Profile  

A former middle school reading teacher, Marilyn Chambliss is an educational psychologist interested in how readers comprehend exposition in social studies and science (particularly argument and explanation), how different text features influence the comprehension of children, how to develop comprehensible textbook materials, and how to develop powerful comprehension instruction. Before coming to the University of Maryland, Dr. Chambliss was the Project Director of the Text Analysis Project at Stanford University.

Dr. Chambliss's current research has two foci. The first is to explore effective instructional approaches for teaching children to use the genres of argument and explanation in order to share reasoning with one another and build knowledge as they read and write in the domains of social studies and science. Fourth and fifth-grade teachers have taught their classes to identify and evaluate the arguments or explanations in the texts that they read and to write their own arguments and explanations. Initial analyses suggest that writing instruction, either with or without accompanying reading, was far more effective than reading instruction unaccompanied by writing. Interested in identifying effective instructional approaches for improving children's critical reading independently of writing, Dr. Chambliss's future work will look at the longitudinal development of critical reading within a district-wide curriculum reform with a focus on improving how children read history texts. The second focus is to analyze the design of instructional materials in social studies and science and evaluate the effects on young readers of various design features. This work builds on curriculum theory, pedagogical theory, and comprehension research to identify text features that support both critical reading and learning of important domain content.
 

Selected Recent Publictions    

            Chambliss, M. J. (Submitted for review). The drudgery of reading and the joy of writing; Fourth graders reading and writing social studies arguments or science explanations.

            Chambliss, M. J. (Submitted for review). Processes fourth and fifth graders use to read social studies arguments critically.

            Chambliss, M. J. (in press). The characteristics of well-designed science textbooks. In J. Otero, J. Leon, & A. Graesser (Eds.), Psychology of science text comprehension. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

            Chambliss, M. J. & McKillop, A. M. (2000). Creating a print- and technology-rich classroom library to entice children to read. In L. Baker, M. J. Dreher, & J. T. Guthrie, Engaging your readers: Promoting achievement and motivation (pp. 94-118).

            Chambliss, M. J., & Calfee, R. C. (1998). Textbooks for learning: Nurturing children’s minds. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

            Chambliss, M. J. (1997).  Constructing and reconstructing text:  Expert readers, literate computers, and beginning writers. Issues in Education, 2, 207-216.  (Invited book review).

            Chambliss, M. J., & Garner, R.  (1996).  Do adults change their minds after reading persuasive text?   Written Communication, 13, 291-313.

            Chambliss, M. J. (1995).  Text cues and strategies successful readers use to construct the gist of lengthy written arguments.  Reading Research Quarterly, 30, 778-807.