Literacy Now

by Elizabeth Bleacher

San Antonio native Rick Riordan will be speaking at the International Reading Association’s 58th Annual Convention this April. Riordan, the author of the bestselling Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, will be speaking at Saturday’s opening General Session. Prior to garnering stardom in the realm of children’s literature, Riordan taught English and history for fifteen years. His extensive teaching background and writing experience gives him unique insight regarding the development of student literacy.

During his session Reading Myths and the Myths of Reading, Riordan will share how his combined interactions with his students, readers, and his sons helped him understand what it takes to turn children into strong, interested readers. Specifically, he will explore the enduring power of myths and why they appeal to even the most reluctant of readers.

In addition to the tools that will be shared at the speaker session, Riordan’s website boasts extensive teaching aids. The aids help teachers use his Percy Jackson series in the classroom. While the series deals with many important issues that could stimulate discussions, the books are also important because they feature a protagonist with ADHD and dyslexia. Teachers can use the novels to help students eliminate any misconceptions that they may have surrounding these conditions and empower students that share Percy’s reality.

Riordan’s current series, the Heroes of Olympus, brings a modern twist to traditional Greek mythology. Though the series has its own set of unique characters, fans of Riordan will be pleased to find some of their favorites from the Percy Jackson series have returned. The fourth book of the series, The House of Hades, is set to be released in October 2013.

More information about the speaker session can be found at the International Reading Association’s Annual Convention website and Riordan’s website offers more detailed descriptions of his books for children.

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

 

 

Teachers looking for a way to motivate basketball-loving students to read need look no further than the latest program from the International Reading Association (IRA) and the American Basketball Association (ABA).

IRA and ABA have teamed up to create Fast Break for Reading, a national campaign to promote more reading by students. ABA, an organization with 90 professional basketball teams, offers incentives to young people by offering incentives to students who commit to do a minimum of 10 minutes of reading every night during the campaign. The effort began on Monday, November 12, and runs through the end of the ABA season on March 10, 2013. The declared goal is to generate a million minutes of reading.

Joe Newman

“IRA is very pleased to be partnering with the ABA,” explained Stephen Sye, the Association’s Senior Marketing Manager. “Like us, the ABA is concerned about literacy in the US and is joining with us to make a significant difference in the reading habits of young people.” Joe Newman, the league’s CEO, agrees. “We can think of nothing more important for young people than to acquire good reading skills,” he said, “as this can be a life changer.”

Incentives for Students

Teachers interested in having their students participate in the program will find an official program reading log, a certificate of participation, and other materials on the Fast Break for Reading webpage on the IRA website. Students maintain and turn in their logs each month to their teachers who in turn tally the total and enter them on the campaign website; the website takes care of tracking totals.

Students who participate in Fast Break for Reading receive a certificate of participation, a ticket to an ABA game of choice, and eligibility for a grand prize at the conclusion of the program. The student who reads the most total minutes and is taught by the teacher whose students accumulate the most total minutes for the program will receive a grand prize of tickets to an ABA finals game, including air fare and a one-night hotel stay. The top reader at each school will also receive an outstanding achievement award from the ABA and IRA.

Teacher Liaison Opportunities

The ABA currently fields teams in 90 unique markets, including the San Antonio FUEL who play in the city where the IRA Annual Convention will be held on April 19-22, 2013. The league is looking for teacher volunteers to facilitate relationships between individual teams and local school districts and schools.

Among other options, these teacher liaisons can coordinate ABA visits to local schools for reading and basketball clinics, as well as student outings to ABA games. Interested teachers should determine the ABA team nearest their school by accessing the ABA website at www.abalive.com and then submitting their liaison application at /fastbreak. Liaisons will receive team jerseys, access to any ABA designated team game, and a free Common Core implementation guide.

As the program proceeds, teachers can also catch the latest Fast Break developments and updates via social media by “liking” the Fast Break for Reading page on Facebook. They can post comments and upload pictures of their classes reading or attending a campaign-related ABA game.

Buckets & Books Program

The final component of Fast Break involves the ABA’s Buckets & Books program. Fans who drop off books at ABA games will receive 50% off the cost of general admission and the books collected will be donated to local school programs.

For more information on any of these opportunities, teachers are encouraged to visit the Fast Break for Reading webpage at /fastbreak.

LeVar Burton will deliver the General Session keynote on Sunday, April 21, 2013, at the International Reading Association (IRA) 58th Annual Convention in San Antonio, Texas.

Burton is the recipient of 12 Emmy Awards, a Grammy, and 5 NAACP awards. The actor first earned kudos for his work as Kunta Kinte in the award-winning miniseries Roots. He went on to originate the role of Geordi LaForge in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series.

Burton, a long-time literacy advocate, became the host of the popular public television series Reading Rainbow in 1983. The show ran for 21 seasons.

A children’s show that encouraged literacy in fun ways, Reading Rainbow won over 200 broadcast awards including a Peabody Award and twenty-six Emmy Awards during its run. The show featured picture books read by celebrities, scenes that applied books’ lessons to real life, and book reviews from children. Many episodes of the original series can be downloaded from iTunes.

“I come from a family of teachers, and when I was offered the opportunity to host Reading Rainbow in 1983, I recognized immediately the value in using technology to inspire kids to read,” says Burton.

That appreciation for technology led to Burton rebooting the series last summer—as an app for the iPad. On June 20, 2012, the Reading Rainbow App was released; it became the #1 educational app on iTunes within 36 hours. Built from the ground up by Burton and his company, RRKIDZ, the app allows children to read unlimited books, explore video field trips starring Burton, and earn rewards for reading. The company partnered with leading publishers such as Little Brown Books for Young Readers, Abrams Books, Charlesbridge and Sleeping Bear Press, among others, to offer cherished children’s book titles through the app.

"This [app] gives me the opportunity to continue to do what I've done for over 25 years—put technology to use in turning kids on to good books," Burton explains. "In the 1980s, television was the obvious choice when it came to reaching an audience of children, but today's kids are digital natives. Tablet computers are brilliant devices for the medium of storytelling."

“Reading will never go out of style,” he says. “But the tools used for learning are changing.”

To learn more about Burton follow his Twitter feed @levarburton and read the RRKIDZ/Reading Rainbow Twitter feed, Facebook page, and blog. For more information about Burton and other presenters at the IRA Annual Convention, visit www.iraconvention.org.

 

 

 

by Catherine Kelly

In January 2013, the Minnesota Academy of Reading will host its third annual “Policy Issues in Literacy: Implications for Educators an Era of Common Core Standards” event. This symposium brings together legislators, Board of Teaching members, higher education faculty, K-12 teachers, and literacy advocates to discuss issues related to teacher preparation and professional development. The focus of this year’s event will be on preparing teachers to meet the needs of Minnesota’s K-12 students in an era of the Common Core State Standards.

The Minnesota Academy of Reading (MAR), a local council of the Minnesota Reading Association, was founded in 1974 with the purpose of sharing professional ideas in literacy instruction, consultation, and evaluation, as well as engaging in service activities. The organization was chartered by the International Reading Association, and in the early years of the organization, held weekend professional meetings and workshops, as well as presenting an institute at the IRA convention in Miami.

Though MAR was less active in the 1990s, the organization reemerged in 2005 to provide a network for educators interested in policies related to pre-service teacher licensure, standards for reading teachers, and research on effective professional development. This work involved a collaboration of the recipients of a Bush Foundation grant and faculty from over 40 institutions as they aligned their courses with updated Board of Teaching competencies. Every two years, the Minnesota Academy of Reading honors a reading professional who has made significant contributions to the field of literacy education in Minnesota and beyond.

The Minnesota Academy of Reading is looking to network with other state councils engaged in similar work around literacy policies, effective preparation of literacy teachers, and improved literacy instruction for K-12 students. If your local council is interested in networking with MAR, please contact MAR Co-President Elect Catherine Kelly.

Catherine Kelly is an Assistant Professor of Education at St. Catherine University in St. Paul Minnesota, the Secretary of the MRA Executive Board, and Co-President Elect of MAR. She can be contacted at cmkelly@stkate.edu.

by Elizabeth Bleacher

The 8th Pan-African Reading for All (PARFA) Conference will be held from July 9 to August 2, 2013, at the University of Nairobi in Kenya. The conference’s theme will be Literacy for All: Leading the way to Literacy Excellence, with special attention given to innovative literacy strategies and techniques that have proven to have positive impacts on literacy throughout Africa. The conference’s goal is to identify what teaching structures need to be developed or strengthened to promote literacy both nationally and internationally.

Proposal submissions for the 2013 conference are due by December 31, 2012. Submissions must include the official proposal form. Additionally, all participants will be required to pay a conference registration fee, whether they are presenting or not. The registration fee is not due with proposals and should be submitted at a later date with a separate form. The fee for participants from continents other than Africa is US$250. Participants from Africa are asked to pay US$150.

Presentations will be accepted as individual papers, colloquia, workshops, poster sessions, and films/documentaries. Aside from meeting the general conference objectives, all proposals need to fall under one of the ten sub-themes of the conference.

Those sub-themes are:

• Literacy and Early Childhood Education;
• Literacy Across the Curriculum;
• Literacy, Information Centers, and Technology; 
• Literacy and Community Participation;
• Literacy and Language of Education;
• Literacy Instruction and Assessment;
• Literacy, Health, and Human Rights;
• Literacy, Publishing, and Materials Development;
• Innovations in Literacy Instruction; and
• Multicultural Literacies.

Colloquia will be given two hours, and workshops will be given one full hour. Individual papers, poster sessions, and documentaries will be given a half hour for presentations as well as questions. For this reason, films and documentaries cannot exceed twenty minutes.

Past conferences have proven successful in creating and implementing strategies to promote literacy and have left lasting impacts on host regions and participants. Much of this success can be attributed to the quality of the presentations given at the conferences and the literacy teaching methods that have developed as a result.

More information about the application process can be found at the International Reading Association website.

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