Thier, Marlene

PERSONAL: Female. Education: Queens College of the City University of New York, B.A. (education-English), 1955; attended St. Mary's College, 1974–75; San Francisco State University, M.A. (special education), 1985.

ADDRESSES: Home—142 Hodges Dr., Moraga, CA 94556. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Elementary schoolteacher at public schools in East Meadow, NY, 1955–57; learning specialist for public schools of Moraga, CA, 1969–84, reading specialist, 1986–87, classroom teacher, 1987–93, science mentor teacher, 1988–89; University of California at Berkeley, staff associate at Lawrence Hall of Science, 1993–96, teacher education coordinator and program developer, 1996–2002; writer, 2002–. Simon Fraser University, visiting lecturer, 1972; California State University—Hayward, extension instructor, 1974, lecturer and student teacher supervisor, 1993–2000. Pittsburg-Antioch Teacher Credentialing Headstart Program, director, 1994–95; workshop presenter and lecturer; consultant on language and science.

MEMBER: National Science Teachers Association.

WRITINGS:

(With B. Daviss) The New Science Literacy: Using Language Skills to Help Students Learn Science, Heinemann (Portsmouth, NH), 2002.

Author of instructional materials, including contributions to "Special Education Science Series," Delta Education (Nashua, NH), 1984. Contributor to periodicals, including Science and Children, California Reader, California Science Teachers Association Journal, and Super Science Red.

SIDELIGHTS: Marlene Thier told CA: "I have been a science materials developer, teacher educator, and leader in the movement to link science and literacy education. I have made presentations on the subject at conferences from California to South Africa and Brazil and have worked closely with many schools to implement programs based on my concepts. I have been involved in developing literacy connections in more than a dozen inquiry-based science courses and modules.

"As the coordinator of the Elementary Science Teacher Leadership program, I have developed workshops and printed materials to help pre-service and in-service educators teach science more effectively, and I developed and coordinated the Issue-oriented Elementary Science Leadership program. I have worked as a coauthor with the educators who wrote the program's guidebooks on subjects such as curriculum integration and combining mathematics and science. At California State University in Hayward I specialized in preparing teachers of reading and science.

"My book The New Science Literacy: Using Language Skills to Help Students Learn Science is the result of my journey as an educator through two worlds—the world of language and the world of science. Standing between these two worlds, it has become my quest to show others where the two naturally coincide and how they enhance and extend each other.

"The New Science Literacy is my favorite book because it has the potential to help science teachers understand the importance of making literacy a vital part of science teaching and learning. It also beckons all teachers to multi-task so that literacy is taught as an integral part of all instruction.

"As a result of this book and its accompanying online course, Literacy in the Science Classroom: Improving Science and Language (http://www.heinemann.com/courses/SPSC.asp), I believe teachers will be able to create a new vision of teaching and learning in science as they use the tools of The New Science Literacy. They will understand the words of Marcel Proust, who wrote: 'A true journey of discovery lies not in seeking new shores, but in finding new eyes.'"