Faculty Profile

Kristine Gritter

Kristine Gritter

Associate Professor, Curriculum & Instruction; Chair, M.Ed. Literacy

Email: grittk@spu.edu
Phone: 206-281-2323
Office: Peterson Hall 309


Education: BA, Calvin College, 1991; MS, Florida International University, 1996; PhD, Michigan State University, 2007. At SPU since 2007.

Kristine Gritter spent 10 years as a middle school English language arts teacher in Miami, Florida. She has a daughter and a husband who is a high school history teacher. Dr. Gritter received her PhD from Michigan State University and her teaching credentials from Calvin College.

Dr. Gritter’s research interest currently focuses on textual discussions in English language arts classrooms, particularly how students make text-to-self connections with texts and prior knowledge of popular culture.

Dr. Gritter teaches children’s literature, secondary English methods, and reading and writing across the curriculum for undergraduate and graduate students.


Selected Publications

  • Scheuerman, Richard; Gritter, Kristine; Schuster, Carrie Jim; and Fisher, Gordon. “Sharing the Fire: Place-Based Learning With Columbia Plateau Legends.” English Journal 47 (2010): 47-54.
  • “Insert Student Here: Why Content Area Constructions of Literacy Matter for Pre-Service Teachers.” Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts 50.3 (2010): 147-168.
  • “Promoting Lively Literature Discussion.” The Reading Teacher 64.6 (2011): 445-449.
  • “Permeable Textual Discussion in Tracked Language Arts Classrooms.” Research in the Teaching of English 46.3 (2012): 232-259.

Please view Dr. Gritter’s CV (PDF) for additional publications.

Kristine Gritter

Why I Teach at SPU

Kristine Gritter, Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction; Chair, Undergrad and Post-Baccalaureate Teacher Education

“I love stories and often use them to find my way out of life’s problems, especially as I discuss them with other critical readers and thinkers (including middle schoolers). Jesus loved stories too, often using them to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable while teaching about the kingdom of heaven. SPU has created a Christian intellectual community where students and professors have the freedom to read with and against the stories of our time.”