FEATURED SPEAKERS

READING RECOVERY FEATURED SPEAKERS
(Open to Reading Recovery-trained professionals only. Ticket required.) 

Do We Pay  Enough Attention to Structure? Sunday 1:30-3:00 pm Tuesday 10:30 am-Noon Ann Ballantyne, Reading Recovery trainer, New York University, Ruth Horowitz Center for  Teacher Development, New York, NY Oral language structure is a key source of information for readers and writers, whether new learners or proficient  speakers. Examine why language structure is so critical to early literacy learning and factors that might lead us to underestimate its importance — or neglect it in our  teaching. Emphasizes the need to teach for shifts in control of oral language structure and better access to structural information in reading and writing.

You Could Be Right, You Could Be Wrong, But You Have Got to Know for Yourself! Sunday 3:30-5:00 pm Monday 8:30-10:00 am Sue Duncan, Reading Recovery trainer, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA Self-monitoring is an essential part of a good reading process. Focus on the importance of self-monitoring and what it involves. Videos are used to explore different aspects of monitoring.

When Learning to Look at Print is Difficult Monday 1:00-2:30 pm Monday 3:00-4:30 pm Lea McGee, Reading Recovery trainer, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH Reading Recovery children must learn strategic actions for looking at print throughout their lessons, but especially during early- and mid-learning. Videos and running records are presented in order to detect children who have difficulty integrating visual information with other sources of information and consider the effects of various teaching procedures.

K-6 CLASSROOM LITERACY FEATURED SPEAKERS

In the Beginning: Building the Foundations for Literacy Learning (K-2) Monday 8:30-10:00 am Monday 1:00-2:30 pm Patricia Edwards, distinguished professor of language and literacy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI Our job as educators can either offer a bridge that connects home and school literacies, or create a divide that essentially shuts out the home literacy. See videos of parents preparing their children for school-based literacy and those who are struggling to do so. Learn how to motivate parents to engage in literacy learning with their young children.

Engagement, Motivation, and Literacy Learning (K-6) Sunday 1:30-3:00 pm Sunday 3:30-5:00 pm Peter Johnston, literacy researcher and author, The University at Albany, Albany, NY Discover how focusing on learners’ engagement affects their development, individually and collectively, and the qualities of the learning community. Examine the impact on their literacy as well as their social relationships, their social imagination, their self-management, and their sense of agency.

Strategies for Success in Helping Students Read and Comprehend Nonfiction (K-6) Monday 8:30-10:00 am Monday 3:00-4:30 pm Tony Stead, educational consultant and author, Australia Learn proven instructional strategies for teaching early emergent and fluent readers how to become successful and proficient readers and researchers of informational texts. Students learn how to access and comprehend information from a variety of sources

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Ann Ballantyne  is the trainer and director for the Reading Recovery Project at New York University. She has worked as Reading Recovery teacher, tutor (teacher leader), and trainer in her home country of New Zealand and at several university sites in the United States, in Canada, and in the United Kingdom. She has a particular interest in education policy and has recently completed a detailed study of the development of Reading Recovery in New Zealand. Some insights from this research are published in the opening chapter of Boundless Horizons: Marie Clay’s search for the possible in education (Askew & Watson, 2009)

Sue Duncan is a director of the Reading Recovery program in the Early Childhood Department at Georgia State University. She taught as a primary teacher and a principal in a number of different areas in New Zealand before training as a Reading Recovery tutor in Auckland in 1985. Since becoming a trainer, she has worked in New Zealand, England, Canada, and the USA. In 2007-2008 she trained as a facilitator for the First Chance program.

Lea McGee is a Reading Recovery Trainer at The Ohio State University and is the Marie Clay Chair of Reading Recovery and Early Literacy. Her leadership is broad-based and relates both to the Reading Recovery program, and more generally to early literacy. Dr. McGee brings scholarly strength in both of these directions. Her background and extensive experience in language education, curriculum and instruction, literacy in preschool settings and Head Start programs brings the intersection of interests and abilities needed in the person in this role. She has a strong record of research productivity, national leadership, and practical work in schools with both children and teachers.  She has published 5 books (one in four editions), 17 book chapters, and more than three dozen journal articles, many in the most prestigious journals, such as Reading Research Quarterly and Journal of Literacy Research. Dr. McGee has provided the field with strong leadership as President and member of the Board of Directors of the National Reading Conference which is the leading national research organization in her field. In addition, she was Principal Investigator on a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

Patricia A. Edwards is a Distinguished Professor of Language and Literacy at Michigan State University. She is the 2010-2011 President of the International Reading Association, the largest literacy practitioner organization in the world. She was the first African American President of the Literacy Research Association (formerly National Reading Conference), which is the largest literacy research organization.  She is known for her exemplary teaching, as she is able to connect research to practical ideas for classroom teachers. In 2001, she was the recipient of the prestigious Michigan State University Distinguished Faculty Award. She has also served as the coordinator of the department’s Master’s in Literacy program. Dr. Edwards is also a mentor not only to doctoral students in the literacy specialization of the PhD program, but she also serves as a formal and informal mentor to several faculty members at MSU as well as other colleges/universities. Dr. Edwards is the author and co-editor of many books and her research has been published in journals focusing on family literacy, home-school partnerships, and parental involvement. Recently, Dr. Edwards has been involved in projects on Response to Intervention (RTI) as well as assessment.

Peter Johnston is Professor and chair of the Reading Department at the University at Albany-SUNY. He researches the consequences of teaching and assessment practices for the literate lives of children and teachers. His recent books are; Reading to learn (2002, with Dick Allington), Choice Words: How our language affects children’s learning (2004), Critical literacy/critical teaching: Tools for preparing responsive teachers (2005), RTI in Literacy – Responsive and comprehensive (2010), and Opening Minds(2012). He was a member of the International Reading Association’s Response to Intervention (RTI) Commission and chaired IRA and NCTE’s Joint Task Force on Assessment Standards. IRA has awarded him the Albert J Harris Award for contributions to research on reading disability and in 2005 he was elected to IRA’s Reading Hall of Fame.

Tony Stead has taught at both at the elementary and University level and is the author of many publications. These include: Is That a Fact?: Teaching Nonfiction Writing; Reality Checks: Teaching Reading Comprehension With Nonfiction; and Good Choice: Supporting Independent Reading and Responses. He is also the author of 2 video series; Time For Nonfiction and Bridges to Independence-Guided Reading with Nonfiction. Tony is also the co author of the brand new publication Explorations in Writing Nonfiction and the DVD series Nonfiction Writing: Intentional, Connected and Engaging. He currently works in literacy education with school districts across the United States, Canada and Australia. He has presented at hundred of conferences around the world. His greatest love is learning from children.