Literacy Now

Albury Sayle Primary School in Nassau, The Bahamas, celebrated International Literacy Day with a parade of students, read-alouds, and a “Foodimals Festival” to coordinate with IRA’s “Invent Your Future” theme in conjunction with Sony Pictures Animation’s film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.

Students of Grade 3 display their posters before leaving the school campus for the community walk.

Grade 5 students displaying their posters during the community walk.

A Grade 2 and Grade 6 student read to the children of the Willard Paton Pre-school. Also present are the District Education Officer Mr. Lightbourne and our school’s principal, Mrs. Katherine Rose. In the background, is a supportive parent Officer Davis. 

Miss Belizaire, a Grade 4 teacher, reads to students during the “Reading in the Park” community outreach program.

The school’s Principal, Mrs. Katherine Rose, reads Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs to the Grades 4–6 students.

Officer Ware, from the South Street Police Station opposite our school campus, volunteered to read to our Grade 4 students during the Volunteer reading sessions.

Foodimals, (that won the Foodimals Festival), on display in the campus foyer, outside of the main office. The winners from each grade level were presented with free movie passes to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.

Loreen Patrick is from the Albury Sayle Primary School in Nassau, The Bahamas.

Teachers attending the Delaware Department of Education’s Common Ground for Common Core professional development program this fall will hear presentations from three distinguished authors and educators—Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar, Linda Kucan, and Doug Buehl—whose appearance was arranged in partnership with the International Reading Association (IRA).

“We are pleased to be partnering with the Delaware Department of Education on this project,” explained Stephen Sye, IRA’s Associate Executive Director. “IRA is helping teachers across the country get the information and strategies they need to transition successfully to the Common Core, insuring that their students acquire college and career ready skills by the time they finish high school.”

Common Ground for Professional Development is a comprehensive program that involves meetings, clinics, convenings, feedback, and follow up sessions, as well as a series of webinars. Locations vary by district. Sessions for teachers from Kent and Sussex counties will be held in Dover, the remainder in New Castle County.

Annemarie
Sullivan Palincsar


Linda Kucan

Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar holds the Jean and Charles Walgreen, Jr. Chair of Reading and Literacy at the University of Michigan, and Linda Kucan is an associate professor in the Department of instruction and Learning at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Education. Co-authors of the new IRA title Comprehension Instruction through Text Based Discussion, they will lead a session on close reading from informational texts, a critical student skill under the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English Language Arts, which Delaware has adopted and is now in the process of implementing.

Palincsar and Kucan will impart a set of discussion strategies designed to support student interaction with texts for the purpose of comprehending text ideas, as well as identifying and synthesizing evidence in support of discipline specific claims. Their presentations will take place on October 15 and 16, 2013 in the Elementary and English Language Arts Strand.

Doug Buehl

Doug Buehl, a teacher, professional development leader, and adolescent literacy consultant with 33 years of experience in the Madison Metropolitan School District, Madison, WI, is the author of the IRA titles Developing Readers in the Academic Disciplines and Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning, Fourth Edition, the newly released version of the Association’s top selling title. Buehl will offer reflections and strategic advice on the use of self-questioning as a foundational strategy for the “close reading” of texts called for under the CCSS. Participants in his workshops will engage in model lessons that demonstrate scaffolded instruction for mentoring the successful reading of complex information texts. The workshops will take place on October 15 and 16, 2013 as part of the Secondary English Language Arts Strand, as well as on October 17, 2013 as part of the Content Areas strand.

For detailed information visit www.doe.k12.de.us/commoncore or call 302-735-4180.

 

The International Reading Association (IRA) is excited to announce that popular children’s book authors Jeff Kinney, Dav Pilkey, Megan McDonald, Matt de la Peña, and Mary Pope Osborne and renowned educators P. David Pearson and Rafe Esquith will speak at the IRA 59th Annual Conference in New Orleans on May 9-12, 2014.

Jeff Kinney


Megan McDonald


Dav Pilkey


Matt de la Peña


P. David Pearson


Rafe Esquith


Mary Pope Osborne

Diary of a Wimpy Kid series author Jeff Kinney kicks off the conference at the Opening General Session on the morning of Saturday, May 10, 2014. Kinney was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World and was twice voted Author of the Year at the Children's Choice Book Awards. The Wimpy Kid series won Favorite Book at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards three times.

Later on May 10, Megan McDonald, author of the Judy Moody and Stink series, will speak at the Primary Literature Author Luncheon. McDonald has penned over 60 books for children and young readers. Her hilarious Judy Moody books have won numerous awards, ranging from a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year to an International Reading Association Children's Choice to the first-ever Beverly Cleary Children’s Choice Award. McDonald also created a series featuring Judy’s brother, Stink, and The Sisters Club trilogy.

The General Session on Sunday, May 11, 2014 features Dav Pilkey, creator of the Captain Underpants series, which is now published in 22 languages. Pilkey also wrote the children’s favorites Dog Breath, winner of the California Young Reader Medal; The Paperboy, a Caldecott Honor Book; The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby, which debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list; and the Dumb Bunnies series.

Sunday’s Young Adult Literature Author Luncheon speaker is young adult novelist Matt de la Peña, author of the critically-acclaimed and award-winning books Ball Don’t Lie, Mexican WhiteBoy, We Were Here, and I Will Save You. He is expanding into younger children’s literature as well, with the release of the picture book A Nation’s Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis (illustrated by Kadir Nelson) and his middle grade contribution to the upcoming Guys Read: Thriller anthology.

The Closing General Session on Monday, May 12, 2014 will feature two additional luminaries. P. David Pearson, former dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, the nation’s foremost literacy researcher and chair of the IRA Literacy Research Panel, will offer research based perspectives on critical issues of literacy education. Rafe Esquith, author of the New York Times bestseller Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire, the only teacher to have been awarded the president’s National Medal of the Arts, will offer insights on dynamic classroom pedagogy. Esquith has thirty-plus years of experience as a classroom teacher and has been given the American Teacher Award, the Compassion in Action Award from the Dalai Lama, Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Award, Parents magazine’s As You Grow Award, Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life AwardTM, and People magazine’s Heroes Among Us Award.

The special guest for the Book and Author Luncheon on Monday is Mary Pope Osborne, author of the New York Times number one bestselling Magic Tree House series and co-author of The Magic Tree House Fact Tracker series, along with her husband, Will, and her sister Natalie Pope Boyce.

“The 2014 IRA Conference will offer literacy educators unparalleled opportunities to gain valuable new insights on literacy instruction, including the latest in research-based instruction, classroom-ready teaching ideas, and practical, ready to use ways to implement the Common Core State Standards in K-12 classrooms,” explains IRA President Maureen McLaughlin.

“We’re thrilled that so many literacy educators consider our conference their number one event for professional development and networking,” adds IRA Executive Director Marcie Craig Post. “We work to improve it each year, whether it’s including more or better programs on the latest hot topics or streamlining registration and services. We’ve been listening to attendees to determine what they want and need to improve their skills as many states transition to Common Core State Standards implementation. This year is guaranteed to be the best conference yet.” 

The IRA 59th Annual Conference will be held at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, from Saturday, May 10 through Monday, May 12, 2014, with an Institute Day on Friday, May 9. Registration will open in December 2013. For more information on programs, registration, and exhibits call 800-336-7323 (302-731-1600 international) or visit the official conference website at www.iraconference.org or follow #IRA14 on Twitter.

1993 IRA William S. Grey Citation of Merit Winner

October 4, 2013

Anthony Vito Manzo, Tony, age 73, died on Saturday, August 17, released at long last from the relentlessness of pancreatic cancer. Tony was born in 1940, son of Vito and Gerolema Manzo of Brooklyn, and grandson of Antonio and Francis Manzo, and Giuseppe and Vita Distefano, all of Castelvetrano, Sicily, and each of whom he held close in his heart for all of his life.

Dr. Manzo was Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. There he founded and directed the Center for Studies in Higher-Order Literacy and the Education Unit of a unique Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program. He was a groundbreaking scholar, distinguishing himself early with a 1969 dissertation that was published in article form in the same year and is still widely cited in journals and textbooks in the field. His remarkable subsequent productivity was honored by a 1993 selection to join an elite group of academicians as recipient of the International Reading Association’s William S. Gray Citation of Merit for lifetime research and publications that have “vastly improved the instructional dynamics of countless classrooms and inspired the work of other scholars and researchers.” The doctoral students he mentored over a thirty-year career have made significant contributions to the field and have, in turn, mentored others. Tony was well aware that his reach always exceeded his grasp, and he left with many projects on the drawing board. 

In family gatherings, at the handball club or other social occasions, Tony could always be counted on for amusing anecdotes or mind altering opinions about history, politics, psychology, society, or life in general. Tony is survived by his wife Ula, children Maria, Lisa, Anthony, and Byron, and grandchildren Kristin, Claire, Sophia, Max, Ivan, Alexander, Gianna, Francesca, Nicolo, and Tommy John.  He treasured them each, individually, and followed and guided their life paths with high expectations for their success and happiness.

A private family burial was held at Ascension Cemetery in Lake Forest and a memorial service was held on Saturday, August 24 at O’Connor Mortuary, 25301 Alicia Parkway, Laguna Hills, California.

The International Reading Association (IRA) is pleased to announce our Board nominees for 2014-15.

2014 Slate for IRA Board of Directors:
Donald Bear, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
Julie Coiro, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island
Eric Cooper, National Urban Alliance, Syosset, New York
Lori DiGisi, Framingham Public Schools, Framingham, Massachusetts
Janice Dole, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
Glenda Nugent, Private Consultant, Saint Peters, Missouri

2014 Slate for IRA Vice-President:
Diane Barone, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, Nevada
Brenda Overturf, Educational Consultant, Louisville, Kentucky

The election opens on December 16, 2013. The deadline to vote is 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Savings Time) on February 10, 2014. New Board members begin their terms at the IRA Annual Conference in May 2014.

IRA members who have provided IRA with a valid e-mail address and have opted to receive e-mails from IRA will receive your ballot by e-mail and can vote online. Visit the IRA member account page on Reading.org, e-mail customerservice@/, or call 1-800-336-READ to check and update your e-mail address.

IRA members who do not have valid e-mails or who have opted not to receive e-mails from IRA will receive paper ballots but will still have the opportunity to vote online.

More information about the nominees will be publicized on the Board Elections section of IRA's website and on Reading Today Online soon.