My research interests revolve around an interdisciplinary exploration of reading as social and relational activity and the formative consequences of reading for children’s development. Specific areas of focus include: reading and social imagination, emergent reading comprehension, microanalysis of wordless book reading and picture book retellings, Theory of Mind and reading, and teaching reading for social understanding.

Selected Publications

Journal Articles

• Lysaker, J.T., Shaw, K., & Arvelo-Alicia, Z. (2016). Emergent reading comprehension: Social imagination and kindergarteners’ readings of a wordless picture book. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 39(3) 245-259.
• Lysaker, J.T. & Arvelo Alicea, Z. (2017) Theorizing fiction reading engagement during wordless book reading. Linguistics and Education, 37(42-52).
• Arvelo Alicea, Z. R., & Lysaker, J. T. (2017). Landscapes of consciousness: Reading Theory of Mind in Dear Juno and Chato and the Party Animals. Children’s Literature in Education, 48(3), 262-275.
• Lysaker, J.T. & Nie, A. Y. (2017). Social and relational aspects of comprehending in one fourth grader’s unaided and illustration-aided picturebook retellings. Journal of Literacy Research, 49(1), 38-68.
• Fecho, B. & Lysaker, J. T., (in press). Dialogic transactions between schools and communities. Psychology and Society. Invited paper.
• Lysaker, J. T., & Hopper, E. (2015). A kindergartener’s emergent strategy use during wordless picture book reading. The Reading Teacher, 68(8), 649‑657. doi:10.1002/trtr.1352
• Lysaker, J. T., & Sedberry, T. (2015). Reading difference: Picturebook retellings as contexts for exploring personal meanings of race and culture. Literacy, 49(2), 105-111.
• Lysaker, J. T. (2014). Reading as a language event of the self: In conversation with Bertau, Lipari, and Karsten. Theory & Psychology, 24(4), 576‑591.
• Lysaker, J. T., & Thompson, B. (2013). Teacher research as a practical tool for learning to teach. Language Arts, 90(3), 181‑191.
• Lysaker, J. T., & Tonge, C. (2013). Learning to understand others through relationally oriented reading. The Reading Teacher, 66(8), 632‑641.
• Lysaker, J. T., & Furuness, S. (2012). Spaces for transformation. Journal of Transformative Education, 9(3), 183‑197
• Lysaker, J. T., & Miller, A. (2012). Engaging social imagination: The developmental work of wordless book reading. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/1468798411430425
• Lysaker, J. T., Tonge, C., Gauson, D., & Miller, A. (2011). Reading and social imagination: What relationally oriented instruction can do for children. Reading Psychology, 32(6), 520‑566.
• Lysaker, J.T., Wheat, J. & Benson, E. (2010). Children’s spontaneous play in writer’s workshop. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 10, 2, 209-229.

Book (in press)

• Lysaker, J. T. (in press). Before Words: Wordless picture books and the development of reading in young children. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
• Lysaker, J. T. (Ed.). (2013). Teacher inquiry in literacy workshops: Forging relationships through Reggio‑inspired practice. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

• EDCI 32500 — Literacy in the Primary Grades
• EDCI 50000 — Foundations of Literacy
• EDCI 61200 — Literacy Research Methodologies