Main profile

Rebecca

Silverman

Associate Professor

Interests: 

Education, Literacy

Intervention For Children At Risk For Language And Literacy Difficulties, Response To Intervention, Language And Literacy Disabilities

Projects: 

LLRC

Units: 

Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education

Degree(s): 

Ed.D., 2005, Human Development and Psychology (Language and Literacy), Harvard Graduate School of Education

Contact: 

rdsilver@umd.edu

301-405-6465

1311 Benjamin Building College Park, MD

Role(s): 

Faculty, Management

Website: 

CoE Website

About: 

As an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, I teach classes and conduct research on the language and literacy of children in the early childhood and elementary school years.  My research focuses on the vocabulary and comprehension of children from diverse backgrounds and with various strengths and needs.  Thus, most of my research includes children from low-socioeconomic or English learning backgrounds and children with language and literacy related learning difficulties.  To determine how to best support a wide range of children, I have investigated how language skills predict reading and writing outcomes in elementary school, how instruction affects children’s vocabulary and comprehension development, and how peer learning supports children from various backgrounds. 

I believe that to make a difference in the education of children, researchers need to work together, in partnership with schools, to identify the most promising ways to support children in language and literacy.  Thus, to foster collaboration among the many researchers at the University of Maryland focused on language and literacy, I recently began the Maryland Language and Literacy Research Center (LLRC), which brings together faculty and students to focus on language and literacy issues in education from different perspectives.  The LLRC is part of the larger Language Science Center (LSC) campus initiative, which focuses on advancing language science at the University of Maryland and beyond, through integrated research and training that links fundamental science with applications in education, technology, and health. Through the LLRC and the LSC, I expect that faculty and students at the University of Maryland will have a major impact on improving language and literacy education.

Collaborators: 

Jeffrey Harring (HDQM)
Melinda Martin-Beltran (TLPL)
Megan Peercy (TLPL)