The Essentials of Adolescent Literacy

Joan Sedita, M.Ed., Founder and CEO of Keys to Literacy, has been in the literacy education field for more than 40 years. She received her B.A. from Boston College and her M.Ed. in reading from Harvard University. She began her career at the Landmark School in Massachusetts for students with reading and learning disabilities, where she worked from 1975 to 1998 as a teacher and administrator. Joan was Founder and Director of the Landmark College Preparation Program and the Landmark Outreach Training Program. While at the Landmark School, she also was a member of a team that conducted psychoeducational evaluations at Boston Children’s Hospital.

From 1998 to 2007, as Founder of Sedita Learning Strategies, Joan trained educators and consulted with schools and literacy organizations throughout the country. During this time, she was Lead Developer and Trainer for the Massachusetts Reading First initiative and Consultant to the state’s Secondary Reading initiative. Joan also authored several guides for using the Kurzweil text-to-speech software to support reading and study skills, and she was a national author and trainer for LETRS: Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling. She was a member of the Educational Testing Service Praxis National Reading Advisory Committee and a board member of Learning Disabilities Worldwide.

Joan is currently CEO of Keys to Literacy (KTL), a literacy professional learning company she founded in 2007 that develops, publishes, and delivers reading and writing professional development to educators across the country. KTL’s professional development and on-line course have been delivered to thousands of teachers across the country, hundreds of districts and every state and include topics such as Keys to Beginning Reading, Keys to Early Writing, Keys to Content Writing, Keys Vocabulary Routine, and Keys to Adolescent Literacy, amongst others. Joan has also authored numerous books, book chapters, and articles related to literacy instruction, as well as several customized professional development programs that include online courses, training manuals, and professional development delivery materials.