Page 149 - Reading Nest - The Supportive Literacy Environment Handbook

Authors

Maili Liinev (née Vesiko) is a special education teacher and counsellor. She is the initiator and long-

term leader of the Reading Nest project. In her master’s thesis, supervised by Meeli Pandis, the then
president of the Estonian Reading Association, she studied the impact of the Reading Nest project on

children. Later on Maili became the Association’s president for many years. In 2014 she supervised a

study on the outcomes of the Reading Nest project in schools.

Anneli Laamann is a kindergarten teacher. She has published a book on reading games in Estonian
(“Mängides lugema” (Learning to read through play); ILO, 2008), and a set of letter games (Koolibri,

2015). In her master’s thesis she investigated the environment which supports literacy and compared
kindergartens with and without reading nests. Her objective was, from the very beginning, to write a

paper for the benefit of all practitioners, thus this collection contains a number of references to her

study. In 2008-2012 Anneli was the Reading Nest project manager for North Estonia.
Kaja Kivisikk is an experienced class teacher (primary school), mentor and trainer, she has published

a book (“Mängud Lugemispessa” (Games for the reading nest); Koolibri, 2016). In 2008-2012 she was
the Reading Nest project manager for South Estonia.

Mare Müürsepp, PhD, is an author of books for children, children's literature critic and class teacher.

She has been involved in the Association’s and Reading Nest’s activities from the start, she trained the

first mentors on the topics of setting up, operating and furnishing reading nests. Mare has authored
innovative primers and integrated learning materials for the first school stage. She has published an

exciting book on learning to read and related stories and memories (“Laps on hakanud lugema” (The

child is reading), National Examination and Qualification Centre, 1998).

Jaana Koger is a senior teacher and methodologist at Tartu private kindergarten Terake. She has
created a reading environment in her classroom, which sets an example in all aspects also in terms of

international standards. She has done scrupulous pedagogical documentation of children working in
this environment and her photos are a valuable addition to this book. Jaana and her colleagues have

set up a reading nest which deserves the highest recognition; she is also a founder of the Estonian

Reggio Emilia Association.