Courtney Bills has been teaching elementary school and working as a literacy staff developer for the past seven years. For five years, she served in a similar capacity in the Weber School District in Ogden, Utah. Courtney received her BA and her MA in education from Utah State University. She has been extensively trained in literacy practice with a primary focus on comprehension instruction, thinking strategies, content area reading, guided reading, differentiated instruction, and active literacy. In addition, Courtney holds an endorsement in teaching English as a second language. She is passionate about working with children from underserved populations. In the strong conviction that all kids can and must learn, much of Courtney’s work has occurred in Title 1 schools with a high population of children learning English.
In 2004, Courtney began working with Stephanie Harvey to implement comprehension strategy instruction in classrooms across the Weber school district. She worked with Weber elementary schools to model instruction and support the district-wide implementation of The Comprehension Toolkit (Harvey and Goudvis 05) and the Primary Toolkit (Harvey and Goudvis 08). Courtney currently works in the Granite School district in Salt Lake City as a reading specialist and literacy coach. This hands-on in school experience gives Courtney a unique vantage point from which to implement research based literacy practices every day and to share them with educators across the country in her role as a staff developer with Stephanie Harvey Consulting.