Peter Johnston

Peter H. Johnston is professor emeritus of literacy teaching and learning in the Department of Literacy Teaching and Learning at the University at Albany, State University of New York. A former elementary teacher in New Zealand, he later completed his Ph.D. at the Center for the Study of Reading at the University of Illinois, and has since become a widely recognized literacy researcher whose work focuses on classroom talk, engagement, and children’s social, emotional, and literate development.

Johnston is the coauthor of Engaging Literate Minds: Developing Children’s Social, Emotional, and Intellectual Lives, K–3, written with six classroom teachers and honored with an Ed Fry Book Award honorable mention from the Literacy Research Association. He is also coauthor, with Gay Ivey, of Teens Choosing to Read: Fostering Social, Emotional, and Intellectual Growth Through Books, a research-based study of adolescent readers and the impact of giving teens the freedom to choose their own reading. In addition, he is known for influential professional books such as Choice Words, Opening Minds, and Critical Literacy/Critical Teaching, and has authored multiple other books and numerous research articles on literacy learning and assessment.