Jennifer O'Sullivan PhD

Rannóg

Department of English and Roinn na Gaeilge

Role

Lecturer

Biography

Dr Jennifer O’Sullivan is a lecturer in literacy in Marino Institute of Education. Prior to joining the staff in MIE, Jennifer taught in a DEIS primary junior school.  She is the co-author of the Sounds Like Phonics programme and the sole author of the phonological awareness programme A Sound Beginning for Reading, both of which are classroom resources aimed at junior infant to second class children. She is also the co-creator of The Literacy Channel, which has over one thousand subscribers. The YouTube channel was created as a means of sharing evidence-based literacy practices and strategies with teachers. 

Jennifer is an executive committee member and past-president of the Literacy Association of Ireland. She was co-principal investigator on the Entreprise Ireland ALPACA project. The project, which stemmed from Jennifer’s doctoral studies, received a commercialisation grant of €330,000 to create and design a digital early literacy assessment tool for use in classrooms. The tool was trialed in over thirty schools across five countries (Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, USA, UAE and Malaysia).

Qualifications

PhD in Ed. (Phonemic Awareness and Early Reading Development), Trinity College Dublin

M.Ed (Literacy), St Patrick’s College, Dublin City University

Grad. Dip in Ed. (Primary Teaching), St Patrick’s College, Dublin City University

BA (Humanities) Psychology & English Literature, Oscail, Dublin City University

Teaching

Programme	Module Code	Module Name	Role
BEd	ED8318	Literacy Education: Teacher Competence and Knowledge	Module Coordinator and Lecturer
BEd	ED8303	English Methods	Module Coordinator and Lecturer
BEd		Research Dissertations	Dissertation Supervisor
BOid	ED8318	Literacy Education: Teacher Competence and Knowledge	Module Coordinator and Lecturer
BOid	BO8303	English Methods	Module Coordinator and Lecturer
BScECE	EC8106	Literacies in the Early Years: Language Acquisition	Module Coordinator and Lecturer

ORCID ID

0000-0003-0551-6922

Publications and other outputs

 

Book Chapters

O’Sullivan, J. (2017). Phonemic awareness: A sound beginning for reading. In B. Culligan & G. Mehigan (Ed.), Exploring the Literacy Landscape: Celebrating 40 Years of Research and Practice (pp. 95-103). Literacy Association of Ireland.

 

Educational Resources

O’Sullivan, J. (2021). Sound Beginnings for Reading: A Phonological Awareness Programme. CJ Fallons.

Cura, M., Fiorentini, C. M., Mehigan, G., & O’Sullivan, J. (2019). Sounds Like Phonics Programme, (four classroom textbooks, teachers’ manual and digital interactive component). CJ Fallons.

 

Professional Journal Articles

O’Sullivan, J. (2023, Jan/Feb/March) Proactive and Preventive: The role of literacy leaders in the early years. Literacy Today: International Literacy Association, 40 (3), 44-46.

O’Sullivan, J. (2023, January) ALPACA: Assessing Phonemic Awareness and Letter Knowledge Classroom App. Exploring EdTech in Ireland. 6, 11-15.

 

Conference Contributions

Bowe, T., Fiorentini, C., O’Sullivan, J., & O’Toole, D. (2024, June 24-26). Reading achievement in Ireland: What is going well and what still needs attention. [Paper presentation]. The European Literacy Conference, Crete, Greece.

O'Sullivan, J. (2023, November 10-11). A proactive and preventive approach to early reading difficulties. [Paper presentation]. Literacy Association of Ireland Conference, Marino Institute of Education, Ireland.

Bowe, T., Fiorentini, C., O'Sullivan, J., & O'Toole, D. (2023, November 10-11). Reading achievement in Ireland: What's going well and what still needs attention. [Paper presentation]. Literacy Association of Ireland Conference, Marino Institute of Education, Ireland.

O’Sullivan, J. & Devitt, A. (2023, April 2-4). A proactive and preventive approach to early literacy intervention.  [Paper presentation]. World Literacy Summit, University of Oxford, Oxford.

O’Sullivan, J. (2022, October 20). Assessing early literacy skills: ALPACA. [Paper presentation]. Learnovation Conference, Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland.

O’Sullivan, J. (2021, November 12-13). Exploring the science of reading. [Paper presentation]. Literacy Association of Ireland Conference, Marino Institute of Education, Dublin, Ireland.

O’Sullivan, J. (2020, September 3-5). Prevention is better than cure: Phonemic awareness and early reading. [Paper presentation]. Educational Studies Association of Ireland Conference, online.

O’Sullivan, J. (2019, November 8-9). Close encounters of the visual kind: Visual literacy and close reading. [Paper presentation]. Literacy Association of Ireland Conference, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland.

O’Sullivan, J. (2017, July 14-17). Close encounters of the visual kind: Visual literacy and close reading. [Paper presentation]. International Literacy Association Conference, New Orleans.

O’Sullivan, J. (2016, May 27). The impact of definitions of phonemic awareness on professional content knowledge. [Paper presentation]. Kaleidoscope Conference, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge.

 

Podcasts

Delaney, S. (Host). (2020, November 14). Teaching Reading [Audio podcast episode]. Inside Education. https://insideeducation.podbean.com/e/podcast-408-jennifer-osullivan-on-teaching-reading-14-11-20/

That’ll Teach You podcast series. (2023, August 22). Read Alouds in the Classroom.

 

Webinar

Garforth, K., & O’Sullivan, J. (2022, April). Right to Read Inquiry: An Irish perspective.  Presented on behalf of the Ontario Right to Read Initiative.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LlxpSDEKhU&t=46s

Dunne, R., O’Sullivan, J., & Watkins, N. (2021, May). Distance education: Pedagogy, partnerships and responsive professional development. Presented on behalf of The Literacy Association of Ireland as part of the FELA (Federation of European Literacy Associations) webinar series.

O’Sullivan, J. (2021, April). Phonological Awareness Webinar. Presented on behalf of Donegal Education Centre.

Fiorentini, C, McCauley-Lambe, S., & O’Sullivan, J. (2021, January). Online Literacy Learning Webinar. Presented on behalf of The Literacy Association of Ireland.

 

Other Outputs

O’Sullivan, J. (2023, March). Reading difficulties in the early years. Presented on behalf of Sligo Education Centre.

O’Sullivan, J. (2023, March). Implementing science of reading practices in the early years. Presented on behalf of Sligo Education Centre.

O’Sullivan, J. (2022, November). The science of reading. Presented on behalf of Sligo Education Centre.

O’Sullivan, J. (2021, October). The science of reading. Presented on behalf of Carlow Education Centre.

O’Sullivan, J. (2021, October). From phonemes to phonics. Presented on behalf of Marino Institute of Education.

O’Sullivan, J. (2021, September). Phonological awareness. Presented on behalf of Waterford Education Centre.

O’Sullivan, J. (2021, September). The science of reading: Early literacy instruction. Presented on behalf of Athlone Education Centre.

Burke, P., Mehigan, G., & O’Sullivan, J. (2021, April). LAI Connects: A closer look at the science of reading. Presented on behalf of The Literacy Association of Ireland.

Concannon-Gibney, T., Dunne, R., Mehigan, G., & O’Sullivan, J. (2021, March). LAI Connects: A closer look at early literacy instruction. Presented on behalf of The Literacy Association of Ireland.

Concannon-Gibney, T., & O’Sullivan, J. (2020, June). What matters most … in early years literacy instruction. Presented on behalf of the Education Centres of Ireland and the Literacy Association of Ireland.  

Research/Professional Interests

Early reading development, assessment of reading, reading difficulties, application of technology to support reading instruction/assessment.