About Cris Tovani

Cris Tovani taught first through twelfth grade for thirty-one years. Her entire career has been spent trying to figure out the “knowing-doing” gap. Researchers tell teachers what they should be doing, but actually doing it with 125+ students is a whole new ball game. Throughout her career, Cris has tried to take reading and writing research and apply it to all levels of learners. She loves sharing her success and failures with colleagues around the world so they, too, can better serve students.

Cris most recently worked with secondary English-language learners from a high-poverty district in Colorado that was in its fourth year of turnaround. Currently, Cris is facilitating literacy labs in several different states to promote collaboration among colleagues. In addition, she has the pleasure of working with administrators to build their background knowledge on best practices so they are able to give teachers useful feedback about instruction.

Cris is an internationally known consultant focusing on issues of reading, content comprehension, and assessment in secondary classrooms. She has been an adjunct professor and is the author of four books: I Read It, but I Don’t Get It, Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?, So, What Do They Really Know?, and No More Telling as Teaching: Less Lecture, More Engaged Learning.