Kelly Puzio

Research Interests

Dr. Kelly Puzio is the faculty coordinator of the Master in Teaching (MIT) program. Formerly, he was a teacher in New Zealand and in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Collectively, he has more than 20 years of experience as a teacher, researcher, and teacher educator.

Dr. Puzio’s research is rooted in three areas: literacy, learning technologies (especially personalized learning), and culturally sustaining pedagogy. With the goal of enhancing the education system for all 21st-century learners, his research is particularly geared towards fostering equity for ethnoracially and linguistically diverse students.

He also serves as Principal Investigator for SquidBooks. With funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, SquidBooks is a personalized learning platform designed to support science literacy, student agency, and educational equity. In 2022, SquidBooks was awarded the Most Promising New Textbook Award by the Textbook and Academic Authors Association.

In addition, Dr. Puzio has helped develop and refine an instructional strategy for bilingual and emerging bilingual students called collaborative translation. In middle school settings, he has investigated how collaborative translation can be enacted by monolingual and bilingual educators. As a novel way to differentiate instruction, his research shows that collaborative translation supports students’ engagement and understanding of concepts in language arts and social studies.

He was awarded a predoctoral fellowship by the Institute for Education Sciences (2008-2012) and a Young Scholar award (2013-2017) by the International Reading Association. He also serves on review panels for the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

Selected Publications

Puzio, K., & Pratt, K. (in press). Differentiation in a digital age: Supporting equity and agency in science literacy. In D. Walker-Dalhouse & V. J. Risko (Eds.), Achieving Equity for Students in Poverty: Literacy Instruction that Makes a Difference. Teachers College Press.

Puzio, K., Colby, G. T., & Algeo-Nichols, D. (2020). Differentiated literacy instruction: Boondoggle or best practice?. Review of Educational Research, 90(4), 459-498. doi:10.3102/0034654320933536

Puzio, K., Newcomer, S., Pratt, K., McNeely, K., Hooker, S., & Jacobs, M. (2017). Creative failures in culturally sustaining pedagogy. Language Arts, 94(4), 223-233. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44809914

Leo, J., & Puzio, K. (2016). Flipped instruction in a high school science classroom. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 25(5), 775-781. doi:10.1007/s10956-016-9634-4

Puzio, K., Keyes, C. S., Jiménez, R. T. (2016). It sounds more like a gangbanger: Using collaborative translation to understand literary concepts. Language Arts, 93(6), 444-456. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44809868

Puzio, K., Newcomer, S., & Goff, P. (2015).  Supporting literacy differentiation: The principal’s role in a community of practice.  Literacy Research & Instruction. doi:10.1080/19388071.2014.997944

Puzio, K., Keyes, C. S., Cole, M. W., & Jiménez, R. T. (2013). Language differentiation: Collaborative translation to support bilingual reading. Bilingual Research Journal, 36(3), 329-349. doi:10.1080/15235882.2013.845118.

Puzio, K. & Colby, G. T. (2013). Cooperative learning and literacy: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 6(4), 339-360. doi:10.1080/19345747.2013.775683.

Educational Background

• Ph.D. Language, Literacy, & Culture, Vanderbilt University, 2012
• PGCE Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 2003
• M.Ed. English Education, DePaul University, 2002
• B.A. Program of Liberal Studies, University of Notre Dame, 1997