Christine Portier is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at OISE/University of Toronto. She is a former elementary teacher who now teaches graduate courses in elementary education and conducts research on young children's oral language and writing in play contexts in northern rural and Indigenous communities.Adam Murray worked as a teacher in the city centre for Edmonton Public School Board for ten years. He is currently the principal of Kennedy Elementary School and Grimshaw Jr/Sr High School for the Peace River School Division and an advisory committee member for the Northern Oral Language and Writing through Play (NOW Play) project. As a public school educator, he is passionate about teaching children to read, and he continues to research and implement strategies that close the literacy gap of early learners.