eScholastic since 2004 and the moderator online for Scholastic's Teacher Helpline since 2005.

Read a review of 130 FAQS and Practical Answers from Scholastic’s Teacher Helpline

Maryann Manning was an elementary classroom teacher for 12 years before joining the faculty of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she has served as a Professor of Elementary Education for more than 20 years, specializing in literacy development. For many years, she was also a Teaching Editor of Teaching K-8. She is the author of several books including Theme Immersion: Inquiry-Based Curriculum in Elementary and Middle Schools and Scientific Reading Assessment.

Jaime Margolies has been teaching in elementary schools for fifteen years, spending many of those years in first grade classrooms. Her teaching passions are reading and writing. She is a frequent presenter and consultant for LitLife, helping teachers create strong units of study while working to improve their classroom organization and management. She lives in Manhattan with her husband Aaron and daughter, Ellie.

Barbara Mariconda has 20 years of classroom experience and has published more than a dozen books for teachers and children. She is cofounder of Empowering Magical Writes, an educational consulting firm, and is a mentor teacher in Connecticut.

Tara McCarthy has written several books for Scholastic Professional. Her other titles include Teaching Literary Elements, Teaching Genre, and Spotlight on Literary Elements. She lives in Woodstock, New York.

Lea McGee holds the Marie Clay Endowed Chair in the School of Teaching and Learning at Ohio State University. She is former president of the National Reading Conference.

Anne McGill-Franzen is Professor of Education and Director of the Reading Center At the University of Tennessee. Before becoming a professor, Anne was a classroom teacher, a reading specialist, and a consultant in special education. She has published many articles on early literacy and is the recipient of several IRA research awards, including the Dina Feitelson Award for research in early literacy. Anne has worked with teachers for more than 20 years, most recently with kindergarten teachers in a Tennessee Teacher Quality Project.

Edgar McIntosh was an early childhood educator for 15 years. He was a first-grade teacher at P.S. 41 in New York City before accepting a position in 2006 as Assistant Principal at a K-5 school in Larchmont, New York. He began his teaching in Wilton, Connecticut, where he received an Innovative Teacher grant, was co-creator of The Whole Brain Workshop, and was a founding member of Project Care. In New York City, he was a presenter in literacy, mathematics, collaborative teaching, differentiated instruction, and multisensory teaching. He has also written articles for Instructor Magazine and was a contributor to Classroom Management in Photographs (Scholastic, 2004). He lives in Brooklyn with his family.

Margaret G. McKeown, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist at the Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her research in reading comprehension and vocabulary has been published extensively for both research and practitioner audiences. Recognition of her work inludes the International Reading Association's Dissertation of the Year Award and a National Academy of Education Spencer Fellowship. She is coauthor with Isabel L. Beck of groundbreaking books on comprehension, Questioning the Author, and Vocabulary, Bringing Words to Life, as well as many other professional books. Before her career in research, Dr. McKeown taught elementary school.

Maureen McLaughlin is a Professor of Education at East Stroudsburg State University of Pennsylvania. Prior to earning her doctorate at Boston University, Maureen was a classroom teacher, reading specialist, and department chair in a public school system. She has authored numerous publications, including Guided Comprehension in the Primary Grades (IRA, 2003), Critical Literacy with coauthor Glenn L. DeVoogd (Scholastic, 2004), and coauthored Research-Based Reading Lessons (grades K-3 and 4-6). Maureen is currently a member of the Board of Directors for the International Reading Association; she has been a committee chair for the National Reading Conference and IRA. A frequent speaker at state, national, and international conferences, Maureen is a consultant to school districts and universities nationwide.

Janet McLellan is an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii in the Division of Speech Pathology and Audiology, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses. She has worked extensively in the public schools as a speech-language pathologist and as a special education teacher.

Mary C. McMackin is a professor in the Language and Literacy Division of the School of Education at Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mary began her career as an elementary school teacher and now teaches graduate literacy courses to preservice and in-service teachers and presents at literacy conferences around the country. Mary has written several resources, including a three-book series with colleague Nancy L. Witherell on teaching reading, writing, and vocabulary through differentiated instruction with leveled graphic organizers.

Carol McMullen taught first and second grades and was a mentor teacher in the Calgary public schools for 20 years. In addition to building a complete anti-bullying curriculum for primary grades, she was a Literacy Lead Teacher for her school. Carol currently runs her own tutoring agency, Eureka Educational Services, and writes professional development materials. She lives in Calgary, Alberta.

Karen McNally works as a literacy consultant with LitLife, Inc. specializing in the primary grades. She works closely with teachers to hone teaching practices and develop cross-grade curriculum. Her teaching experience over the last decade ranges from pre-K through fifth grade; kindergarten is her passion. Karen is also a frequent presenter at LitLife seminars.

Mona Melwani has extensive experience in the classroom, including more than 20 years of teaching in International Schools. Teaching in an international school coupled with her experiences at different grade levels, has allowed her to view young children's needs from many angles. Among her strengths, she has developed the background necessary to consider each child individually and in depth at report card time and to articulate her evaluations clearly. She holds a master's degree in Curriculum & Instruction.

Cindy Middendorf pursued her passion for teaching kindergarten for 22 of her 30 years in the classroom. She currently works as a consultant and teacher trainer for Staff Development for Educators (SDE), and presents nationally on a wide range of early childhood topics from early literacy instruction to brain-friendly classroom management. Cindy has been a facilitator for Cornell University Cooperative Extension Parenting Skills workshops, a Growing Healthy® Kindergarten Master Teacher, and a DisneyHand® American Teacher Award nominee.

Marcia Modlo worked as reading specialists in elementary schools, and now teaches at the School of Education at Binghamton University, New York.

Paula Moore has been a primary grade teacher, literacy specialist, middle school teacher, and administrator in public schools for twenty years. She earned a Doctorate in education at the University of Maine and completed a year-long training in New Zealand as a University Reading Recovery Trainer. Currently, Dr. Moore is Associate Professor for literacy education at the University of Maine where she was the 2002 recipient of the Outstanding Employee Award.

Gayle Morrison has been an inner city primary classroom teacher and literacy coach for 25 years. She has spoken at numerous IRA and NCTE conferences and has presented many professional development workshops throughout the United States. Thousands of teachers have visited Gayle's classroom. She is frequently sought after to share her ideas about teaching reading and has written numerous articles for professional journals. She was the first National Board Certified Teacher in the Birmingham City Schools.

Annie M. Moses is a doctoral student at Michigan State University in Educational Psychology. She has worked in a variety of childcare settings and taught at the university level. She has written about and presented on topics related to early literacy to early childhood educators. She is a coauthor of Literacy and the Youngest Learner: Best Practices for Educators of Children from Birth to 5 (Scholastic, 2005).

Margaret Moustafa is a Professor of Education at California State University at Los Angeles. She is an experienced elementary school teacher and author of Beyond Traditional Phonics (Heinemann, 1997), "Children's productive phonological recoding" (Reading Research Quarterly, 1995), and co-author of "Whole-to-parts phonics instruction: Building on what children know to help them know more" (Reading Teacher, 1999). Using the research findings of other scholars as well as her own research findings on how children learn a phonic system, she developed whole-to-parts phonics instruction as a powerful, systematic, explicit way of teaching children a phonic system which is compatible with their natural cognitive processes.

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The strategy for linking state standards and best practices that the author models in her book Exceeding the Standards can be used with any state's standards. To see a demonstration of this, download the matrices (PDF) that link state standards and best practices in reading instruction for Kindergarten and Third Grade for Texas and Third Grade for Florida.

Bonnie Murray is a teacher trainer for the Clark County School District in Las Vegas, Nevada. She has trained thousands of new teachers in this fastest growing school district in the United States. She is also a national trainer and writer for Educational Testing Service (ETS) in the area of new teacher induction and improvement. She works with Paula Naegle, the author of the middle school version of this sourcebook.