(631) 470-5881
Emily Strang Campbell of Literacy Strategies Consulting
Jennifer Serravallo's Approved Literacy Specialist
Professional History
For over 15 years, I have supported 3rd-12th grade classrooms across the country. My goal is to guide teachers in linking research and theory with skills-based, strategy instruction that empowers their students. I believe that when we cultivate a rigorous and joyful environment of literacy, we center students' voices and unique needs throughout every lesson. I also believe literacy instruction can be a pathway to social action and academic and personal transformation.
In the Classroom
I began my teaching career as a middle school teacher in New York City after earning my master's degree from New York University, with a dual certification in Educational Theatre and English for the secondary classroom. Before becoming a teacher, I earned an M.F.A. in Fine Arts in Theater from Brooklyn College. To this day, I remain committed to integrating the arts into the classroom whenever possible.
During my years in the classroom, my students' work was featured in many academic and teaching resources from Teachers College, including a theatrical collaboration with Maya Soetoro-Ng, President Barack Obama's sister, in the unveiling of her picture book Ladder to the Moon, published by Candlewick Press. Inspired by the book's themes, the piece featured original poetry and narratives written by my students and was performed in Milbank Chapel at Columbia University during the book's debut.
In addition, several times each year, during unit publishing celebrations, my classroom was open to the wider school and parent community to share and honor student work. These celebrations included grade-wide poetry and narrative festivals, student-expert informational workshops, and literacy notebook gallery walks. These events represented my commitment to creative collaboration while encouraging students to showcase their reading, writing, fluency, conversation, and public speaking skills.
As a middle school teacher, I regularly participated in and led professional development around literacy teaching methods. My classroom became a host for instructional lab sites, where teachers and educational leaders from around the country learned not only alongside me but also from my students.
Coaching and Beyond
My leadership in school-based professional learning led me to begin consulting locally and nationally, supporting 3rd-12th grade classrooms. I have presented at institutes across the country, including the Bank Street College Language Workshop Series: Language Teaching and the Arts, NCTE, and Teachers College. However, my true passion lies in the classroom setting, coaching both teachers and students around powerful literacy work.
In addition to teaching and coaching, I have co-authored several middle school curricular resources focused on informational writing and book clubs.
Feedback from School Leaders
"I've worked with her for years. She is a true professional and has the respect of my teachers."
Dawn Verhille
Bronx Studio School for Writers and Artists, Principal
District 8, NYC
"Emily is flexible and willing to support in many ways. She schedules each period, models, and coaches on the spot, and she meets with teachers and the admin. She is an extremely valuable asset to our team! The teachers are open to feedback from Emily and feel comfortable trying new things when she is present and then continuing that work when she is not. They also feel comfortable reaching out to her when necessary because she is always available and responsive."
Linda Aldebot
Bronx Studio School for Writers and Artists, Assistant Principal
District 8, NYC
"She takes the time to get to know the teachers and assess their needs before recommending strategies. She is not afraid to push into classrooms and model. She collaborates with administration and teacher leaders and leans into the vision of our school. I've gained insights surrounding how the strategies can be implemented in all the content areas."
Eniale Beachem
Bronx Studio School for Writers and Artists, Assistant Principal
District 8, NYC
Feedback from Teachers about School-Based PD
"Emily has an exuberant and bright personality that makes her a joy to have in our classroom. She is easy to collaborate with and never feels like an intrusion in our classroom or meetings. She is always open to questions and explaining the reasoning behind her suggestions or techniques. Most importantly, I respect how enthusiastic she is about leading a lesson or small group with my students. Oftentimes, consultants bring in a textbook and make suggestions. What sets Emily apart and makes her truly effective is that she will collaborate on a lesson with you and then come into your classroom and help you implement the lesson.
During meetings, she also shows us videos of other teachers (sometimes those at our own school) implementing the strategies and lessons. This really helps us to visualize how these ideas can be implemented as opposed to just reading about them in abstraction. I have learned a lot of different strategies to teach students in small groups and how to keep students engaged in their reading. I have also gained different brainstorming and prompting activities for engaging students in writing. What I like about these strategies is that they can be implemented in many different units of study with a wide range of students and can be implemented by Gen Ed, SpEd, and ENL teachers."
Dani A.
High School ELA Teacher, NYC
"Emily is knowledgeable in both ELA content and Serravallo's work. She is flexible in planning and able to jump into what we're doing to model lessons (whole class and small group) or watch us teach and provide feedback. I can easily take what she's shown me and use it immediately. My ability and confidence in leading small group instruction have grown exponentially since I started working with Emily. My Serravallo chart book is marked up and set up with lots of examples and ready to use for different skills targeted toward higher or lower-performing readers and writers. I've done small group instruction with skills for the main idea, theme, figurative language, comprehending characters, and more. Emily continues to meet me where I'm at and build ideas from there."
Sid Tobia
Bronx Studio School for Writers and Artists
High School ELA Teacher
District 8, NYC
"Emily tailors her instruction, feedback, and demonstrations and focuses based on our individual classroom needs. She listens to our concerns and questions and always comes up with a manageable, research-based solution. Since working with Emily, we have implemented read-aloud strategies and many small group instructional practices in our classroom that were replicated from her coaching sessions."
Maggie Krater
Bronx Studio School for Writers and Artists, Special Education Teacher
District 8, NYC
"Emily is extremely knowledgeable and supportive. She values our work and our experimentation with new ideas and empowers us to make instructional moves that benefit our students, regardless of our own individual teaching strengths. Serravallo's strategies for small group instruction have been the most impactful. Clone Emily and send them forth into the world!"
Carl McClendon
Bronx Studio School for Writers and Artists, Middle School ELA Teacher
District 8, NYC
Feedback from Workshop Participants
"I found this resource and presentation to be beneficial to my instruction. Examining student writing and discussing the progressions and different strategies – I also loved the videos. I wish more people from my school chose to attend."
The Writing Strategies Virtual Workshop
March 2024
I found having the strategies explained to be very helpful. I liked that we were able to see models of how to use the skill progressions charts to inform instruction. I have colleagues that would benefit from what I learned today.
The Writing Strategies Virtual Workshop
March 2024
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