Sebastian
Wren was born in Oklahoma and moved to Texas at the age of 15.
Unsatisfied with the move from one of the best magnet schools in the
country (Booker T. Washington in Tulsa, OK) to a small, rural school
near San Antonio, Sebastian dropped out of high school and began
attending classes at the University of Texas in San Antonio at the age
of 16.
At UTSA, Sebastian pursued diverse interests ranging from math and
engineering to foreign language to philosophy to history. During
his undergraduate tenure, he also served as photography editor and
managing editor for an independent newspaper and was active in student
politics. In 1989, Sebastian earned a B.A. in Psychology, and
began working with adolescent special-education students housed in a
residential psychiatric facility helping them with their educational
endeavors.
In 1991, Sebastian moved to Austin to pursue a Ph.D. in Psychology from
the University of Texas. At U.T., Sebastian again revealed a
tendency to explore diverse interests, teaching statistics and research
methods courses, taking qualifying examinations physiological
psychology (sensation and perception), and working closely with Dr.
Philip Gough conducting research to explore the cognitive foundations
of reading.
In 1998, while finishing his dissertation, Sebastian began working at
the Southwest Education Development Laboratory where he worked with
under-served schools across the country and developed expertise in
reading education, school improvement, and educational
leadership. In 2002, Sebastian created BalancedReading.com, and began disseminating literacy research information and education resources to educators.
In 2006, Sebastian began working independently, and is currently in the
process of creating Education Exploration a non-profit organization
dedicated to education improvement (EducationExploration.org).
He continues to pursue diverse interests, serving as president of his
neighborhood association, president of the Capital Area Reading
Council, and working closely with Austin city leaders to make his
beloved (adopted) home town of Austin, Texas, the best place in the
world to live.
Sebastian Andrew Wren
Curriculum Vita
(last updated 12-12-05)
Because of SPAM, we do not publish
e-mail addresses on the web. To contact Dr. Wren,
send
a message via the BalancedReading Feedback Page
Education
2000: Ph.D., The University
of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX; Cognition and Perception (major), Neuroscience
(minor).
1989: B.A., The University
of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX; Psychology (major), Philosophy
(minor).
Employment History
1998 ? Program Specialist
/ Associate, Southwest Educational Development Laboratory
1996 - 1997: Lecturer, Southwest
Texas State University, San Marcos, TX.
1994 - 1998: Assistant Instructor,
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX.
1991 - 1994: Teaching
Assistant / Research Fellow, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin,
TX.
1989 - 1991: Instruction Counselor
(adolescent wing), Charter Real Psychiatric Hospital, San
Antonio, TX.
1988 - 1989: Specialist: Differential
Abilities Scale Norming Team, Psychological Corporation (HBJ), San Antonio,
TX.
Grant Support
Research Fellowship: Dallenbach
Fellowship granted by the University of Texas Graduate Board.
Peer-reviewed Publications
Wren, S. (2006).
The Reading Assessment Database for Grades K-2. Southwest
Educational Development Laboratory, Austin TX.
http://www.sedl.org/reading/rad
Wren, S. (2001). The Cognitive
Foundations of Learning to Read: A Framework. Southwest Educational
Development Laboratory, Austin TX.
Wren, S. (1999). The Reading
Assessment Database for Grades K-2. Southwest Educational Development
Laboratory, Austin TX. http://www.sedl.org/reading/rad
Gough, P.B. & Wren, S. (1999).
Constructing meaning: The role of decoding. In J. Oakhill & R.
Beard (Eds.) Reading development and the teaching of reading: A psychological
perspective. Malden, MA: Bllackwell.
Gough, P.B. & Wren, S. (1996).
The decomposition of decoding. In C. Hulme & R. M. Joshi (Eds.) Reading
and spelling: development and disorders. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Other Publications
Wren, S. (2004). Developmentally Appropriate Reading Instruction. U.S. Department of Education Reading First Newsletter.
Wren, S. & Biggers, D. (2003). Literacy Coaches: Roles and
Responsibilities. Instructional Leader, 16(6). (*This article was
revised and re-published in the SEDL Letter, and can be downloaded from
their website at
http://www.sedl.org/cgi-bin/pdfexit.cgi?url=http://www.sedl.org/pubs/sedl-letter/v17n01/SEDLLetter_v17n01.pdf)
Wren, S. & Watts, J. (2002).
The Abecedarian Early Reading Assessment. http://www.sebastianwren.com.
Wren, S. (2002). Ten
Myths of Reading Instruction. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory,
Austin TX. http://www.sedl.org/reading/topics/myths.html
Wren, S. (2002). Methods of
Assessing Early Reading Development. Southwest Educational Development
Laboratory, Austin TX. http://www.sedl.org/reading/topics/assessment.html
Wren, S. (2001). How do Children
Read? School Reform News, 5 (2), p. 21.
Wren, S. (2001). What does
a Balanced Literacy Approach Mean? Southwest Educational Development
Laboratory, Austin TX. http://www.sedl.org/reading/topics/balanced.html
Wren, S. (2001). Reading and
the Three Cueing Systems. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory,
Austin TX. http://www.sedl.org/reading/topics/cueing.html
Wren, S. (2000). Understanding
the Brain and Reading. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory,
Austin TX. http://www.sedl.org/reading/topics/brainreading.html
Wren, S. (2000). What is Reading?
- Decoding and the Jabberwocky's Song. Southwest Educational Development
Laboratory, Austin TX. http://www.sedl.org/reading/topics/whatisreading.html
Wren, S. (2000). Regular and
Exception Words. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, Austin
TX. http://www.sedl.org/reading/topics/exception.html
Wren, S. (2000). Reading by
Sight. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, Austin TX.
http://www.sedl.org/reading/topics/sight.html
Wren, S. (2000). Cross-modal priming
and word recency -- Evidence against the implicit memory model of word
recency. (Dissertation). The University of Texas at Austin.
Wren, S. (1999). Phonics Rules.
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, Austin TX. http://www.sedl.org/reading/topics/phonicsrules.html
Wren, S. (1999). The Phive
Phones of Reading. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory,
Austin TX. http://www.sedl.org/reading/topics/phon.html
Wren, S. (1999). Reading Assessment
Across the Southwest Region. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory,
Austin TX. http://www.sedl.org/reading/rad/states.html
Wren, S. (1999). The Instructional
Resources Database. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, Austin
TX. http://www.sedl.org/reading/ir/
Presentations
Wren, S. (2005). Literacy coaches: Promises and problems. National Reading Conference, Miami, FL.
Wren, S. (2005). Ten myths of reading instruction. Neuhaus Education Center, Houston, TX.
Wren, S. (2005). Understanding the brain and reading. Neuhaus Education Center, Houston, TX.
Wren, S. (2002). Selected issues in early reading acquisition.
Louisiana Megaconference in Reading and Language Arts, New Orleans, LA.
Wren, S. (2001). The role
of administration in developing a research-based reading curriculum.
Gadsden Administrators Conference, Gadsden NM.
Wren, S. (2001). Using
research to Inform Systemic Interventions in Low-Performing Schools.
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, Austin TX.
Wren, S. (2000). Developing
a research-based state-wide reading assessment. Series of talks presented
to the New Mexico Early Reading Assessment Committee (October to December).
Wren, S. (2000). What do we
know about early reading acquisition? Presented to the New Mexico
archdiocese council of elementary principals, October.
Wren, S. (2000). What research
says about how children learn to read. Presented for a New Mexico
Legislative Education Study Committee hearing, August.
Wren, S. (1998). Selecting
early reading assessments. Presented at the Oklahoma Early Education
Conference in Oklahoma City, OK, in October, and through the Oklahoma Videoconference
Network in November.
Wren, S. (1998). Assessments
and the NRC report on Preventing Early Reading Difficulties in Young Children.
Presented at the Improving Americas Schools Conference in Nashville, TN
in December.
Wren, S. (1996). The relative
naming latencies for homophones, homographs, pseudohomophones, pseudowords,
and non-pronouncable letter strings. Paper presented at the annual
meeting, Southwest Psychological Association, Fort Worth, TX.
Wren, S. (1996). Recency effect
across modalities. Paper presented at the annual meeting, Association
for Research in Memory, Attention, Decision-making, Imagery, Language,
Learning & Organizational-perception, Austin, TX.
Wren, S. & Gough, P.B. (1996).
Word frequency, NOT age of acquisition accounts for naming latency variance.
Talk presented at the annual meeting, Southwest Psychological Association,
Houston, TX.
Wren, S. & Gough, P.B. (1996).
Diminished word length effect by orthographic modification. Talk
presented at the annual meeting, Southwest Psychological Association, Houston,
TX.
Wren, S. & Gough, P.B. (1995).
Separation of the frequency/recency confound. Paper presented at
the annual meeting, Southwest Psychological Association, San Antonio, TX.
Gough, P.B. & Wren, S. (1994).
Recency and frequency effects in word naming. Paper presented at
the annual meeting, Psychonomic Society, St. Louis, MO.
Teaching Experience
Lecturer Sensation and Perception
Assistant Instructor Introduction
to statistical methods and research design
Computer laboratory
for statistics and research
Teaching Assistant Psychology of
reading
Introduction to research
methods in social sciences
Advanced statistics
and research methods
Psychology of language
Field Work / Professional Development
Experience
Worked on long-term school improvement
effort focusing on reading achievement in Marked Tree (AR), Putnam City
(OK), and Newcomb (NM) from 2000 to present.
Provided long-term professional
development in reading instruction to teachers in Bernalillo (NM) Independent
School District from 1998 to 2000.
Provided long-term professional
development in reading instruction to teachers in Fredericksburg (TX) Independent
School District during the 1998-1999 academic year.
Provided long-term professional
development in reading instruction to teachers at Bruce Aiken Elementary
School in Brownsville (TX) Independent School District during the 1999-2000
academic year.
Professional Affiliations
The Capital Area Reading Council
(currently president of CARC) ? Since 2002
The International Reading Association
? Since 2002
The Society for the Scientific
Study of Reading -- Since 1999
The National Reading Conference
Association -- Since 1998
Other Experience
General Computation Laboratory Assistant
(teaching computer skills to other graduate students and professors and
assisting in the implementation of network administration)
Statistics and Computer Consultant
(primary statistics and data consultant for various research projects including
Project QuEST (Dr. Nancy Roser, Director))
Qualifying Examinations
Major Exam: Human Perception
Minor Exam: Sensory Psychology
World Wide Web Page
http://www.educationexploration.org
http://www.balancedreading.com
http://www.sebastianwren.com
http://www.sedl.org/reading
Professional Referencess Available Upon Request
