Literacy Now

Institute 5: Vocabulary Instruction That Makes a Difference: Meeting Standards and Beyond with a Multiphase Comprehensive Vocabulary Instruction Program (MCVIP) in Grades 4-9 

Reading Today Online asked all of the Institute Chairpersons for IRA San Antonio to respond to three questions designed to give our readers and all prospective attendees a better understanding of the insights and benefits they will gain from attending these day-long programs.

What is the professional urgency that this Institute is designed to address?

Are you confused about how best to integrate vocabulary instruction into your curriculum? Are you working on the kind of instruction in vocabulary that the Common Core State Standards and best-practices research calls for? Are you dissatisfied with compartmentalizing vocabulary in your curriculum with a free-standing program, workbook or other set of commercial materials?  Then this is the institute for you!

What types of literacy professionals is this Institute designed for?

This institute is designed for educational professionals (teachers, literacy specialists, interventionists, curriculum directors. professional developers) wanting to build strong, integrated vocabulary instruction in their schools and classrooms. Four nationally known experts on vocabulary—Michael Graves, author of The Vocabulary Book (2005); Jim Baumann, co-editor of Vocabulary Instruction, Second Edition: Research to Practice (2013); Camille Blachowicz, co-author of Teaching Vocabulary in All Classrooms (2010); and Patrick Manyak, former Reading Teacher columnist and conceptualizer of Character Trait Analysis (2007)—will present the foundations of research-based vocabulary instruction which has shown to make a difference in student performance. Their session will include keynotes to orient participants to the research on vocabulary and classroom instruction and 3 different breakouts with teachers and professional developers from their federally funded Multifaceted Vocabulary Instruction Project.  Participants will attend all three breakouts, with video examples of teaching, and then have a chance to Q & A with the experts and master teachers.

How will attendance at this Institute help those literacy professionals "make a difference" in their work?

This institute is designed by researchers, authors, professional developers and teachers with a deep commitment to teacher empowerment and professional growth.  They are passionate about what they have learned and developed together and want to share it with you, the school literacy professional. 

You will leave the institute with handouts and other resources reflecting all four essential components of a multifaceted program and with concrete, teacher-tested ideas that resulted in standardized test and performance gains for students.

You will have a chance to ask specific teachers, professional developers and researchers about what they have seen and experienced and will have time to network with other engaged and dedicated educators throughout the interactive sessions.

This is your chance to learn about vocabulary instruction that makes a difference. The institute is limited in size to maximize interaction so, if YOU want to make a difference in the vocabulary learning of your students, sign up soon.

Registration Information: This preconference institute will be held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Friday, April 19 before the 58th International Reading Association Annual Convention begins on Saturday, April 20. Register online for this or another institute and/or to register for the annual convention. Call 888-294-9167 or 415-979-2278 to find out how to register by phone, fax, or mail. To learn more about convention events in San Antonio, visit the annual convention website and the online itinerary planner (iPlanner), or read more Reading Today annual convention articles.

The good news is that IRA’s annual convention offers over 500 sessions, including full-day institutes, symposiums, and author luncheons. The bad news is that selecting which sessions to attend can be overwhelming!

That’s where the iPlanner comes in. The iPlanner (short for “itinerary planner”) is an online directory of the latest information about convention events. It includes three sections: the Itinerary Planner, the Program Grid, and the Event Search.

Create a Personalized Itinerary

The first screen you see when you visit /iplanner has information about the iPlanner and a place to login and enter your password. While everyone is free to browse convention offerings on the Program Grid and to use the Event Search, creating a login and password allows the iPlanner to “remember” sessions you save to your itinerary.

If you have never used the iPlanner, simply click the “Create Profile now!” link toward the bottom of the page. The login and password for the iPlanner are different than your member login/password and any other logins and passwords you may have set up with IRA, so new iPlanner users should create a profile. It’s an extra step, but it’s worth it!

Once you create a profile and login, it is easy to search for sessions and add them to your itinerary.

Browse the Program Grid

One way to find sessions you’re interested in is to use the Program Grid. Clicking on underlined links at the top of the grid page display different days or all days. Session times run along the left side of the grid.

The grid is divided into 13 columns: Adolescent Literacy/YA Literature, Assessment, Children’s Literature, Common Core Standards, Early Childhood/Head Start, English Language Learners, International, IRA Council Activity, Literacy Leadership, RtI, Struggling Learners, Technology, and Title 1. If you are interested in one of these topics, review the sessions listed in that column.

Click on the underlined link to open a window with more information about that session, including date, times, presenters, capacity, clock hours, and more. This window also has options to print this information or add it to your itinerary.

Add Sessions to Your Itinerary with One Click

Once you are logged in, an “Add to Itinerary” link appears on each session on the iPlanner. Click it, and then click “OK” to place the session listing on your personal online itinerary.

Searching for Specifics

If you are interested in a specific topic or are looking for a session from a certain presenter, use the Event Search.

You can search by keyword (text search), speaker last name, date, category, event type (luncheon, symposium, Teaching Edge, etc.), and/or location. When your search results are displayed, click on the underlined link for a window with more session information and a link to add it to your itinerary. Or, simply add sessions to your itinerary using the “Add” checkbox on the right side of the search results webpage. Sessions that are already added to your itinerary will say “Added.”

Review Your Itinerary

To see items you’ve added to your itinerary, click on the “My Itinerary” link in the blue bar at the top right of the screen.

On your online itinerary, it is easy to review your convention plans and click on session links for more details. You can add one, two, or even three simultaneous sessions to your itinerary in case one is full or cancelled. Sessions can be removed from your itinerary at any time by clicking on the “Remove” link next to the session title.

Click on “View Day Planner” link at the top right of the “My Itinerary” page to see a colored chart of how sessions overlap.

Add Your Own Events

Having lunch with a colleague? Carving out time to visit the Exhibit Hall? Taking a side trip to the Alamo? The iPlanner has the option to add your own events to your itinerary. From the “My Day Planner” page, click on the “Add Personal Activity” link in the upper right. Personal activities that you created show in orange on your day planner.

Print and Go

The “My Itinerary” page gives you the option to produce a printer-friendly version of your schedule to bring to the convention. Simply click the “Print” link at the top right. You can also e-mail your itinerary to the address in your profile.

Adding Sessions Is Not Registering or Reserving Seats!

Please be aware of the room capacity for the selected sessions you wish to attend. The Itinerary Planner is simply a planning tool and is not used to register for sessions. Entry into each session at the meeting is on a first-come, first-served basis. IRA no longer issues tickets for sessions.

Payment is required for full convention or single days, pre-conference institutes and luncheons. Please note that placing these items in your itinerary does not constitute a paid registration. For more information or to register, please go to www.iraconvention.org.

The IRA 58th Annual Convention runs from April 19 to 22, 2013, in San Antonio, Texas. Visit www.iraconvention.org and the iPlanner Program Grid and Event Search for details.

Maryann Manning, Distinguished Professor Emerita, Literacy, The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), has been elected as IRA’s vice president for 2013-2014.

Three new board members were also elected: 

Bernadette Dwyer, Lecturer in Literacy Studies in Education, St. Patrick’s College, Dublin, Ireland

Laurie Elish-Piper, Professor, Department of Literacy Education, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois

Julianne Scullen, Teaching and Learning Specialist for Secondary Reading, Anoka-Hennepin Public Schools, Anoka, Minnesota

Their terms will run from 2013 to 2016.

The entire IRA community extends best wishes to the newly elected vice president and board members.

by Amanda Lister

The International Reading Association is going big this year by offering convention attendees an exclusive opportunity. You could be attending IRA’s 58th Annual Convention in sunny San Antonio as our VIP, an experience you won’t want to miss!

IRA’s “VIP Experience” package* includes a $100 gift card to Boudro's, a crowd-pleasing Texas bistro where the guacamole is made for you table-side and a $100 gift certificate to Paesanos Riverwalk, an old-world meets modern Mediterranean eatery that has been a local favorite for decades. The package also includes four tickets to the Rio San Antonio Cruises River Tour, a can’t-miss water tour led by guides who not only point out the sites but give you the history behind them. We’ll also upgrade your room reservation at your official IRA Convention hotel, because after all, don’t you deserve an upgrade?

As if that isn’t enough, the VIP winner will also receive spectacular treatment inside the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, including prime, up-front seating reserved at all three General Sessions, which means no rushing to secure your spot before each session begins! The winner also receives a VIP meet and greet with select speakers, a $100 voucher toward the purchase of books and merchandise at the IRA Bookstore, and a one-year online membership to IRA (existing members will receive a one-year extension to their current membership.)

Register on or before March 22, 2013 for a chance to win this package. Enter promotion code AC1309G when prompted. If you’ve already registered and booked an IRA Convention hotel, you’re already entered into the VIP contest. Our lucky winner will be notified by March 28, 2013.

The IRA 58th Annual Convention runs from April 19 to 22, 2013, in San Antonio, Texas. Visit www.iraconvention.org and the iPlanner Program Grid and Event Search for details.

Amanda Lister is the strategic communications intern at the International Reading Association.

* Prize package subject to change. Anyone who registers or has registered for IRA’s 58th Annual Convention and booked an IRA Convention hotel on or before 11:59PM PST, on March 22, 2013 will be entered to win. Enter promotion code AC1309G when prompted.

by Wendy Carss and Beryl Exley

Bula! The International Development Oceania Committee (IDOC) undertook its "Information Text Awareness Project" (ITAP) in Nadi, FIJI from August 23-25, 2012.

Hosted by Dr. Apolonia Tamata of the iTaukei Trust Fund Board and held at the Fiji National University (FNU) Namaka campus, the first day was an engaging and professionally rigorous academic conversation about the status of vernacular languages in Fiji and the role of schooling in strengthening vernacular language usage. The symposium was attended by members of the Fiji National University, the University of Fiji, the Ministry of Education, the Curriculum Development Unit, the University of the South Pacific, the College for Higher Education Studies, the iTaukei Trust Fund Board, the South Pacific Board for Education Assessment and 20 teachers from local primary schools.

The opening keynote, presented by Professor Subramani (FNU), demonstrated that the Fijian language had the capability to adapt to new language demands. A series of panels covered topics such as research into Fijian literature and literacy, IDOC’s international projects, the teaching and assessment of literacy in schools in the Pacific Region and the status of literacy teaching and learning for Indigenous students in New Zealand and Australia. A highlight of the day was Kelera Tuvou’s (FNU) presentation on contemplating literacy and iTaukei writers and literature. Her passionate plea reminded those attending that "if we do not write about us, then the door is open for others to write about us." An exciting outcome of this symposium was the establishment of a steering committee to form FIJI’s first literacy educators’ association.

The symposium provided the stimulus for the practical application of the ITAP workshop which was held on the following two days and facilitated by Wendy Carss (New Zealand Literacy Association) and Beryl Exley (Australian Literacy Educators’ Association). The first day of the workshop reviewed the five power genres used in schooling contexts: report, explanation, exposition, recount and procedures. Participants deconstructed sample texts to highlight significant staging and textual features to promote the use of a common metalanguage. Participants eagerly shared personal cultural artefacts as a stimulus for producing a range of information texts in their vernacular. Texts included: procedures for weaving baskets, making kava and boiling bread fruit; recounts of weaving a fan from pandanus leaves; an explanation of the classification of mangroves and the historical significance of the whale tooth to the Fijian culture; a report on the coconut tree; and a biography of Lily, a five year old Fijian girl.

By day two, participants were able to insert photographs and publish their vernacular texts. The rest of the day was devoted to translating and publishing an English version of the same text for classroom instruction. Participants were thrilled to receive their certificates of accomplishment as well as a selection of teacher professional development resources kindly donated by the Primary English Teachers Association of Australian (PETAA) and transported to FIJI courtesy of Air NZ.

Titilia Koula & Epeli Vatu proudly showing resources donated by PETAA.

Naomi Tuilekutu proudly displays her book written in Fijian and English.