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  • Jane O'Connor
    • Blog Posts
    • Conferences & Events

    Fancy Nancy Author Jane O’Connor at Annual Convention

     | Jan 24, 2013

    by Elizabeth Bleacher

    Jane O'ConnorThough she recently entered the adult fiction world to much acclaim, Jane O’Connor is best known for her work with children’s literature. She is the author of more than thirty books for children and currently works as vice-president of Penguin Books for Young Readers. Some of her most popular work includes her endearing children’s series, Fancy Nancy. Nancy’s spunk and eccentric personality has earned her a lasting place in the hearts of fans and more than 40 titles to her name.

    O’Connor is the featured presenter at the Primary Literature Luncheon at IRA’s Annual Convention on Saturday, April 20, 2013. During the session, the award-winning author will share her extensive insight on the importance of children’s literature and the impact it has inside and outside of the classroom.

    Fancy NancyThe first book of the series, Fancy Nancy, received the Quill Award for Best Picture Book in 2007, and seven other titles from the series have hit No. 1 on the New York Times bestsellers list. The series has recently evolved to include chapter books for Nancy fans that have moved beyond the picture book reading level.

    Though Nancy’s fabulous sense of style plays a prominent role in the books, her admirable self-confidence and frequent use of “five-dollar” words are important too. A variety of teaching resources and downloadable activities make it easy for educators to incorporate Nancy in the classroom.

    O’Connor is also the author of several nonfiction children’s books. Her two Smart about Art books detail the lives of Mary Cassatt and Henri Matisse in picture books that include reproductions of the artists’ well known works. The Emperor's Silent Army: Terra Cotta Warriors of Ancient China, released in 2002, was awarded Booklist’s Best Nonfiction Book for Young Readers.

    IRA Annual Convention registration is open, and tickets for the Book and Author Luncheon with O’Connor on Saturday, April 20 are available on a first-come basis.

    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.

    Elizabeth Bleacher is the strategic communications department intern at the International Reading Association.


     

     

    by Elizabeth Bleacher Though she recently entered the adult fiction world to much acclaim, Jane O’Connor is best known for her work with children’s literature. She is the author of more than thirty books for children and currently works as...Read More
  • TALE
    • Blog Posts
    • ILA Network

    Featured Council: Texas Association for Literacy Education (TALE)

     | Jan 22, 2013

    Carolyn Hunter Denny, president of Texas Association for Literacy Education (TALE) and instructional specialist for the elementary language arts department at Northside Independent School District took some time to share news from this recently-formed but thriving International Reading Association council.

    TALE

    Drew and Jack Cassidy with 
    Marie Martinez, Treasurer of 
    the UTSA student IRA affiliate, 
    at the Starbucks event 

    What are some exciting upcoming council projects?

    We're starting an electronic journal. We have a call for editors out now. 

    We have a session at the IRA Annual Convention in cooperation with the Texas Association for the Improvement of Reading and the Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts.

    Our next conference is set for October 12, 2013, at the Texas State University-San Marcos' campus in Round Rock, Texas.

    We will be doing a comparison of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (state standards) and the Common Core Standards.

    What types of literacy outreach do your state and local councils do?

    We are planning a drive for books for summer reading.

    What are the benefits of joining your council?

    The benefits include making connections with other Texas literacy educators, receiving timely information on literacy issues, and our annual conference.

    How does one join or become involved?

    You can find membership info on our website: www.texasreaders.org. There you will also find information about submitting to our newsletter, contacting the board, liking TALE on Facebook, submitting to the upcoming journal, presenting at our conference, and reviewing conference proposals.

    IRA members can read more about TALE in the upcoming issue of Reading Today.

     

     

     

    Carolyn Hunter Denny, president of Texas Association for Literacy Education (TALE) and instructional specialist for the elementary language arts department at Northside Independent School District took some time to share news from this...Read More
  • Chris Soentpiet
    • Blog Posts
    • Conferences & Events

    Martin Luther King Jr.’s Sister Christine King Farris and Illustrator Chris Soentpiet Collaborate on Children’s Book

     | Jan 17, 2013

    by Elizabeth Bleacher

    My Brother Martin

    The approach of Martin Luther King Jr. Day gives educators the perfect opportunity to explore some of the issues that surround equality and justice, but it can be difficult to relate such complex topics to young students. The illustrated children’s book My Brother Martin, written by Christine King Farris and illustrated by Chris Soentpiet, is the perfect way to introduce early readers to Dr. King’s life and work.

    Christine King Farris and Chris Soentpiet
    Christine King Farris and Chris Soentpiet

    My Brother Martin tells the story of Dr. King’s childhood through the recollections of his older sister, Christine, all the while setting the stage for the seemingly inevitable role her brother played in the civil rights movement. Students will find it easy to connect with a young Dr. King thanks to the familiar, intimate voice of the storyteller and the detailed, realistic illustrations. Soentpiet won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for the book in 2004. Additionally, Soentpiet's website offers a lesson plan for the book as well as other suggested reading that addresses similar topics.

    Teachers that find My Brother Martin helpful may also enjoy many of the other stories illustrated by Soentpiet. Since he emphasizes historical and cultural accuracy in his illustrations, Soentpiet’s work in books like More Than Anything Else and Coolies offers valuable visual aids for teachers covering abstract topics like diversity, equality, and cultural understanding.

    Chris Soentpiet and NAACP Image AwardSoentpiet is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Society of Illustrators’ gold medal for his illustrations in Peacebound Trains. He is also the three-time winner of the International Reading Association (IRA) Book Award for More Than Anything Else, Molly Bannaky, and Coolies.

    Soentpiet is the featured presenter at the Book and Author Luncheon at IRA’s Annual Convention, on Monday, April 22, 2013. During his session, the award winning children’s picture book creator will discuss the importance of literature and diversity in teaching.

    IRA 58th Annual Convention registration is open and tickets for the Book and Author Luncheon with Soentpiet on Monday, April 22 are available on a first-come basis. The Annual Convention will take place in San Antonio, Texas from April 19 to 22. Visit www.iraconvention.org and the iPlanner Program Grid and Event Search for details.

    Elizabeth Bleacher is the strategic communications department intern at the International Reading Association.

     

     

     

    by Elizabeth Bleacher The approach of Martin Luther King Jr. Day gives educators the perfect opportunity to explore some of the issues that surround equality and justice, but it can be difficult to relate such complex topics to young students....Read More
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  • Brian Cambourne
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    • Conferences & Events

    Literacy Education Research Events Feature Brian Cambourne and More

     | Jan 15, 2013

    The International Reading Association has a tradition of research-based professional development resources for literacy educators. This tradition continues with this year’s series of research sessions at the IRA 58th Annual Convention from April 19 to 22 in San Antonio, Texas.

    Research Address & Awards with Brian Cambourne and Carrice Cummins

    Brian CambourneThe Research Address & Awards on Saturday, April 20 feature Brian Cambourne from the University of Wollongong in Australia presenting Doin' What Comes Naturally: Using Nature's Best Biological Ideas to Inform Classroom Practice. Research into the teaching of reading accumulates in ever-increasing bulk—with all manner of contradictory and confusing results—culminating in the so-called "Reading Wars."  Carrice CumminsBattle lines have been drawn around what the concepts of "evidence" and "good science" are supposed to look  like,especially when it comes teaching and learning. Cambourne intends to explore the proposition that scientifically based evidence, which can inform classroom pedagogy has been around for millions of years. Event Chair Carrice Cummins, President of the International Reading Association, will celebrate the 2013 research award and grant recipients during this session.

    Saturday Sessions with the IRA Literacy Research Panel

    P. David PearsonLiteracy Research Panel members will share their ideas on promising new literacy initiatives and important research priorities in the U.S. and around the world in a session entitled The IRA Literacy Research Panel: Big Ideas, Literacy Needs, and National Priorities on Saturday, April 20. IRA Director of Government Relations Rich Long and Panel members P. David Pearson, Peter Afflerbach, Carrice Cummins, Nell Duke, Peter Freebody, Virginia Goatley, John Guthrie, Kris Gutierrez, Kenji Hakuta, Peter Johnston, Gloria Ladson-Billings, Nonie Lesaux, Elizabeth Moje, Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar, Linda Phillips, Timothy Shanahan, Catherine Snow, William Teale, and Karen Wixson will discuss hot topics and ideas to assist educators with literacy implementation. Presenters will use an interactive format to respond to questions from the audience to provide insights into current literacy policy and practice.

    The Panel continues its discussion in The IRA Literacy Research Panel: Policy Issues and Impact later on Saturday the 20th. With national and state policy having a daily impact on school practices and classroom literacy instruction, the Literacy Research Panel is focusing on policy issues in their discussions. In this session, IRA Director of Government Relations Rich Long and Panel members P. David Pearson, Peter Afflerbach, Nell Duke, Virginia Goatley, Kris Gutierrez, Gloria Ladson-Billings, Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar, Timothy Shanahan, Catherine Snow, and Karen Wixson will share recent policy developments and potential responses to new initiatives, intended to help educators navigate and articulate research-based responses to policymakers. In addition, audience/IRA members will be invited to suggest possible policy questions for consideration.

    Featured Research Sessions on Saturday

    The Project READI: Teaching adolescents to read and write arguments in science, English, and History presentation with Cynthia Greenleaf, Carol Lee, and Cynthia Shanahan will showcase the ongoing work of READI, a Reading for Understanding project funded through IES. This project focuses on a definition of reading for understanding that recognizes the role of disciplinary practices in reading comprehension and focuses on argumentation within the disciplines as the avenue towards deep understanding of text. Three disciplinary teams have been designing and studying instruction aimed at helping middle and high school students comprehend and write arguments, drawing on the help of exemplary teachers and teacher networks. The three team leaders will share what they have learned from this work.

    In the “Research Into Practice” session entitled The Common Core's Three Sources for Text Complexity: What We Know, What We Need to Know presenter Elfrieda H. Hiebert will discuss the Common Core State Standards’ identified three-part model for establishing the complexity of texts. This presentation will examine existing scholarship for each source—quantitative, qualitative, and reader-task—with the goal of identifying support for educators in selecting and teaching texts in ways that increase students' capacity with complex text (Standard 10). Ways in which practitioners and researchers can work together to bolster text assessment systems will be identified in the final section of the presentation.

    In Meeting the Challenges of the Changing Demographics: Assessment and instruction that makes a positive difference in ELs' Success presenter Kathleen Mohr will identify ways to meet ELs' linguistic challenges and provide paths to increase students' success. Paul Boyd-Batstone presents CALL as a formative assessment tool and Mayra Daniel discusses informal reading inventories for Spanish/English bilinguals. Joyce Nutta and Kouider Mokhtari focus on critical considerations for instruction in the mainstream content area classroom. Louise C. Wilkinson presents a tool to assist teachers in comparing and contrasting English with many of the other languages spoken by ELs in US schools. David Schwarzer addresses translingual education in this country's multilingual and transnational learning communities.

    Saturday’s Teacher as Researcher Workshop

    The Becoming a Teacher Researcher: Exploring IRA's Teacher as Researcher Grant workshop will explore IRA's Teacher as Researcher grant and provide information on what it means to be a teacher researcher and how to conduct action research. Award winners from previous years Eric Claravall, Joanna Kaiser, Michele Cacioppo, and Nakeiha Primus will be present to talk about their work. Committee members will address particular aspects of teacher research and answer questions.

    Research Sessions on Sunday, April 21

    Nell K. DukeNell K. Duke presents the Project-based Integrated Social Studies and Literacy Instruction featured research session on April 21. To meet the CCSS, students need to be deeply engaged in complex reading and writing. Standards-aligned project-based instruction is a promising means of achieving that engagement. In one study, Duke and colleagues found that students in high poverty settings who experienced two project-based integrated social studies and literacy units ended the year with the same level of achievement as children from wealthy settings on standards-based measures. In other words, project-based instruction closed the SES achievement gap in social studies and content literacy. Duke will describe the units involved in that study as well as others she and colleagues have developed.

    Also on April 21, Jim Anderson leads a Research Into Practice session entitled Promoting and Supporting Families' First Languages and Cultures in a Bilingual Family Literacy Program: A Project with Immigrant and Refugee Families. In this session, Anderson reports on a three-year project in which his team implemented a bilingual family literacy project with 500 immigrant and refugee families from four linguistic groups in five different communities. He briefly traces the development of the program, describes the contexts in which it was implemented, and reports the results. Findings include: the four- and five-year-old children made significant gains in emergent literacy knowledge in English; families understood and supported home language maintenance; and families indicated they felt welcomed and comfortable in school and better understood the North American education system.

    Diane Lapp and Douglas Fisher—along with numerous other authors—lead roundtable discussions in What's New in Language Arts Research? Looking Inside The Handbook of Research On Teaching of the Language Arts, Vol. 3. Authors will share the research supported current issues addressed in their chapters. Audience interaction will be greatly encouraged.

    Research Into Practice Session on Monday, April 22

    Melanie R. Kuhn and Paula J. Schwanenflugel present Rethinking Fluency: Instruction for the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) on Monday, April 22. They say that, if students are to become fluent readers, they need extensive opportunities to read a range of materials, from selections at their independent level to "stretch" texts. Yet it is often the case that students need scaffolding to experience success with challenging texts. Fortunately, research has identified several easy-to-implement approaches for fluency instruction that provide learners with the support necessary to read such selections. Given the integral role of challenging material in the CCSS, these approaches can play an important role in your literacy curriculum while allowing your learners access to the expanded vocabulary and conceptual knowledge such texts provide.

    Research Poster Sessions

    Poster sessions give Convention attendees the chance to interact with researchers in a more informal, intimate setting. At these open sessions, researchers answer questions and referring to their displays of photographs and charts. This year there will be poster session on Outstanding Dissertations; Interdisciplinary Units for Literacy Education; Meet the Researchers; Looking Inside the Classroom; Teacher Preparation, Teaching, and Coaching; Culturally Relevant Teaching: Language, Families, and Communities Focusing on Learners: Curriculum, Assessment, and Interventions; and Multiple Paths to Literacy in the 21st Century.

    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.

     

     

     

    The International Reading Association has a tradition of research-based professional development resources for literacy educators. This tradition continues with this year’s series of research sessions at the IRA 58th Annual Convention from April...Read More
  • Conference
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    • ILA Network

    Collaborative Conference in Estonia Focuses on Literacy Needs of Children with Disabilities

     | Jan 14, 2013

    by Marja Kivihall and Kadi Lukanenok

    The International Reading Association, the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), and the International Board for Books for Young People (IBBY) acknowledge the intrinsic value and importance of literacy in the widest sense, which is a prerequisite for seeking and accessing information of any kind, understanding it, and making use of it. Education (formal, non-formal, and informal), availability of books in the readers’ languages, support for local publishing, and library programming are complementary sources and enablers of knowledge. They are central pillars to aims, goals, and values of each named organisation, which makes close cooperation between them natural and needed.

    At the 14th European Conference on Reading in Zagreb, Croatia, in August 2005, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between participating organizations was signed by IFLA president Kay Raseroka, IRA president Richard Allington, and IBBY president Peter Schneck.

    They agreed to work on practical modalities including exchange of expertise (joint statements, declarations, manifestos, etc.), joint advocacy and support for each others’ advocacy activities, joint research activities, workshops and/or training sessions, projects, and publications. The MoU paid special attention to cooperation at each others’ conferences. Following is a good example of realisation of the MoU at the root level between associations and institutions in a country.

    ConferenceThe IFLA WLIC 2012 Preconference “Let’s Read! Reading and Print Disabilities in Young People” was held on 8-9 August 2012 in Tallinn, Estonia. The conference was organized by IFLA Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities Section (LPD) in cooperation with the Estonian Reading Association and the Estonian Library for the Blind.

    The aim of the conference was to highlight the importance of delivering special library services for children and youngsters with print disabilities (e.g. visual impairment) or reading difficulties (e.g. dyslexia) and show how to improve the services through co-operation and partnership with schools and reading associations.

    Target groups included: 

    • librarians (specialized library services and public libraries) 
    • teachers 
    • national organizations working with dyslexia and other interest groups 
    • other professionals working with persons with print disabilities 
    • children’s librarians from the Nordic libraries for the print disabled
    It took more than a year to organize the conference with active e-mailing and having Skype and eye-to-eye meetings. The first meeting with IFLA LPD Section’s members in Oslo took place in May 2011. It was followed by the second meeting in Tallinn at the Estonian Library for the Blind in November 2011 which was also attended by Kadi Lukanenok from the Estonian Reading Association and Tallinn University.

    ConferenceThe active preparations culminated with the conference in August 2012 which turned out to be a success with a good program and interesting visits to the Estonian Children’s Literature Centre and the Estonian Library for the Blind. Participants of the conference came to Tallinn from 18 countries to acquire information and enrich their knowledge.

    Kadi Lukanenok and Meeli Pandis represented the Estonian Reading Association at the conference. KadiLukanenok gave a presentation “Dyslexia 3-level Framework by U. Frith. Implication for Society.”

    During the conference the dinner was arranged at the Estonian Open Air Museum, and visits to the Estonian Library for the Blind and the Estonian Children’s Literature Centre were organized.

    Further cooperation between the Estonian Library for the Blind, Estonian Reading Association, and Tallinn University Department of Special Education was discussed. The inclusion of reading/print disabled people is still problematic in Estonia. All partners looked ahead for problem solving ideas engaging special education and teacher training students. Many useful contacts were established.

    Information about the preconference is available at www.nlb.no/en/ifla-preconference-2012/.

    Marja KivihallMarja Kivihall is from the Estonian Library of the Blind, marja@epr.ee. 



    Kadi KukanenokKadi Lukanenok is from the Estonian Reading Association, Kadi.lukanenok@tlu.ee.

    by Marja Kivihall and Kadi Lukanenok The International Reading Association, the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), and the International Board for Books for Young People (IBBY) acknowledge the intrinsic value and importance...Read More
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