I study the quality of early childhood education, quality of teacher-child interaction, teacher development, and coaching. I'm particularly interested in the study of self-regulation and literacy, and how classroom experiences shape its development

Teaching Experience
Teacher Assistant. 2014-2015, Curry School of Education. University of Virginia.
• Supervision/coaching of pre-service teachers’ practicum experiences.

Teacher Assistant. 2013-2014, Curry School of Education. University of Virginia.
• Supervision of Reading Tutors.

Lead Instructor. 2010-2013, Universidad de los Andes. Santiago, Chile. Courses taught:
• Developmental Psychology;
• Early Childhood Development;
• Introduction to Language Development;
• Teaching Reading and Writing;
• Thesis guidance.

Instructor. 2010-2013. Centro AMA, Parent Consulting and Coaching. Santiago, Chile.
• Lead workshops for parents. “How to Talk so Kids will Listen, and How to Listen so Kids will Talk.”

Expert Teacher/ Instructor. 2008, Enseña Chile. (Teach for All. Chile).
• Trained young professionals to teach literacy and language in deprived areas of Chile.

Teacher Trainer of In-service Teachers. 2007- 2009, Centro de estudios Educar. Chile.
• Teacher training in literacy and language development and instruction.

Melo Hurtado, C., Martinez Von Der Fecht, M., LoCasale-Crouch, J., Cruz Aguayo, Y., Schodt, S., DeCoster, J., Dehnen, N., Romo, F., Schady, N., Pianta, R.C. General and Domain-Specific Elements of Teacher-Child Interactions in Ecuador. Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD). Biennial Meeting. April, 2017.

Melo Hurtado, C., Pianta, R.C., DeCoster. J. Bilingual Children’s Development of Self-regulation: The Role of Classroom Interactions. Curry Research Conference (CRC). February, 2016.

Melo Hurtado, C. Thematic Leader at Annual Meeting of the Network of Chilean Researchers in Education. Red de Investigadores en Educación Chilena (RIECH). Presentation: Quality in Early Childood Education: the Pending Task. Calidad en educación inicial: La tarea pendiente. Chilean Embassy, Washington DC. April, 2016.

Melo Hurtado, C., Pianta, R.C., DeCoster, J. Bilingual Children’s Development of Self-regulation: The Role of Classroom Interactions and English Receptive Vocabulary. Poster presented at The National Research Conference on Early Childhood. July, 2016.

Melo, C., LoCasale-Crouch, J., Hasbrouck, S., Cruz Aguayo, Y., Guanziroli, T., Kraft-Sayre, M., & Schodt, S. Primary Education Classroom Experiences in Latin America: Focusing on What Matters for Children’s Learning and Development. Curry Research Conference, Charlottesville, VA. March, 2015.

Hasbrouck, S., LoCasale-Crouch, J., Cruz Aguayo, Y., Kraft-Sayer, M., Melo, C., Guanziroli, T., & Schodt, S. Primary Education Classroom Experiences in Latin America: Focusing on What Matters for Children’s Learning and Development. Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting, Philadelphia, PA. March, 2015.

Orellana, P. & Melo, C. Dialect: Integrating technology and reading assessment to diagnose Spanish reading difficulties, American Educational Research Association Conference, Philadelphia, PA. April, 2014.

Orellana, P. , Melo, C. & Fitzgerald, J. (2014). La relación entre la comprensión lectora silenciosa y sus subprocesos en niños con dificultades lectoras tempranas. International Conference on Early Childhood Education, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile.

Orellana, P. & Melo, C. (2013). Dialect: una plataforma tecnológica para el diagnóstico de dificultades de lectura temprana. Jornadas de Investigación en Educación y Lenguaje, CIAE, Universidad de Chile.

Gambrell, L., Korkeamäki, R., Korkeamäki, R., Tafa, E., Orellana, P., Melo, C., McCrea Andrews, H., Massey, C. (2013). A cross-cultural exploration of early reading motivation. 18th European Conference on Reading, Jönkoping, Sweden.

Orellana, P., Melo, C., Fitzgerald, J., & Cunningham, J. (2013). Development and Validation of a Novel Spanish Word Identification Assessment, using Ipads, as Part of a Complete Whole-to-Part Model of Reading Diagnosis. Literacy Research Association 63rd annual Conference, Dallas, TX.

Orellana, P. & Melo, C. (2012). Exploring the reading habits of Chilean college students: who reads what, and do they really care about literacy at all? Literacy Research Association 62nd Annual Conference. San Diego, California.

Melo, C., Orellana, P. (2011). Exploring the quality of literacy environment and instructional practices in Chilean preschool classrooms. Literacy Research Association. 61st Annual Conference. Jacksonville, Florida.

Rolla, A., Rivadeneira, M., Leyva, D., Gamboa, I., Barata, M.C, Melo, C., Barra, G., Arbour, M.C., Fernández, P., Snow, C (2009). Integrated Work with Families in Chile: Language & Literacy, Health, and Socioemotional Development. American Educational Research Association. San Diego, CA.

Melo, C. (2008). Establishing the basis of reading comprehension: Strategies for the development of vocabulary. 2nd Meeting of Early Childhood Education. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Santiago, Chile.