Dr. Sylvia Diehl is a nationally known expert in teaching children with autism. She has a master’s degree in speech language pathology; an educational specialist degree in language, learning, and reading; and a Ph.D. in education curriculum and design, with a focus on autism (all from the University of South Florida).
Dr. Sylvia Vardell is a professor of children’s literature in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University and the 2014 recipient of the Scholastic Library Publishing Award. In this interview, she talks about her recent collaboration with Janet Wong to compile the Poetry Friday Anthology series for elementary school, middle school, and science topics; ideas for using poetry across the curriculum; and reasons that teachers may be reluctant to teach poetry.
