Who Are We?

TRULY Lab at Utah State University is a collective of teachers and researchers who examine the myriad ways that young people engage with literacies in and out of the classroom. We are interested in cultivating meaningful relationships between the university and local schools in our efforts to amplify the lived experiences of young people in our communities.

The Humans

Kortney Sherbine Director Assistant Professor in the School of Teacher Education & Leadership Kortney is an Assistant Professor in the School of Teacher Education and Leadership at USU. She’s interested in the intersections of children’s play, writing, and popular culture and draws on feminist new materialisms in her considerations of relationality in the classroom. She also spends a lot of time hiking, gardening, and watching documentaries on the BBC.

Kara DeCoursey Research Assistant PhD Student in the School of Teacher Education & Leadership Kara is a doctoral student in the School of Teacher Education and Leadership at Utah State University. She works as a teaching assistant in a reading assessment and intervention course for undergraduate students. She is interested in teacher education and students' experiences with reading and writing in elementary classrooms. She loves mountain biking, traveling, and reading fantasy book series.

Shannon Rhodes Elementary Grades Teacher   MEd Student in the School of Teacher Education & Leadership

Shannon Rhodes Elementary Grades Teacher   MEd Student in the School of Teacher Education & Leadership

Collaborations

A Phenomenological Study of Literacy Teaching and Learning in a First Grade Classroom

Research Team Members: Kortney Sherbine, Kara DeCoursey, & Shannon Rhodes

This qualitative study examines the literacy encounters of young children over the course of an academic year. In collaboration with the classroom teacher and student teacher, the researchers also examine the mechanisms that contribute to the emergence of meaningful university-classroom research partnerships.

Teaching and Learning [with] Multimodal Literacies

Research Team Members: Kortney Sherbine and Nicole Parker

Through observation and document analysis, this study examines the relationships between undergraduate students’ composing of comics in a writing workshop and their understanding of multimodal literacies. This project is funded by a $761.48 research grant from Utah State University’s Center for Intersectional Gender Studies and Research.

Publications

Coming soon.

Contact Us

If you’re interested in joining our team or just learning more about the things we’re thinking about, fill out the form on the right or send us an email: kortney.sherbine@usu.edu