Literacy Now

by Zafar Yasin and Muhammad Nadim Farooqui

Pakistan is one of the 12 countries of the world that spends less than 2% of its GNP on education; its primary education system ranks among the world’s least effective. The literacy rate in Sindh and Balochistan provinces are 59% and 41%, respectively. Only 40% of the literate population can read simple text in local languages.

A significant part of societies in the two provinces lack the reading habit. Generally students read selected portions of class textbooks to prepare for their eventual examinations. Education managers, school head teachers, and classroom teachers rarely buy any books for their own reading. Most schools lack library facilities.

Schools that do have libraries have usually not updated their book collections for decades. As a result, the state of reading habits is alarming in the two provinces. The Sindh-Balochistan Reading Council (SBRC) believes that the current reading deficiency in society is one of the major causes of the existing wave of terrorism and extremism.

In order to make a significant difference in the education practices of these two provinces, SBRC hopes to build partner ships with schools for promoting a reading culture.

• Conducting school academic audits for the purpose of identifying and enhancing reading spaces within and beyond school hours by promoting family reading engagements;
• Helping schools in building innovative classroom libraries, managed by students and teachers collaboratively. This innovative library model suggests a change of the whole collection of classroom books in every quarter. This feature of the library would not only attract students but also give them opportunity to interact with a large number of brand new books every year;
• Providing training to partner school teachers for maximum utilization of the classroom library;
• Opening opportunities for information exchange in order to improve mutual understanding and to develop competencies and skills necessary to enable changes in social attitude and behavior;
• Conducting action research to improve classroom teaching, enhance effectiveness of academic coordination, and refine management practices. (SBRC will work with classroom teachers, academic coordinators, and education managers to identify critical issues.)

SBRC is a brand new council chartered with IRA and is already actively working in the Sindh and Balochistan Provinces of Pakistan. This new and enthusiastic council got the awesome opportunity to introduce itself and showcase IRA’s global contribution in an international conference organized by the Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers (SPELT - Pakistan’s largest and the oldest ELT body). The conference keynote speaker, presenters, and the audience received the two bodies very well. The visitors showed their interest to be part of the global and the local body. A few national organizations shared this degree of interest in collaboration. This wonderful experience boosted confidence and enthusiasm in our efforts for making a difference in our society against terrorism and extremism.

Zafar Yasin is the Senior Subject Specialist at Provincial Institute forTeacher Education, Quetta, Pakistan.

Muhammad Nadim Farooqui is the Professional Development Teacher at Aga Khan University-Institute for Educational Development.

The Sindh-Balochistan Reading Council was just awarded an IRA International Membership Development Award for reaching over 100 members in less than a year.

This article was originally printed in the December 2012/January 2013 issue of Reading Today. IRA members can read the interactive digital version of the magazine here. Nonmembers: join today! 

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Leaders of reading associations across the country and around the world can benefit from these special sessions at the International Reading Association 58th Annual Convention in San Antonio. 

Council-Focused Sessions Equip Leaders to Meet New Challenges

Qena Jennings, Rayann Mitchell,
and Tiffany Sears

Are you new to IRA council leadership? Are you an experienced council leader looking to hone your executive vision and strategic planning skills? Are you a council member looking to grow into a future leadership role? If so, don’t miss the special council-focused programs at the IRA Annual Convention in San Antonio.

Council Leadership Institute–Celebrating the Leader in You
Friday, April 19
Who Should Attend: All Council Leaders
Take-away: The session will focus on teambuilding, networking, and strategic planning to help council leaders be more effective in their roles. Included mini-sessions will cover governance and council finance. The attributes of winning executive leadership will be assessed in terms of the current challenges facing nonprofits generally.

Council and Affiliate Awards Ceremony and Reception
Friday, April 19
Who Should Attend: All North American Council and International Affiliate Attendees and their guests
Highlights: This event recognizes international affiliate leaders, as well as state, provincial, local, student, and special interest council leaders for their accomplishments. Honor Council, Award of Excellence, Advocacy Award, Local Council Community Service Award, Exemplary Reading Program Award, and Membership Awards will be presented. A reception will follow.

Strategic Leadership for IRA Coordinators: Building a Bridge Between Councils and IRA
Saturday, April 20
Who Should Attend: All State/Provincial Coordinators
Take-away: Strategies for supporting and strengthening a network of local, student, and special interest councils will be shared. Coordinators will explore ideas for improving connections with councils and IRA. The importance of maintaining vital working ties will be stressed, and the benefits of strong collaboration reviewed.

Exploring the 3R’s of Council Membership Development
Saturday, April 20
Who Should Attend: All State/Provincial Directors of Membership Development as well as all Local/Student/Special Interest Membership Chairs
Take-away: Exploring strategies to develop and promote membership through the lens of the 3R’s: Recruitment, Relevance, and Retention. Networking opportunities will be used to inspire and re-energize council membership efforts. The all-important issue of maintaining relevance in a challenged professional and economic environment will be discussed in detail, along with strategies for ongoing organizational renewal.

Principles of Success for IRA Council Presidents
Sunday, April 21
Who Should Attend: All State/Provincial/Local/Student/Special Interest Council Presidents, Vice Presidents, and President-Elects
Take-away: Ideas and strategies will spark inspiration and highlight ways that leaders can guide members to achieve council goals. Networking opportunities will be used to broaden understanding of the possibilities inherent in council leadership. Success stories will be shared to help colleagues build stronger game plans for future growth and deeper professional development.

International Perspectives

Mingle with convention attendees from around the world at these events coordinated by the IRA Global Operations Unit.

Global Literacy Professional Development Network
Saturday, April 20
The Global Literacy Professional Development Network (GLPDN) is a program that creates a system of professional development solutions that deliver the International Reading Association’s Diagnostic Teaching Model using innovative face-to-face and mobile-based services and methods, and training quality support in Bangladesh and Indonesia. The Global Operations staff will hold an informative session on the GLPDN project that highlights important information on the methodology used to deliver the training and the mentoring process.

IDCC Symposium and Reception
Sunday, April 21
IRA’s International Development Coordinating Committee (IDCC) will be hosting their annual symposium and reception on Sunday, April 21. The theme of the 2013 symposium is “Global Perspective on Literacy for All: Challenges and Opportunities Post 2015.” This discussion will feature panel presentations from various speakers involved in Global Literacy with focus on the millennium development goals for education. This event is open to all IRA members and a reception will follow thereafter.

Reading for All: Global Literacy Projects I and II
Sunday, April 21
IRA’s Global Operations Unit in collaboration with partner agencies will be hosting two sessions on Sunday, April 21 to talk about various literacy projects worldwide.

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.

 

 

International Reading Association Council and Affiliate Network

Global Operations at the International Reading Association

Register for the International Reading Association Annual Convention

Adelina Arellano
Osuna


Paul Boyd-Batstone


Oscar J.
Martinez-Alaniz

Last November, the International Reading Association and the Organization of American States (OAS) held a webinar series titled, “Innovative Literacy Teaching Techniques” through OAS’s Inter-American Teacher Education Network (ITEN). 

ITEN is a professional network of leaders in education in the Americas interested in sharing knowledge, experiences, research and good practices in the field of teacher education, based on a strategy of horizontal cooperation.

The presenters of the webinar series were both volunteers and members of IRA. The presenters were Dr. Adelina Arellano Osuna, a literacy research at the University of Los Andes in Bogota; Dr. Paul Boyd-Batstone, a reading and writing professor at the California State University, Long Beach; and Dr. Oscar J. Martinez-Alaniz, an English professor at the Cervantes College CA, Mexico. The webinar series was held on the 13th and 26th of July and on the 10th of August of 2012.

More than 100 teachers participated in OAS’s ITEN and IRA webinar series. The idea of the webinar series was initiated by Mrs. Kelly Dwyer of the organization Teach a Teacher in Caraz, Ancash, Peru. Originally, the participants were going to be teachers from Peru but many other teachers from all over Latin America participated. OAS- ITEN have had many webinars since it was launched in June of 2011, but the OAS-IRA webinar series was the one that reached a record by having more than 100 participants in a webinar. 

The webinar series’ forum currently has 870 members and is one of the most popular groups of the community. The topic has generated such an interest that even other teachers that have not attended the workshop are participating actively of the forums and wall of comments. The wall comment currently has more than 18 pages of comments shared by members. The OAS and IRA are planning to have many more webinar series coming up with the help of IRA’s members.

For more information on IRA-OAS webinar series or for further information on the webinars and the initiatives by ITEN please visit:
http://riedamericas.net/group/serie-de-webinars-ira/page/serie-de-webinars-ried-ira and http://www.oas.org/en/iten/. 

Kansas Reading Association President Donita Shaw shared the council's many activities—local to international—with Reading Today.

What are some exciting upcoming council projects?

At a state level, Kansas Reading Association has actually just finished several projects. The governor proclaimed January as Kansas READ month and we provided activities to promote literacy. We have a picture book award in honor of Bill Martin Jr., and members just voted for this year’s winner. We also have a newly designed website. Our 2012 journal will be forthcoming. Our future goals are to continue building on the work we’ve done during 2012-2013 with sponsoring service projects, providing professional development at our fall conference in Wichita October 13-14, 2013, and supporting local councils. Our local councils will hold their spring meetings in March and April. Some will focus on author visits, a spring tea, Dr. Seuss, and e-readers such as Nook, Kindle, and iPads.

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

One of KRA's goals is to support an international literacy project, Ethiopia Reads, led by LeAnn Clark. Lives are being changed! This year our feature is Bring a Book Buy a Book (BABBAB). It is a program that any school can do—kids "run it." Children bring gently used books and donate one, and then buy one for a low price. The proceeds go to purchase books for Ethiopia- it even gives them the chance to support the book publishers in Africa and then we don't have to pay the shipping. See http://www.ethiopiareads.org. 

Local councils are very involved in their communities. For example, magazines are provided for children who stay at Hope House, books are provided to parents of young children, thesauruses are given to foreign exchange students, book writing contests are held, scholarships are given, and many other contributions have and will continue to be made. 

What are the benefits of joining your council?

There are many, many benefits of joining the Kansas Reading Association (KRA).

• KRA has become a strong voice and respected resource in Kansas Learning First Alliance.
• KRA strives to engage in a collaborative relationship with KSDE and be a natural advocate for all KRA is doing for the teaching of literacy.
• KRA is working to raise awareness of our organization and literacy issues among administrators.
• KRA is providing important professional development opportunities for teachers (preservice and inservice teachers too) through local councils and an annual fall conference.
• KRA is providing important professional development opportunities for teachers through the publication of Kansas Journal of Reading which is published annually. This is a premier resource for instructional strategies and discussion of research.
• KRA is providing community service through local and state programs.
• KRA provides leadership training that members can use in their local councils as well as their schools and communities.
• KRA offers the opportunity to associate with good, hardworking, earnest, dedicated professionals.
• KRA encourages literacy through its professional and volunteer awards to those individuals and businesses helping to promote literacy.
• KRA encourages literacy through its grants to councils that promote literacy projects.

How does one join or become involved?

To join, a prospective member may visit our website at www.kansasread.org. Click on the tab “join KRA” and the requested information will be provided there. To be involved please feel free to find a local council (tab on the left of the website) and contact the leaders. The Kansas Reading Association Executive Board is always happy to assist you in finding ways to be involved.

Is there anything else you'd like to share about your council?

We are so proud of Babs Tims, a veteran fourth grade teacher at Lakeside Elementary School in Pittsburg, KS! Babs was honored at the 2012 IRA Annual Convention as “Celebrated Teacher of the Year.” Thank you Babs, for inspiring young readers!

Our 2012-2013 year has been a year of growing visibly within our organization as well as in our communities. We are committed to serving our constituency by “promoting quality literacy experiences for all.”

"Celebrated Teacher of the Year" Babs Tims, a veteran fourth grade teacher at Lakeside Elementary School in Pittsburg, KS.

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.