- M.A. in Developmental Reading, University of Iowa
- Ph.D. in Language, Literacy and Culture, University of Iowa
- University Department Education
- Location Stout 240
- Phone Number +1 (336) 841-9375
- Email [email protected]
Dr. Leslie M. Cavendish began working at High Point University in the Fall of 2011. Dr. Cavendish has a M.A. in Developmental Reading and earned her Ph.D. in Language, Literacy and Culture from the University of Iowa. She taught literacy courses for 5 years at the University of Iowa in the Teaching and Learning Department and has enjoyed teaching both undergraduate and graduate level courses at High Point University. Prior to her graduate work she spent over 10 years as an elementary classroom teacher working overseas in Bahrain, Malaysia and China. She developed and implemented curriculum in different types of international schools including a bilingual school and a school that incorporated a blend of European, Australian and American curricular programs. She also taught in an American consulate school that followed a solely American-based educational program. In addition to her international school teaching experience, Dr. Cavendish taught elementary school in an urban Texas setting and in a small rural town in Iowa. She has also supervised a summer reading clinic established to assess and support literacy development for local elementary students. While working at the University of Iowa Dr. Cavendish earned an Excellence in Teaching Award and was a yearlong Ballard-Seashore Fellow.
Dr. Cavendish strives to partner with agencies and schools through her literacy courses to maximize serving the local High Point Community. Partnering with local schools, preservice teachers have the opportunity to tutor children in areas of reading and writing development. The preservice teachers assess students to identify needs (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension, writing development). The preservice teachers design and implement individualized tutoring lessons throughout the semester with a focus on the joy and strategies to support literacy development. She has been implementing this tutoring program since she began at HPU in 2011. Dr. Cavendish also designed and implemented an after-school writing and photography program at a local school. It was highly successful with over 88 third to fifth grade students signing up to attend an afterschool writing club! She has also organized High Point University students to design and offer community Literacy Night celebrations for parents and students at local schools and in partnership with High Point LEAP (Literacy Empowers All People).
In 2014, Dr. Leslie M. Cavendish was awarded a $7,000 grant to develop a Summer Reading Institute for June/July of 2014. This award was granted again in 2015. The goal was a positive impact on the rising third grade students who are at risk of failing to achieve third grade level reading proficiency. With graduate students as literacy tutors, the Summer Reading Institute has been highly successful to support literacy development with the children it has served over the summers of 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020 (virtual). Dr. Cavendish’s research has focused on the parent perspectives, child perspectives and academic data of the impact the institute has had on the children they serve. Data analysis reflects that the summer reading institute has consistently been successful in meeting the needs of the families and children who participate in the program.
As international education is a particular passion for Dr. Cavendish, she has organized High Point University students on international excursion with a lens towards education. Dr. Cavendish accompanied students to Australia in May of 2016, 2017 and 2019. Each excursion varied but all invited High Point University students to spend time in unique educational settings such as: Rudolph Steiner school, a rural school with an emphasis on culturally responsive teaching with aboriginal children and the School of the Air. Dr. Cavendish also organized an educational experience for High Point University students to travel and teach in South Africa in March of 2018. Students visited Robben Island, experienced a guided safari ending their trip with a week-long teaching internship while staying with local teachers at a rural private school in Tarkastad. In May 2023, Dr. Cavendish plans to teach EDU 3720: Teaching Global Perspectives through Children’s Literature to High Point University students as part of the Go Global! Program in the UK.
Dr. Cavendish presents at national educational conferences including AERA (American Educational Research Association), LRA (Literacy Research Association), ILA (International Literacy Association) and CIES (Comparative International Education Society). Dr. Cavendish is an active member of NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English), ILA, LRA, and NCRA (North Carolina Reading Association). She has invited graduate students to co-present with her at the state NC Elementary Educators Conference has also mentored undergraduate students in presenting at the HPU-Research and Creativity Symposium (High-PURCS), State of North Carolina Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium (SNCURCS) and at the National Conference of Undergraduate Research (NCUR).
Dr. Cavendish’s particular research interests include impact of reading clinics, culturally responsive teaching, international educators and narrative inquiry. Based on her international teaching experience and her subsequent research, Dr. Cavendish strives to incorporate opportunities for pre-service and in-service teachers to ensure they have successful experiences teaching students with different cultural backgrounds than their own.