Contact:
E-mail: elster@sonoma.edu
Phone: 707-664-2350
Office: Stevenson Hall 3023
Office Hours, Fall 2011: Monday 11:00-12:30, Thursday 5:00-6:30 and by appointment
Dr. Charles A. Elster
Professor, Department of Literacy, Elementary, and Early Education
"You are not required to complete the work, but neither are you at liberty to abstain from it." -- Ethics of the Fathers
Courses Taught
- [EDMS 463] Teaching Reading and Language Arts to Younger Students
- [EDRL 524] Literature and Literacy
- [EDMS 482F/S] Student Teaching Supervision & Seminar
- [EDRL 523] Curriculum Development Language/Literature
- [EDEC 420] Child Development, Family, School & Community
Biography
I am a professor in the Sonoma State School of Education, where I teach courses in the Multiple Subjects, advanced Reading-Language, and undergraduate programs. I also supervise student teachers a McNear Elementary School in Petaluma. My interests include early childhood and elementary education, the teaching of literacy and the study of literature. I am especially interested in the importance of poetry in language arts education.
Education
- PhD, University of California, Berkeley
- MA, University of California, Berkeley, 1982
- BA, Yale University, 1976
Research Interests
- Teacher education in the language arts
- Language & literacy development in young children
- Literature, children's literature, genre theory, poetry
- Children's literature in the classroom
- Classroom interactions & linguistic diversity
- New literacies
Academic & Professional Experience
- Sonoma State University, 2005-present.
- Purdue University, 1989-2005.
- College of San Mateo, 1988-89.
- University of California at Berkeley, 1983-84, 1988-89.
- Hebrew Academy of San Francisco, 1980-1982.
Recent Scholarship and Publications
- Elster, C. (2010). “Snow on my eyelashes:” Language awareness through age-appropriate poetry experiences. Young Children, 65, 47-55.
- Elster, C. (2009). Seven types of hybrids to delight and challenge readers. The California Reader, 42, 19-26.
- Elster, C. (2003). Authority, performance and interpretation in religious reading: Critical issues of cross-cultural communication and multiple literacies. Journal of Literacy Research, 35, 663-692.
- Elster, C., & Hanauer, D. (2002). Voicing texts, voices around texts: Reading poems in elementary school classrooms. Research in the Teaching of English, 37, 89-134.
- Elster, C. (2000, September). Entering and opening the world of a poem. Language Arts, 78, 71-77.