Donald J. Leu
John and Maria Neag Endowed Chair in Literacy and Technology
Professor of Education
Director, New Literacies Research Lab

Donald J. Leu is the John and Maria Neag Endowed Chair in Literacy and Technology and holds a joint appointment in Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut. He directs the New Literacies Research Lab at the University of Connecticut and is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association and the Reading Hall of Fame. He is a past President of the National Reading Conference. A graduate of Michigan State, Harvard, and Berkeley, Don’s work focuses on the new skills and strategies required to read, write, and learn with Internet technologies and the best instructional practices that prepare students for these new literacies. He has more than 100 research publications and seventeen books on topics that range from phonics and phonemic awareness to teacher education and the new literacies of online reading comprehension. He has given keynote addresses in Europe, Australia, Asia, South America, and North America. He is currently a Principal Investigator on a number of federal research grants (CTELL, The New Literacies of Online Reading Comprehension, and NAEP Secondary Reanalysis). His work has been funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the North Central Educational Research Lab, the Carnegie Corporation, the Institute for Education Sciences, PBS and the Annenberg Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Australian Council of Educational Research, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). He recently published the Handbook of Research on New Literacies (Erlbaum, 2008) with Julie Coiro, Michele Knobel, and Colin Lankshear.

•Ph.D. Language and Literacy, University of California, Berkeley

•Ed.M. Reading and Human Development, Harvard University

•B.A. Political Science/History/Russian, Michigan State University

« Full C.V. »

Contact Information: 

Gentry - 019

Phone: (860) 486-0168
Fax: (860) 486-2994
Mobile : (860) 680-3752

Email: donald.leu@uconn.edu

Mailing Address:
New Literacies Research Lab
249 Glenbrook Rd.
Storrs, CT 06269-2033

Personal Web Page

Recipient of the Maryann Manning Medal for Exemplary Leadership in Reading Research and Practice from the University of Alabama, Birmingham

Recipient of the Friday Medal for Innovation and Leadership in Education from North Carolina State University

Elected to the Reading Hall of Fame of the International Reading Association, 2007

Elected to Fellow status in the National Conference of Research in Language and Literacy, 1993

Distinguished Finalist, Outstanding Dissertation of the Year Award, International Reading Association, 1981

Associations/Committees/Outreach:

Member, Board of Directors (2007-2010), International Reading Association

Former Vice President, President Elect, President, and Past President, National Reading Conference

In the News:

A Story of Achievement

Cover story in District Administration on the work of the New Literacies Research Team

E-School News: Study Aims To Improve Internet Literacy

Researchers find kids need better online academic skills

Recent Grant Award Announcement

The New Literacies Research Team

Areas of Expertise:

Literacy & Technology

Reading Education

Cognition and Instruction

Funded Research:

Leu, D. J. & Kulikowich, J., Sedransk, N., Coiro, J. (2008). Assessing Online Reading Comprehension: The ORCA Project. U. S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences.2009-2013. $2,813,127.00.

Leu, Donald J. & Reinking, David. Developing Internet Comprehension Strategies Among Adolescent Students At Risk to Become Dropouts. U. S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. 2005-8. $1,795,477.00.

Leu, Donald J., Jr., Douglas Hartman, and the New Literacies Research Team at the University of Connecticut. Evaluating the Development of Scientific Knowledge and New Forms of Reading Comprehension During Online Reading. North Central Educational Research Lab. 2005. $77,622

Leu, Donald J, Jr. (Co-PI with Charles Kinzer, Vanderbilt University; Linda Labbo, University of Georgia; William Teale, University of Illinois, Chicago Circle). Best Practices - Teacher Preparation- Technology: Connections that Enhance Children's Literacy Acquisition and Reading Achievement. National Science Foundation (Grant No. REC-0089221), 2000-2006. $5,500,000.

Hartman, D., Leu, D.J., Olson, M.R., Truxam, M.P. Reading and writing to learn with the “new literacies”: Preparing a new generation of teachers and researchers to develop literate American adolescents. Carnegie Corporation of New York. 2005. $100,000.

Selected Publications/Presentations:

Coiro, J., Knoble, M., Lankshear, C., Leu, D. J. (2008) Handbook of research on new literacies. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwaw, NJ.

Leu, D. J., Coiro, J., Castek, J., Hartman, D., Henry, L.A., & Reinking, D. (2008). Research on instruction and assessment in the new literacies of online reading comprehension. In Cathy Collins Block, Sherri Parris, & Peter Afflerbach (Eds.). Comprehension instruction: Research-based best practices. New York: Guilford Press.

Leu, D. J., Zawilinski, L., Castek, J., Banerjee, M., Housand, B., Liu, Y., and O’Neil. M (2007). What is new about the new literacies of online reading comprehension? In A. Berger, L. Rush, & J. Eakle (Eds.). Secondary school reading and writing: What research reveals for classroom practices. National Council of Teachers of English/National Conference of Research on Language and Literacy: Chicago, IL.

Leu, D.J., Jr., Castek, J., Henry, L. A., Coiro, J., & McMullan, M. (2004). The lessons that children teach us: Integrating children’s literature and the new literacies of the Internet. The Reading Teacher, 57, 496-503.

Leu, D.J., Jr., Kinzer, C.K., Coiro, J., Cammack, D. (2004). Toward a theory of new literacies emerging from the Internet and other information and communication technologies. In R.B. Ruddell & N. Unrau (Eds.), Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading, Fifth Edition (1568-1611). International Reading Association: Newark, DE.

Leu, D. J., Jr., Leu, D. D. & Coiro, J. (2004). Teaching with the Internet: New literacies for new times (4th ed.).Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon.

Schrader, P. G., Leu, D. J., Kinzer, C. K., Ataya, R., Teale, W. H., Labbo, L. D., & Cammack, D. (2003). Using Internet delivered video cases, to support pre-service teachers' understanding of effective early literacy instruction: An exploratory study. Instructional Science: An International Journal of Learning and Cognition. 31: 317–340,

Leu, D. J., Jr. & Kinzer, C. K. (2002). Effective literacy instruction (5th edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Leu, D. J., Jr. (2000). Literacy and technology: Deictic consequences for literacy education in an information age. In M. L. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, and R. Barr (Eds.) Handbook of Reading Research, Volume III (pp. 743-770). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum

Leu, D. J., Jr. & Kinzer, C. K. (2000). The convergence of literacy instruction and networked technologies for information and communication. Reading Research Quarterly, 35, 108-127.