Literacy Now

Barbara Moore, who passed away in September, had a passion for life and education, a genuine commitment for social justice, and a willingness to put children at the centre of learning. She had a singular ability to work with people–to make each person feel special, to honour the work of people before her that contributed to her work, to instil a great sense of confidence in people, and to create a strong sense of cooperation rather than competition. Barbara became a raging virago when confronted with political and education injustices–and seeing this gentle woman "morph" was a sight to behold!

When I was asked to join the International Development in Oceania Committee Barbara Moore was an existing member, and she was very quickly promoted to chairperson. At that stage Barbara was in charge of the Reading Centre at the Institute of Education at the University of the South Pacific, in Fiji. She spearheaded the development of the South Pacific Literacy Education Project which was initially a joint venue between the Reading Associations of New Zealand and Australia, and then incorporated into the Oceania Committee work. She drew skilfully on the work of Warwick Elley and Francis Mungubai and captured to essence of the book flood learning and the importance of acknowledging and using community stories. Barbara showed incredible leadership across the Pacific–promoting effective practice in literacy and a love of learning, enhancing leadership, encouraging International Reading Association (IRA) membership, and supporting learning in and the publication of resources in children’s first languages.

IRA benefited immensely from Barbara’s commitment. She worked tirelessly to foster IRA’s goals, which she did with integrity and enthusiasm. She guided the International Development Coordinating Committee with co-chair Alistair Hendry, and worked to build positive and constructive relationships with the IRA Board of Directors–relationships that have continued to this day. At the first IRA International Leadership Conference in 1993 Barbara joined the NZRA "delegation" in presenting a very real view of New Zealand education that acknowledged our international links. At the traditional Committee Chairs breakfast at IRA conventions Barbara frequently shared her introduction with stories that were real and inspirational. Barbara’s love of literature and education was always a significant guiding influence.

Barbara was awarded the NZRA Citation of Merit in 1996. This is NZRA’s highest honour, given sparingly, to a person who has contributed significantly to local councils, to reading and to New Zealand (and international) education. One of the criteria was evidenced through Barbara’s participation in sponsoring Pasifika teachers to attend conferences–to set up specific programmes within conferences so that their time was focused and useful. For the 4th South Pacific Conference on Reading, held in Fiji, Barbara held the organisation together way beyond the planning. Pasifika teachers reported that Barbara’s intervention made their participation genuinely educationally productive.

The current highly successful initiatives of the Oceania Committee are based squarely on the work of Barbara.  She enhanced the concept of language experience with texts developed by local people in their first language.  Barbara was an educator ahead of her time. I am privileged to have worked with her and to have learned from her.

Barbara’s contribution to education is summed up nicely in her book, Rescuing the Castaways, written with Teraaka Biribo for the 12th IRA World Congress on Reading on the Gold Coast in 1988. This quote is from Chapter 7: “If you are literate, you feel like a human being, for you can learn about the world for yourself; and communicate with different people in different places. You gain through reading and become part of the wider world.” 

Thank you, Barbara Moore. 

 

Heather Bell is a member of the International Reading Association's Board of Directors. 

The International Reading Association (IRA) offers over four dozen awards for teachers and research professionals. All nominees must be IRA members. Applications for the following nine awards are due Tuesday, November 15, 2011. 

IRA Arbuthnot Award 
The Arbuthnot Award is an $800 award to honor an outstanding college or university teacher of children’s and young adults’ literature. Nominees must be IRA members, affiliated with a college or university, and engaged in teacher and/or librarian preparation at the undergraduate and/or graduate level. 

IRA Award for Technology and Reading
The IRA Award for Technology and Reading honors educators in grades K–12 who are making an outstanding and innovative contribution to the use of technology in reading education. There will be one grand-prize winner, seven U.S. regional winners, one Canadian, and one international winner. All entrants must be educators who work directly with students ages 5–18 for all or part of the working day. 

IRA Erwin Zolt Curriculum Excellence Award
This award, established in memory of Erwin Zolt, who inspired in others a “zest for knowledge,” may be given annually to support exceptional design and execution of a curriculum unit based on In2Books and the Common Core State Standards, inspiring students to transform knowledge into creative action. This award is for $2,500 (sponsored by Nina Zolt and Miles Gilburne). 

IRA William S. Gray Citation of Merit
The William S. Gray Citation of Merit is awarded to a nationally or internationally known person for outstanding contributions to the field of reading. 

IRA Maryann Manning Outstanding Volunteer Service Award
The IRA Maryann Manning Outstanding Volunteer Service Award is a nonmonetary award given annually to four dedicated volunteers within North America and one dedicated volunteer outside of North America. 

IRA/Weekly Reader Eleanor M. Johnson Award
The IRA/Weekly Reader Eleanor M. Johnson Award recognizes an outstanding elementary classroom teacher of reading/language arts. The award honors Eleanor M. Johnson, founder and editor-in-chief of Weekly Reader, who died in 1987. It carries a $1,000 prize supported by a grant from Weekly Reader Corporation. 

IRA Jerry Johns Outstanding Teacher Educator in Reading Award
The IRA Jerry Johns Outstanding Teacher Educator in Reading Award is a $1,000 award supported by Jerry Johns. This award honors an outstanding college or university teacher of reading methods or reading-related courses. Nominees must be IRA members, affiliated with a college or a university, and engaged in teacher preparation in reading at the undergraduate and/or graduate levels. 

IRA Nila Banton Smith Award
IRA will present the IRA Nila Banton Smith Award to a teacher who shows outstanding leadership in translating theory and current research into practice in developing content area literacy. 

IRA Paul A. Witty Short Story Award
The IRA Paul A. Witty Short Story Award is given to the author of an original short story published for the first time during 2011 in a periodical for children. The award carries a $1,000 stipend. The short story should serve as a literary standard that encourages young readers to read periodicals. 

IRA Regie Routman Teacher Recognition Grant
IRA will honor an outstanding mainstream, elementary classroom teacher dedicated to improving the teaching and learning of reading and writing, across the curriculum in real world contexts in grades K–6 (ages 5–12). At least 60% of the school's students must be eligible for free or reduced lunch. The grant may not be used for purchase of commercial programs. The $2,500 award is supported by a grant from Regie Routman. 

Exemplary Reading Program Award
The Exemplary Reading Program Award recognizes outstanding reading and language arts programs at all grade levels (elementary, middle, and high school). Its purpose is to call the public’s attention to outstanding programs in schools throughout Canada and the United States. Each participating state and province can choose one winning school a year. At least one faculty or staff member of the applying school must be a current IRA member. 

Click here for more information about IRA awards and grants.

The International Reading Association (IRA) convention team has some fun ways to get ready for the Annual Convention in April 2012. 

Nominate your favorite teacher for IRA’s Celebrated Teacher of the Year, and they could win free registration to the annual 2012 convention in Chicago. IRA will accept nominations through December, 31, 2011. In January, they will share nominated teachers’ stories on the convention website. IRA members can vote on the most exceptional story. In mid-March, IRA will recognize one teacher as IRA's Celebrated Teacher of the Year.

The “Convention Insider” is an online TV show with host Wes Ford. The latest episode features IRA President Victoria Risko revealing the origins of the 2012 Convention’s theme “Celebrating Teaching” along with which educators have inspired her. The convention website also has videos with Wes introducing the new convention website, speaking with Regie Routman, and interviewing Willie Benjamin. Visit www.iraconvention.org to watch these 2012 convention videos as well as 2011 convention videos. 

The Itinerary Program Planner for the 2012 Convention goes live in November 2011. Convention registration and housing reservations will be available online beginning December 1, 2011. For more information, visit www.iraconvention.org or the convention Facebook page. 

Literacy Events 

Awards & Grants 

Today we begin our series of articles featuring the innovative projects coordinated by Special Interest Groups (SIGs) of the International Reading Association. In this debut feature, we highlight the Technology in Literacy Education SIG (TILE-SIG) who has been contributing weekly articles to Reading Today Online for the past few months. President Julie Coiro shares what makes the SIG unique and fun. 

1. Are you especially proud of any of your SIG's projects?
One SIG project I am especially proud of is our efforts to more actively involve conference attendees in our TILE-SIG annual session. Beginning in 2010, we decided to combine our regular large group presentation offering with more interactive small group roundtable sessions.  We’ve gotten positive feedback from our members about this format as it enables attendees to enjoy a 40-minute formal presentation made by the winner of our annual Computers in Reading Research Award and then meet in several small group 30-minute breakout sessions to talk more intimately with researchers and other teachers wanting to share their ideas about how technology can be used to improve the quality of reading instruction. At the 2012 IRA convention, we will host Renee Hobbs, our 2011 research award winner, and 18 different roundtable sessions, in three groups of six breakouts each. 

A second TILE-SIG project that I am proud of speaks to the amazing amount of expertise that lies within our membership. Our newsletter now boasts regular columns such as Voices from the Field (by Denise Stuart), Educational Blog Watch (by Mike Putman), Book Reviews (by Brenda Stein Dzaldov), and Summaries of TILE-SIG Presentations for SIG members unable to attend IRA’s annual convention. Elsewhere, this past August, seventeen TILE-SIG members volunteered to contribute to a blog series featured in Reading Today Online that posts weekly segments on topics including online composing tools, exemplary classroom websites, technology tips, research briefs, and professional development initiatives around infusing technology into the literacy curriculum. Recent posts by Jill Castek, Rick Ferdig, and Marjie Podzielinski, for example, illustrate just a few of the many ways that IRA and TILE-SIG members seek to support classroom teachers. 

2. What are the benefits of joining your SIG? 

The biggest benefit to joining the TILE-SIG is having regular access to formal and informal professional development opportunities and the insights of our over 190 members. Our membership is distributed mostly between classroom teachers and literacy researchers, although some hold positions as technology specialists, school administrators, or educational consultants. IRA members seeking to be more actively involved in initiatives related to technology and literacy are highly encouraged to join us and think about how you can help the SIG to better meet your needs. In addition to these networking opportunities, registered members receive our SIG newsletter two to three times each year; they can submit proposals to present at our annual TILE-SIG session; they work closely with members of IRA’s Technology Committee to assist with technology-related charges; and they can become more active as a SIG committee member. We are currently investigating opportunities to partner up with other SIGs for a social event at the annual convention as well.

3. Are there any future projects in store for your SIG?

One exciting new venture that TILE-SIG members Denise Stuart, from The University of Akron, and Paula Saine, from Miami University, are heading up this fall involves coordinating efforts to more formally connect our members who have volunteered to serve as liaisons between the TILE-SIG and their local/state reading associations. The TILE-SIG has members in almost every state in the United States as well as in at least six countries. Our hope is to find more ways to effectively share our resources and learn how our SIG can better meet the needs of classroom teachers seeking to improve the quality of reading instruction through the use of new technologies. Through these liaisons, we also hope to meet teachers doing exciting things in their classrooms and invite them to share their work with our members.

And finally, I think our most exciting future venture involves developing a professional, peer-reviewed journal for sharing research and teaching ideas related to literacy and technology. Beth Dobler, from Emporia State University, and Denise Johnson, from the College of William and Mary, have volunteered to head up this project and are hoping for the online publication for the inaugural issue of the Journal of Technology In Literacy Education to appear early summer, 2013.

4. How does one join your SIG? 
The easiest way to join our SIG is to visit IRA’s TILE-SIG website. From here, you can download the one page registration form and mail it with your $10 annual registration fee to our membership chair, Joan Rhodes, at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her contact information is included at the bottom of the form. Please note that you must be a member of IRA in order to join the TILE-SIG. There is also space on the form to indicate your interest in serving as a TILE-SIG committee member or liaison with your local reading association.

5. Is there a website, newsletter, or another way to find more information about your SIG? Is there a person that prospective members can contact?
To get a sense of our TILE-SIG offerings, you can download a recent newsletter or access several previous newsletters by selecting the Newsletters link at our TILE-SIG wiki. From the wiki, you can also explore handouts and presentation materials from previous TILE-SIG annual conference sessions and relevant resources connected to several years of Technology Pre-Conference Institutes, which are hosted collaboratively by members of TILE-SIG and IRA’s Technology, Communication and Literacy Committee. You do not need to be a member of the SIG to view the wiki; however, only SIG members will be given access to the wiki as content contributor.  To learn more about our SIG, you can contact me (Julie Coiro, President of the TILE-SIG) at jcoiro@mail.uri.edu or our membership chair Joan Rhodes at jarhodes2@vcu.edu. For more information about our newsletter, you can contact our co-editor Michael Putman at michael.putman@uncc.edu. 

 

If you would like Reading Today Online to feature your SIG, please contact readingtoday@/. 

 

This feature is the sixth and final article in a series that celebrates the accomplishments of National Affiliates of the International Development in Europe Committee (IDEC) of the International Reading Association (IRA). Their member organizations’ activity reports are compiled twice a year (in January and July), and we have summarized excerpts from these reports. Visit www.literacyeurope.org for more information and a list of national websites.

Spain
The Spanish Reading and Writing Association, known as Asociación Espaňola de Lectura y Escritura (AELE) is in the midst of preparing for their Ibero-American Forum of Learning and Literacy that will take place in University Federal Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) from October 26 to 28, 2011. The AELE collaborates with Research Group Literacy Literary (GPELL) linked to the Literacy Center, Reading and Writing (CEAL) in Brazil, and Association Portuguese for Literacy (Littera) to organize this forum with the theme “Where is literature?"  The forum proposes a broadening horizons of the discussion about the world and the literary texts, spaces, and discourses that give the forms to see where renewed transitions literature. This event will be attend by people from Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay and more. AELE and the Research Group of University Complutense of Madrid have created the Iberoamerican Network Research “Speaking, reading and writing practices: interrelationship between consigns and development of linguistic communicative competence”. This network is composed of researchers and teachers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Spain, and Uruguay. Telemaco´s Writing Club “Write as readers” social project is in development in four countries: Argentina, Chile, Peru and Spain. The main aims are: a) Implement proposals that encourage, in children and adolescents, the interaction “reading and writing texts" from a book and work with its author; and b) Supporting teachers in the educational development of proposals related to the processes of reading-writing-literature (process shared). The AELE has created a network between towns and cities of the different Spanish Autonomous Communities (CPLE Network) with the following aims: a) To facilitate inter-institutional actions allowing the advance towards the right to appropriate the language as a fundamental tool for active and democratic participation in knowledge society, and b) To provide places and tools for the interaction between towns and cities through reading and writing, helping in this way to increase the reading and writing rates in our societies. At this point, there is around 20 towns and cities in this Network. Visit www.asociacionaele.org for more information about AELE. 

Sweden
Most activities of the Swedish Council of International Reading Association (SCIRA) are arranged in the local groups and include lectures, in-service courses, study visits at different institutions, and writing competitions for students. Local groups have working relationships with various institutions, organizations, and professional associations that promote literacy, such as universities, public libraries, and teacher organizations. SCIRA’s journal Läsning (“Reading”) is published twice a year, in March and October, and carries articles by renowned researchers as well as practitioners, and information about a variety of activities within the area of literacy, on national and international level. SCIRA is proud of their sucessful Autumn two-day conference held in Umea on October 15 and 16. The program was published in the Spring edition of Läsning and on the website (www.scira.nu). The conference focused basic skills, including reading and mathematics, from different perspectives. The annual meeting and the Spring board meeting took place in Trollhattan on April 2 and 3. Now, SCIRA is focusing on the 2013 European Conference, “New Challenges – New Literacies,” which will be held in Jonkoping on August 6 to 9, 2013. 

The United Kingdom
The United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA) has an extensive professional development program that recently included an international conference entitled Empowerment Through Literacy: Literacy Shaping Futures on July 15 to 17. National conferences included Talking to Learn: developing thinking in and through dialogue in London on June 24, New Methods for New Literacies in Sheffield on July 8 to 9, Writing and Writers in Schools in Birmingham in March, as well as the regional conferences Purpose and Pleasure in Writing in the Eastern Region in March, Talk to Underpin Digital and Traditional Literacies in Huddersfield on May 21, Learning Outside the Classroom in Cambridgeshire on June 23. In February, the Association  held a research symposium in London entitled Exploring Synergies in Literacy Research. The publish Literacy, Journal of Research in Reading, and English 5-11, as well as other publications available through a catalog found on their website. UKLA continues to support literacy projects in Zanzibar and Malawi and funds many other literacy projects. Visit www.ukla.org for more information about the United Kingdom Literacy Association.