Smith, Hiawatha

Hiawatha Smith

Teacher Education
Office: 244 Wyman Teacher Education Bldg
Phone: 715-425-4648

Email: hiawatha.smith@uwrf.edu

Education:

Ph.D. University of North Carolina Greensboro --Educational Studies-Literacy Education

BS/MA.Ed North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University-Elementary Education

Courses Taught:

• TED 100 Introduction to Teaching
• TED 255 Children’s and Adolescent Literature for Teachers
• TED 309 Emergent Literacy
• TED 310 Elementary Language Arts
• TED 314 Differentiating Literacy Assessment
• TED 711 Literacy Methods
• READ 730 Reading Difficulties
• READ 750 Children’s Literature

Publications:

Select Publications:

Flowers, T., & Smith, H. (2024). Beyond the Basics: Children’s Literature for the Elementary Teacher (1^st edition). Cognella.

Smith, H., Vesperman, D., & Frederick, A. (2024). Preparing Teachers for Linguistically Diverse Classrooms. In Andrews, O. & Tomlin A, When We Hear Them: Tools to Attune Teachers’ Ears to Voices of Language-Diverse Learners.

Smith, H. & Rabenn, M. (2024). Integrating social studies through the read-aloud. MCTE journal, 59.

Smith, H. (2024). The call is coming from inside the house. Will you answer? English Leadership Quarterly, 46(3), 26-28.

Costner, S., Choi, G., Espinosa, C., Leija, M., Powless, J, Rehbein, T., & Smith, H. (2024) 2023 Charlotte Huck Award for outstanding fiction for children. Language Arts.

Smith, H., & Frederick, A. (2023). Preparing Pre-service teachers to teach developmental word study in diverse classrooms. In Ittner, Frederick, Kiernan & Bear (Eds.), Implementing word study: Strategies for professional learning. Guilford Press.

Smith, H. D., & Miller, S. D. (2019). Digging Deeper: Understanding the Reading and Motivational Profiles of Students Who Do Not Demonstrate Proficiency on State-Mandated Reading Assessments. Reading Psychology, 39(8), 855-878.

 

Select Presentations:

Smith, H. & Wise, C. (2025). Literature: A tool for Difficult Topics. Presentation at Minnesota Council for Teachers of English Annual Conference, Alexandria, MN

Tily, S., Smith, H., …Rabenn, M. (2025). What does this look like in my teaching? Connecting practitioners and professors to support evidence-based literacy instruction. Presentation at Wisconsin State Reading Association Annual Conference, Milwaukee, WI.

Smith, H. & Schick, A. (2024). Beyond color: Exploring, evaluating, and engaging with diverse books. Presentation at Minnesota Council for Teachers of English Annual Conference, Duluth, MN

Massey, D., Miller, S., Kennedy, E., & Smith, H. (2024). Covid: Has it resulted in a “Lost Generation” of students, teachers, and parents? Presentation at the Literacy Research Association annual meeting in Atlanta, GA.

Sargent, S., Smith, H., & Buechner, J. (2024) Writing strategies in the reading clinic – What works and what doesn’t. Presentation at the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida.

Rabenn, M. & Smith, H. (2024). Navigating book censorship: cultivating nuanced perspectives in children's literature courses for preservice teachers. Presentation at the Children’s Literature Association Annual Conference in Madison, WI.    

Tate, K., Smith, H., & Flowers, T. (2023). Multimodal Reading and Diverse Literature: Critical Perspectives on Practice. Presentation at the National Council for Teachers of English Annual Convention in Columbus, OH.

Hart, B., Hart, J., & Smith, H. (2022). Integrating Social Studies in K-5 classrooms: Using Read Alouds and Notable Social Studies Tradebooks. Presentation at NC Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference, Greensboro, NC

Smith, H. & White, S. (2021). Literature Re-envisioned: Strategies for using non-diverse, problematic, or controversial texts in literacy instruction. Paper presentation at the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers annual conference in Hilton Head, SC.

Smith, H. & Sargent, S. (2021) Beyond windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors: Strategies to address weaknesses in diverse perspectives of texts. Presentation at Hamline University’s Summer Literacy Institute, St, Paul, MN.

Smith, H. & Miller, S. (2019). Diggin Deeper: Understanding the Reading and Motivation Profiles of Marginalized Non-Proficient Readers. Poster presentation at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in Toronto, CA.

Smith, H. (2015). Diggin’ Deeper: I assess what? Presentation at the Beginning Teacher Boot-Camp: Engaging, Equipping, and Empowering North Carolina’s Newest Teachers for 21st Century Classrooms Summer 2015, Greensboro, NC.

Smith, H. & Hampton, V. (2013). The role of literacy in promoting mathematical proficiency in the 3-5 CCSS classroom. Presentation at North Carolina Teachers of Mathematics Conference, Greensboro, NC.

Williams, E.R., Johnson, M., Smith, H., & Gadsden, K. (2010). Politics and pedagogy: Beginning black teachers in the 21st century. Presentation at the National Association of Multicultural Education, Las Vegas, NV.

 

Professional Memberships/Associations

• University of Michigan National Center for Institutional Diversity
• National Council of Teachers of English
• Children’s Literature Association
• International Literacy Association
• Literacy Research Association
• Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers
• Wisconsin State Reading Association

 

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Hiawatha is the director of the graduate elementary education and reading programs and supervises preservice teachers. Prior to his work on the collegiate level, he worked as an elementary school teacher, tutor, curriculum facilitator, and literacy coach.

His research crosses multiple areas of literacy and teacher education, including preservice teachers in practicum experiences, developmental word study, reading motivation, non-proficient readers, and diverse perspectives in children’s and adolescent literature. Hiawatha is currently working on two collaborative book projects and a research study identifying best practices in reading clinics.