COE Faculty Profile

Nancy Robb Singer
Assistant Professor
Division of Teaching & Learning

Email: singerna@umsl.edu
Office: 443 Lucas Hall
Phone: 314-516-5517

Education
Nancy Robb Singer holds B.S. Ed. and M.Ed. degrees from the University of Missouri���Columbia and a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Dr. Singer draws upon 14 years experience teaching high school and middle school English and journalism.

Research and Teaching
Dr. Singer co-directs the English Education program at UM-St. Louis. Her primary teaching responsibilities include undergraduate English education methods courses, student teacher supervision, and student teaching seminar.��In addition, she teaches graduate courses in composition.
Her research interests include teacher preparation and induction, composition theory and research, educational technology in teacher education and in composition, and writing assessment.
Dr. Singer also serves as co-director for the Gateway Writing Project.��In this capacity she conducts in-service presentations and research with classroom teachers.
Grants and Projects
Dr. Singer is a participating faculty member in the NSF-funded SciJourn (Science Literacy through Science Journalism) grant that will run through 2012. With this grant, Dr. Singer is investigating the sustainability of the teacher professional development and the impact the model has on student writing in science.

Dr. Singer has also been actively involved in research that addresses teacher preparation and retention. These projects have included online support of novice teachers, investigation of how teachers create and perceive their professional identities and philosophies, and mentoring of teachers preparing for jobs hard-to-staff schools.

Recent Paper Presentations

• ���Testing and validating frames for online organizations.��� Co-presenters: Lisa Scherff, Josie Prado. International Society of the Learning Sciences, Rhodes, Greece; June 2009.
• ���Lessons Learned from the National Writing Project Scoring Conferences.��� National Council of Teachers of English, San Antonio, TX; Nov. 2008.
• ���Developing as a Higher Education Faculty Member and Site Leader.��� National Writing Project Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX; Nov. 2008.
• ���Building Leadership for Literacy: The Legacy of the National Writing Project.��� National Council of Teachers of English, New York: Nov. 2007.
• ���Following the Writing Project into the Classroom: Tools and Processes for Documenting Changes in Practice.��� National Writing Project Annual Meeting, Nashville, TN; Nov. 2006
• ���Investigating the Assessment of Writing: Methods of Scoring, Attributes of Scores.��� National Council of Teachers of English, Nashville, TN; Nov. 2006
  ���A sustainable model of teacher development: Use of computer-mediated communication for preservice teachers.��� American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA; April 2006.

Recent Publications

• Singer, N. R., Catapano, S. & Huisman, S. (In Press). ���The University���s Role in Preparing Teachers for Urban Schools.��� Teaching Education.
• Singer, N.R. & Scollay, D. (In press). (In Press). ���Building leadership for a sustained district writing improvement program.��� University of California, Berkeley: National Writing Project, Berkeley, CA.
• Scherff, L. & Singer, N.R. (2008). ���Framing and re-framing through computer-mediated communication (CMC): Providing pre-service teachers with alternate support structures.��� Learning Inquiry, 2, 151-167.
• Singer, N. R. and Scollay, D. (2008). ���Building a district-based writing program through the National Writing Project Model.��� University of California, Berkeley: National Writing Project. Available:
• Singer, N. R. (2007) ���Taking time for inquiry: Revising collaborative teacher inquiry to improve student achievement.��� English Leadership Quarterly, 29, 7-10.
  Singer, N.R. and Scollay, D. (2006). ���Increasing student achievement in writing through teacher inquiry: An evaluation of professional development impact.��� University of California, Berkeley: National Writing Project.
• Singer, N. R. & Zeni, J. (2004). ���Building Bridges: Creating an Online Conversation Community for Student Teachers.��� English Education. 37, 30-49.

• Action Research
• Assessment
• Computers and Learning
• Instructional Design/Development
• Literacy
• Media
• Professional Development
• Qualitative Research
• Retention
• Student Teaching
• Supervision
• Teacher Education/Development
• Urban Education
• Writing