Susan Van Zile

Susan Van Zile is an educator and author with more than 30 years of classroom teaching experience and a master’s degree in Teaching and Curriculum. She has taught language arts, served as a Teacher Emeritus in her former school district, and supervises student teachers at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Van Zile earned her undergraduate degree in English education from the University of Virginia and her graduate degree in Teaching and Curriculum from Pennsylvania State University. She has presented at professional conferences, including those of the Pennsylvania Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development and the National Council of Teachers of English. In 1998, she was recognized as Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year for the Cumberland Valley School District.

As an author of professional resources for teachers, Van Zile has written or coauthored several books focused on writing instruction and literacy, including Writing: A Project-Based Approach: Using Project-Based Learning to Develop Real-World Writing Skills (with Julie Hussey and Alyssa Eyster), Mastering the 5-Paragraph Essay, Teaching Literary Elements With Picture Books, Awesome Hands-On Activities for Teaching Literary Elements, and a Literature Circle Guide for The Cay. Her work emphasizes project-based learning, authentic writing tasks, and practical classroom strategies for teaching literary elements and composition.[