Marie Clay began her career as a classroom teacher and worked in the in Psychological Service of the New Zealand Ministry of Education until she was appointed to the University of Auckland, where she is now professor emeritus.

Clay is a well-known researcher in the field of developmental psychology which has real world applications in two areas: practical contributions to classroom practice in the early years of schooling and in preventing literacy problems by early intervention.

Like Marilyn Jagger Adams, Clay is the primary author of a reading program, Reading Rescue.

Clay was the president of the International Reading Association from 1992-1993. Clay spends much of her time these days urging teachers to think about literacy awareness and the power of writing as part of the challenge to literacy improvement.

In 1991 she published Becoming Literate, which reviewed research about how young children develop concepts about print and begin to become readers and writers. The book also offers readers instructional and assessment recommendations based on the research. This is an interesting book in that in it Clay took another look at her research and fine-tuned it based on current research on reading in the schools. She states that the book is a revision of her earlier work, because her view had been enriched by many debates. This is exactly what academia is and should be learning as we debate with our colleagues.

Clay contends that even though “reading people have many theories and many rationales for doing what they do, the fact remains that most children learn to read and they learn in very different programmes” (Becoming Literate, 1991, p. 6) Clay attempts to understand why good readers continue to get better, and poor readers continue to get worse, something she explains by the forward thrust and good readers have learned, and poor readers have not.

Books Written

1991 Becoming Literate