Diane Lapp is distinguished professor of education in the Department of Teacher Education at San Diego State University, where she teaches both preservice and graduate courses in literacy education. She is also an instructional coach at Health Science Middle School and Health Sciences High and Middle College and chairs a literacy research panel for the International Literacy Association.

Lapp has taught in elementary, middle, and high schools. Her major areas of research and instruction relate to planning and assessing intentional instruction and learning. She has conducted many professional training sessions that address topics related to differentiated learning, purposeful instruction and assessment, the gradual release of instructional responsibility, close reading, classroom collaboration and conversation, balanced literacy, and writing across the curriculum.

She has received numerous educational awards throughout her career and is a member of both the California and the International Reading Halls of Fame. Lapp has authored, coauthored, and edited numerous articles, columns, texts, handbooks and children's materials on instruction, assessment, and literacy related issues.

Barbara Moss, PhD, is a professor of literacy education at San Diego State University, where she teaches both preservice and graduate courses in literacy education. During her long career in the public schools, she taught reading or English language arts at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. In addition, she worked as a reading specialist, a reading supervisor, and a high school literacy coach. She has worked as a university professor in both Ohio and California. Her research interests focus on children's literature in the classroom, especially informational texts, disciplinary literacy, and teacher implementation of instructional strategies. Moss has published widely in literacy journals including The Reading Teacher, The Journal of Literacy Research, and Reading and Writing Quarterly, and regularly presents at professional conferences. She has authored, co-authored, or edited numerous books on topics including independent reading, classroom strategies for teaching informational texts, new literacies, and children's nonfiction trade books.

Maria Grant is an author, associate professor in secondary education at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF), and a teacher and coach at Health Sciences High School and Middle College (HSHMC) in San Diego.

She has authored numerous publications centered on close reading, science literacy, formative assessment, and reading in the content areas, including articles in Educational Leadership and the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy.

Grant teaches courses in the credential and graduate programs at CSUF and conducts professional development with teachers at various schools across the country. She is currently director of the intern program and is the professional development coordinator between Anaheim Union High School District, Orange Unified School District, and Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, for a major grant.

Kelly Johnson is a doctor of philosophy and member of ASCD's FIT Teaching® (Framework for Intentional and Targeted Teaching®) Cadre and an award-winning educator. She is a faculty member in the School of Teacher Education at San Diego State University and an instructional coach in the San Diego Unified School District. Often referred to by her colleagues as a teacher's teacher, she has appeared in many instructional videos on teacher modeling, assessment and instruction, effective grouping, and writing instruction.

Johnson is a National Board–certified teacher in adolescence and young adulthood and English language arts. Her work currently focuses on assessment and small-group instruction in secondary classrooms. Prior to her current positions, Johnson was a classroom teacher and taught grades 1 through 6 and worked as a peer coach and a reading intervention teacher.

Johnson is the recipient of the California Reading Association's Constance McCullough Research Award for her study on assessment and diagnostic instruction, and also received the International Reading Association's Celebrate Literacy Award for her significant literacy contributions. She is author or coauthor of multiple publications and books.