LIT 371
Teaching and advising
Teaching
I teach elementary reading and language methods to undergraduates and online graduate courses to in-service teachers in the Literacy graduate program.
Approach
My teaching is grounded in critical hope and the centering of non-hegemonic discourses, drawing deeply from the work of Paulo Freire, bell hooks, and Duncan-Andrade. I design courses that treat literacy as “a spatial and embodied practice, shaped by political, classed, and racialized dynamics.”
My courses use multimodal activities. Students toy-hack with wordless picture books, make puppetry films, and create soundscapes. I ask students to draw on their own funds and dark funds of knowledge, and together they co-create a Literacy Patchwork Quilt that shows their development as literacy practitioners. Students report that this work helps them reposition themselves as producers, rather than consumers, of meaning-making practices.
Courses at SUNY Cortland
LIT 372
Teaching Elementary School Reading and Language II
LIT 535
Writing Instruction and Assessment
LIT 669
Literacy Specialist Program
LIT 693
Applied Assessment and Instruction: Literacy Capstone and Practicum
What students say
“Dr. Pennington is one of the best and most inclusive professors I had at Cortland; Casey is very flexible and understanding.”
“I have learned so much from this course. Casey shaped my perspective on culturally sustaining pedagogies through instruction and course materials.”
Curriculum work and workshops
- Member of the LIT 371 Science of Reading Planning Committee (2025).
- Department liaison to the New York State Education Department's Science of Reading Educator Preparation Program Community of Practice (2025 to present).
- Member of the college Curriculum Writing Committee (2024 to 2025).
- Co-presented a campus-wide Sandwich Seminar, “Toyhacking and Digital Storytelling,” with K. Dafoe (2024).
- Led a Literacy Playshop workshop for the New York State Master Teacher Program (2025).
- Ran a “Hack Their Toys” workshop for my students in the campus library Makerspace, featured by SUNY Cortland.
Advising and mentoring
I advise 40 students in the online Literacy graduate program, which I began doing in Spring 2024. My advisees are in-service teachers, so I offer flexible advising hours: after school hours (3 to 8 p.m.), on weekends, and during winter, spring, and summer breaks. I hold weekly advising hours for 15-minute calls and also advise by email.
Each spring, I send my advisees reminders about summer and fall registration, with key dates, updated procedures, and resources. When New York State revised its Child Abuse and Recognition Workshop requirements, I shared the updated guidance with my advisees in late Fall 2024. I also email advisees who will graduate in the summer about the steps they need to complete.
I also advise undergraduate research. In 2024 to 2025, I advised an undergraduate honors thesis.
Before SUNY Cortland
Indiana University, Bloomington, 2017–2023
Research and teaching assistant, Literacy, Culture, and Language Education
- Methods of Teaching Reading
- Content Area Literacy
- Young Adult Literature in a Diverse Society
- Books for Reading Instruction
- Grammar for Teachers
- Classroom Management
- Problems in Secondary Education
- Lab/Field Experience
- Advanced Study of Methods of Teaching Reading in Elementary Education (graduate)
- Advanced Study of Classroom Management (graduate)
K–12 classroom teaching
Perry District, Indianapolis, IN, 2011–2015
English language arts, English as a New Language, computer technologies, personal finance, and business ethics; credit recovery coach
Christal DeHaan, Indianapolis, IN, 2010–2011
6th and 8th grade English language arts