Elizabeth Morphis

Elizabeth Morphis
Position/Role
Coordinator, Literacy Education Graduate Program
Associate Professor
Building
New Academic Building
Room
0019
E-mail

Dr. Elizabeth Morphis is an Assistant Professor of Childhood Education and Literacy and the Coordinator of the Graduate Education Literacy Program. Since beginning at Old Westbury, she has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in literacy education, primarily for the elementary level. She has published articles and book chapters on preservice and inservice teacher education. Her work has centered on how new teachers learn to connect the literacy curriculum to children’s backgrounds and interests. Prior to joining the faculty at SUNY Old Westbury, Dr. Morphis taught at the elementary school level, taught the child actors on the 30th anniversary Broadway tour of Annie, and was a Content Specialist at Sesame Workshop.

Courses Taught

ED 3950: Creating Schools for a Just Society
ED 4200: Literacy for All Students
ED 4220: Language Arts for Childhood Education
ED 5940: Student Teaching Seminar
ED 7300: Foundations of Literacy and Language Acquisition (Graduate)
ED 7301: Literacy for Diverse Learners (Graduate)
ED 7303: Literacy Leadership: Research and Technology (Graduate)
ED 7304: Literacy Coaching: Improving Teaching & Instruction (Graduate)
ED 7320: Children’s Literature for Diverse Populations (Graduate)
ED 7321: Childhood Literacy Practices and Content Area Strategies (Graduate)
ED 7322: Writing in Childhood Education (Graduate)
ED 7323: Childhood Practicum in Literacy (Graduate)

Degrees

Ed.D., Curriculum and Teaching with a Specialization in Literacy, Teachers College, Columbia University

Certifications & Licenses

New York State Certifications - Early Childhood (B-2), Childhood (1-6), Secondary French Education (7-12)

Research Interests

Preservice and Inservice Teacher Education; Writing Instruction in the Elementary Classroom; Connecting Children's Out-of-School Resources to the Literacy Curriculum

Publications

Articles:

  • Morphis, E. A. (2023). Supporting New Teachers with Literacy Instruction: Small Changes to Literacy Graduate Programs That Can Have a Big Impact. Kansas English Journal, 34(1), 55-63.
  • Morphis, E. A. (2021). Supporting bilingual writers: Bridging the separation of French and English in a dual language classroom. Oklahoma English Journal, 34(1), 35-40.
  • Lynch, A. W. & Morphis, E. A. (2021). They “come to school with their backpacks heavy”: Bilingual teacher candidates learning to use transnational Latinx children’s literature. Journal of Children’s Literature, 47(2), 82-91.
  • Morphis, E. A. (2021). Learning to adapt: Redesigning ELA instruction while student teaching during COVID-19. New Jersey English Journal 10(13).
  • Morphis, E. A. (2020). Creative strategies: Designing lessons for the elementary literacy classroom. Montana English Journal, 42.
  • Morphis, E. A., & Lynch, A. W. (2020). ‘I Saw He Could Do It’: One Preservice Teacher’s Evolving Ideas About Literacy Teaching Practices from Writing Conferences. Fringes: The North Carolina English Teacher’s Association Journal, 2(1), 8-16.
  • Morphis, E. A. (2020). The journey to teacher: Facilitating communication skills in preservice teachers to build trust, learn about students, and create literacy lessons. English Leadership Quarterly, 42(3), 7-11.
  • Morphis, E. A. (2018). The power of one-to-one coaching: Preparing pre-service teachers for the early childhood literacy classroom. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 19(1), 85-87.


Book Chapters:

  • Lynch, A. W., & Morphis, E. A. (2022). Teaching and learning multiliteracies: Case study of bilingual teacher candidates in a clinically-rich methods course. In C. R. Aquino-Sterling, M. Gort, & B. B. Flores (Eds.), Innovative curricular and pedagogical designs in bilingual teacher education: Bridging the distance with P-12 contexts. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
  • Morphis, E. A., & Yuan, T. (2021). Making literacy culturally relevant: An imperative for early childhood teacher education. In K. Sprott, J. R. O’Connor Jr., & C. Msengi (Eds.), Designing culturally competent programming for Pk-12 classrooms. Hershey PA: IGI Global.
  • Nichols, B., Dernikos, B. P., & Morphis, E. A. (2017). Green stories of the future: Leveraging standards-based narrative techniques to guide student storytelling for sustainability (pp. 271-279). In P. B. Corcoran, A. Wals, & J. Weakland (Eds.), Envisioning futures for environmental and sustainability education. Netherlands: Wageningen Academic Publishers.
Presentations
  • Morphis, E. A. (2023, March). Working with Parents to Support Elementary Readers and Writers at Home. Presentation at the Long Island Language Arts Council Conference (LILAC), Melville, New York.
  • Lynch, A. W., & Morphis, E. A. (2022, February). Real Texts Make for Real Learning: Bilingual Teacher Candidates Learning to Use Latinx Children’s Literature for Biliteracy Instruction. Research Presentation at the National Association for Bilingual Education, New York, New York.
  • Morphis, E. A. (2021, October). “I Don’t Have Anything to Write About”: Connecting to Emergent Writers’ Background Knowledge, Interests, and Funds of Knowledge in the Elementary Classroom. Presentation at the Writing Matters Conference (Virtual Conference due to COVID-19).
  • Lynch, A. W., & Morphis, E. A. (2020, December). Bilingual Teacher Candidates’ Shifting Professional Identities and Practices in a Field-based Teaching Methods Course. Symposium Presentation at Literacy Research Association Annual Conference (Virtual Conference due to COVID-19).
  • Morphis, E. A. (2020, December). Towards Agentive and Bilingual Writing Spaces: Bridging the Separation of French and English in a Dual Language Classroom. Paper Presentation at the Literacy Research Association Annual Conference (Virtual Conference due to COVID-19).
  • Lynch, A. W., & Morphis, E. A. (2020, February). Changing bilingual teacher candidates’ understandings of effective biliteracy teaching practices through a clinically-rich biliteracy methods course. Presentation at the National Association for Bilingual Education, Las Vegas, Nevada.
  • Tondreau, A., Morphis, E. A., & Johnston, K. C. (2019, December). Reconceptualizing the writing process: Embracing ‘othered’ dimensions of writing. Alternative Format Session presented at the Literacy Research Association Annual Conference, Tampa, Florida.
  • Morphis, E. A., & Lynch, A. W. (2019, December). ‘It will be a complete fail’: One pre-service teacher’s evolving ideas about literacy teaching practices. Roundtable presentation at the Literacy Research Association Annual Conference, Tampa, Florida.
  • Watson, V., Marciano, J. E., Dernikos, B. P., Morphis, E. A., Ferguson, D. (2018, November). Literacy Research in Uncertain Times: Becoming “Undisciplined”. Symposium presented at the Literacy Research Association Annual Conference, Indian Wells, California.
  • Morphis, E. A., & Lynch, A. W. (2018, April). Learning to teach literacy: Figured worlds of teacher candidates in clinically-rich methods courses. Presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, New York, New York.
  • Sieben, N., & Morphis, E. A. (2017, November). Teaching and reaching all our students: Writing experience workshops for strong and struggling writers. Presented at the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention, St. Louis, Missouri.
  • Yuan, T., Souto-Manning, M., & Morphis, E. A. (2017, May). Voices from the periphery: (Inter)cultural literacy capitals and identities of Chinese International preservice teachers in Early Childhood Education. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas.