Marilyn Schultz

Unfamiliar with the Delta’s rich history but anticipating teaching in the English Department at Delta State University, Dr. Marilyn Schultz, English Education Coordinator, arrived in 2003.  Since arriving and settling into a new office and home, Dr. Schultz has been reading about the Delta, traveling around the Delta, and teaching about the Delta.  Delta students, prospective elementary and secondary teachers, really become engaged with young adult literature when we read and discuss their home areas through Chris Crowe’s two books, Mississippi Trial, 1955 and Getting Away with Murder.  These stories help them understand the civil rights stories that they’ve heard through the years from their parents and grandparents.  These two books stimulate their interest in reading other books about their home area.   For them, Emmett Till’s story told from both  fictional and historical points of view demonstrate the power of reading about place to engage students in reading, writing, and speaking. 

Dr. Schultz’s professional experiences include teaching in the public schools and Lincoln University, a historically black college, and working as a social service worker in Missouri.  Her research has focused on how prospective teachers talk and write about diversity issues, preservice teachers’ insights into language acquisition and theory gained in telling and writing their literacy stories, and language assessment.