Mary Schmida

Overview

Mary Schmida is a national expert in the teaching and learning of multilingual learners at the secondary level. As a Senior Research Associate II with the English Learners and Migrant Education team, Schmida creates and facilitates professional learning opportunities for teachers and administrators across the country. In addition, she has written extensive English Language Arts curricula designed to support multilingual learners at all levels, from newcomers to students classified as Long-Term English Learners. In addition, Schmida coaches teachers in the creation and implementation of dynamic, engaging, and novel literacy-focused lesson plans that incorporate student collaboration and quality interactions.

Schmida has written a wide range of curricula for secondary multilingual learners, including curricula for newcomer students, ELD students, and students classified as Long-Term English Learners. In addition, she coauthored two nationally distributed curricular units: A five-lesson 10th grade unit for the Understanding Language Initiative at Stanford University, designed to support multilingual learners in the reading and writing of persuasive texts, and a 12-week ELA 8th grade curriculum as part of WestEd’s Research and Development Center funded through an IES grant, designed to meet the specific and unique needs of students classified as Long-Term English Learners.

Before joining WestEd, Schmida was an instructor at the University of California, Berkeley, teaching in the College Writing Program. She has also taught at the middle and high school levels, both nationally and internationally.

Education

• PhD in education in language, literacy, and culture, University of California, Berkeley
• MA in education in language, literacy, and culture, University of California, Berkeley
• BA in linguistics, University of California, Berkeley

Select Publications

Schmida, M. (in press). Beyond vocabulary, similes, and metaphors: Making poetry an accessible and engaging genre for multilingual learners. Walqui, A. & Bunch, G. In Amplifying the curriculum: Designing quality learning opportunities for English Learners, Vol. 2. Teachers College Press.

Walqui, A., & Schmida, M. (2020). Reconceptualizing scaffolding for English learners: An ecological/sociocultural perspective. De Oliveira, L. & Westerlund, R. In Scaffolding for multilingual learners in elementary and secondary schools (pp. 29–47). Routledge.

Schmida, M. (2019). Shakespeare’s Macbeth: Making powerful texts accessible and engaging to English Learners. In A. Walqui & G. Bunch (Eds.), Amplifying the curriculum: Designing quality learning opportunities for English Learners (pp. 71–92). Teachers College Press.

Schmida, M., & Chu, H. (2016). Supporting secondary newcomers academically, socially, and emotionally [Preliminary report]. WestEd.

Walqui, A., Koelsch, N., & Schmida, M. (2012). Persuasion across time and space: Analyzing and producing persuasive texts. Understanding Language Initiative.

Chiang, S., & Schmida, M. (1999). Language identity and language ownership: Linguistic conflicts of first year university writing students. In L. Harklau, K. Losey, & M. Siegal (Eds.), Generation 1.5 meets college composition: Issues in the teaching of writing to U.S.-educated learners of ELS (pp. 81–96). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.