Jeannette Symmonds is a devoted educator who excels in implementing research-based literacy instruction. She currently teaches first grade at a charter school in New Jersey. Jeannette holds a Master’s of Education in Curriculum and Learning from William Paterson University, where her thesis investigated how quality shared reading experiences can enhance phonological awareness in preschoolers. She is a believer that effective, structured literacy instruction are the necessary steps needed to take down the reading crisis and close the reading gap.