Literacy Now

The moment has come! Registration for IRA’s 57th Annual Convention, to be held in Chicago on April 29 to May 2, 2012, is open. Register now for this exciting and unparalleled professional development opportunity by utilizing any of four convenient options including online, phone, fax, or regular mail. Housing registration for the convention is open as well. Book now to make sure you can stay at the hotel of your choice.

Engage your passion while connecting with 10,000 colleagues from around the globe and more than 500 specially selected programs to ramp up your professional repertoire and energize your classroom. As IRA President Victoria Risko explains, “This year we offer multiple thematic strands of sessions focusing on current literacy topics that include early literacy, comprehension and critical thinking, adolescent and adult literacy, instruction for English Language Learners, culturally responsive teaching, and Common Core.”

The theme for the convention is “Celebrating Teaching.” Attendees will be able to enjoy programs, institutes, workshops, and luncheons, as well as the opportunity to visit the extensive Exhibition. Details can be found on the convention website, www.iraconvention.org, as well as in the special convention preview that mailed with the latest issue of Reading Today.

Teaching Edge

Back by popular demand, the Teaching Edge Series will offer incisive and valuable teaching strategies from a variety of well known reading professionals. The lineup of outstanding presenters currently includes Regie Routman, Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell, Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey, Kelly Gallagher, Alfred Tatum, Ernest Morrell, Lori Oczkus, and Gail Boushey and Joan Moser (The 2 Sisters).

Institutes

For those interested in full day courses, IRA will be offering 18 separate institutes on Sunday, April 29 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Topics covered will include: Common Core, vocabulary, cognitive engagement, digital literacy, early literacy, language learners, content area literacy, metacognition, IRA/NCATE partnership, differentiated literacy instruction, literacy leadership, and reading research. Registration for the Institutes is available with or without annual convention registration for an additional fee.

General Sessions and Invited Speakers

At IRA Chicago, attendees will also get to hear from outstanding speakers, including Dr. Steve Perry, founder of the acclaimed Capitol Preparatory Magnet School and author of Man Up, and Ron Clark, Disney’s American Teacher of the Year, and author of The End of Molasses Classes: Getting Our Kids Unstuck—101 Extraordinary Solutions for Parents and Teachers.

Invited speakers include such luminaries as Ellin Keene, Mary Bigler, Peter Afflerbach, Valerie Ellery, Dick Allington, Beverly Tyner, Debbie Diller, and Janet Allen. They will offer insights and guidance on such compelling topics as enhancing understanding through discourse, teaching with pizzaz, formative assessment, creating strategic readers, summers and the achievement gap, literacy work stations, and the Common Core.

Authors

Once again the convention will offer ample opportunities to hear and meet well known authors of children’s and young adult book titles, both in the luncheon series and in publisher sponsored panels. Book signings will be conducted in the exhibit hall at various times throughout the convention. Consult the convention website for additional details.

Website Provides Planning Tools

Once you register, you’ll want to start planning your convention experience so that you can realize all of your personal goals for this event. To facilitate this process, you may want to use the convenient tools provided on the convention website. These include a program grid for each day, an itinerary planner, and an event search feature. There is also a special sign resource for convention speakers. Click on "Featured Video" to view the latest Convention Insider episode. In January's video, host Wes Ford talks to Douglas Fisher.

Easy Ways to Register

Online: www.iraconvention.org (Credit Card Required)

Fax: 415-239-4399 (Credit Card Required)

Phone: 888-294-9167 or 415-979-2278 (Credit Card Required)
Available M-F 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. EST

Mail: Download registration form from above website and mail with full payment to:
IRA Registration
c/o Convention Management Resources
33 New Montgomery, Suite 1100
San Francisco, CA 94105

Busy with preparations for their "February Fling" conference on the fourth, Nancy Nix of the Alabama Reading Association took some time to answer questions about the council's activities.

1. Are you especially proud of any of your council's projects?

Yes, we are very proud of our annual Fall Conference held every November. We are also very proud of our peer reviewed journal, The Reading Paradigm. This journal is published every year. We are also very proud that our local councils participate in the Honor Council program.

2. What are the benefits of joining your council?

We have a strong contact with our state department of education. A benefit is being able to be on the very edge of reading education in the state of Alabama. We have a very low membership fee and many opportunities to network with universities and local councils. We have a newsletter published on our website three times a year and a peer-reviewed journal that is printed once a year.

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

Our most exciting new project is our one day drive in professional development opportunity that we’ve entitled “The February Fling.” This year we are hosting Patrick Allen and Cris Tovani.

4. How does one join your council?

You can join our council by going to our website at Alabama-/ to contact our Membership chairperson, Catherine Johnson.

5. Is there a website, newsletter, or another way to find more information about your council? Is there a person that prospective members can contact?

Yes, our website at Alabama-/ has our newsletter and ways to contact all of our executive board members.

IRA Board Member Dr. Kathy Headley, current ARA President Peggy Teel, and IRA Representative Rayann Mitchell

IRA Exemplary Reading Award Winners with Sandy Luster, Chair of the committee

ARA Reading Teachers of the Year

Nancy Nix speaks at the Alabama Reading Association Conference in November 2011.

You may not recognize the International Reading Association’s new Spring 2012 Resource Catalog when you see it. The “publications catalog” has grown into a “resource catalog” with books, DVDs, professional development tools, journals, webinars, membership, and more.

The first major change you will notice is in the table of contents. Instead of grouping books and other resources by age group, they are now organized by subject areas. The subject areas that directly correspond to the Common Core State Standards include quotes and reference information that tie the subject area to the Standards.

“We listened to our customers,” shares International Reading Association (IRA) Publications Marketing Associate Nicola Wedderburn. “Based on a marketing analysis study, we decided to reorganize the catalog and include resource guides for professional learning communities, Common Core, and Response to Intervention.”

The forty-eight page blue and green catalog features twelve categories of resources as well as new technologies. Bestsellers and hot sellers are highlighted, as well as the new items Small-Group Reading Instruction: Differentiated Teaching Models for Intermediate Readers, Grades 3–8 (2nd ed.); Developing Readers in the Academic Disciplines; Understanding and Using Reading Assessment, K–12 (2nd ed.); After Early Intervention, Then What? Teaching Struggling Readers in Grades 3 and Beyond (2nd ed.); Early Biliteracy Development: Exploring Young Learners’ Use of Their Linguistic Resources; and Read, Write, Play, Learn: Literacy Instruction in Today’s Kindergarten.

Customers can pre-order upcoming publications Best Ever Literacy Survival Tips: 72 Lessons You Can’t Teach Without by Lori D. Oczkus; Text Complexity: Raising Rigor in Reading by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Diane Lapp; and Guided Comprehension for English Learners by Maureen McLaughlin. 

As well as books, the catalog includes e-books and DVDs plus information about IRA webinars, ReadWriteThink.org lesson plans, and benefits of IRA membership. Readers can learn about IRA’s three journals The Reading Teacher, the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, and Reading Research Quarterly.

Another novelty of the Spring 2012 Resource Catalog is that it is available a month before previous spring catalogs. The catalog was mailed in early January, and anyone can peruse the interactive digital version online at /spring2012. This digital version includes “buy” buttons next to each item that adds those items to your cart. At checkout, IRA members can log in to their membership account to save 20% off of list price.

The interactive digital version also offers the ability to search the catalog’s contents, to print pages, and to save pages as PDFs.

Institutions, distributors, and other organizations interested in bulk order of books and resources can call 800-336-7323 for details.

Wedderburn concludes, “This catalog is not just an IRA resource, it is a literacy resource.”

International Reading Association Books

Former International Reading Association (IRA) President Dr. Patricia A. Edwards recently accepted the prestigious Edward B. Fry Book Award from the Literacy Research Association (LRA) for Change Is Gonna Come during the association’s 2011 conference in Jacksonville, Florida.

The Edward B. Fry Book Award recognizes LRA members who author a book on literacy research and practice. The book that receives the award advances knowledge about literacy, displays inquiry into literacy, and shows responsible intellectual risk taking. The Edward B. Fry Book Award is presented at the annual conference and the author receives a plaque, a monetary award, and a hardcover copy of the award-winning book with the award seal affixed to it.

Edwards’ 2010 book, co-written with Gwendolyn Thompson McMillon and Jennifer D. Turner, Change Is Gonna Come: Transforming Literacy Education for African American Students, focuses on the literacy underachievement of African American children. While many books decry the crisis in the schooling of African American children, they are often disconnected from the everyday experiences and work of classroom teachers and principals. Change Is Gonna Come is the first book of its kind, offering both an in-depth examination of critical issues and specific practices to help K–12 educators transform literacy teaching and learning for African American students. The authors offer a compelling, engaging call to action as they address the fight for access to literacy; supports and roadblocks to success; best practices, theories, and perspectives on teaching African American children; and the role of families in the literacy lives of their children. Throughout, they highlight the valuable lessons learned from the past and share real stories from their own diverse experiences as teachers, parents, and community members. This book is copublished by the International Reading Association and Teachers College Press.

Edwards was the 2010-2011 president of the International Reading Association and is a distinguished professor of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. To further promote public awareness about reading achievement gaps, Edwards recently co-wrote the article "Behind NAEP Reading Scores, an Education Debt" for NBC News’ Education Nation with Western Michigan University professor Susan Piazza.

International Reading Association Books

Awards & Grants

Board of Directors Information

Join IRA

Registration is now open for the International Reading Association (IRA) 57th Annual Convention, to be held in Chicago from April 29 to May 2, 2012.

Attendees can register online through the Convention website at www.iraconvention.org, fax a registration form to 415-239-4399, call 888-294-9167 or 415-979-2278 (on weekdays between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. EST), or download registration form from above website and mail with full payment to: IRA Registration, c/o Convention Management Resources, 33 New Montgomery, Suite 1100, San Francisco, CA 94105.

Housing registration for the convention is open as well. Attendees are encouraged to visit www.iraconvention.org to book now to make sure they can stay at the hotel of their choice. The convention will be held at McCormick Place and nearby venues in Chicago.

Celebrating Teaching

The theme of this year's IRA Convention is "Celebrate Teaching." Literacy professionals can engage their passion while connecting with 10,000 colleagues from around the globe and more than 500 specially selected programs to ramp up their professional repertoire and energize their classrooms.

Teaching Edge

Back by popular demand, the Teaching Edge Series will offer incisive and valuable teaching strategies from a variety of well-known reading professionals. The lineup of outstanding presenters currently includes Regie Routman, Gay Su Fountas, Irene Pinnell, Doug Fisher, Nancy Frey, Kelly Gallagher, Al Tatum, Ernest Morrell, Lori Oczkus, and Gail Boushey and Joan Moser (“The 2 Sisters”).

Institutes

For those interested in full day courses, IRA will be offering 18 separate institutes on Sunday, April 29 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Topics will include: Common Core, vocabulary, cognitive engagement, digital literacy, early literacy, language learners, content area literacy, metacognition, IRA/NCATE partnership, differentiated literacy instruction, literacy leadership, and reading research. Registration for the Institutes is available with or without annual convention registration for an additional fee.

General Sessions and Invited Speakers

At IRA Chicago, attendees will also get to hear from outstanding speakers, including Dr. Steve Perry, founder of the acclaimed Capitol Preparatory Magnet School and author of Man Up, and Ron Clark, Disney’s American Teacher of the Year, and author of The End of Molasses Classes: Getting Our Kids Unstuck—101 Extraordinary Solutions for Parents and Teachers. Invited speakers include Ellin Keene, Mary Bigler, Peter Afflerbach, Valerie Ellery, Dick Allington, Patrick Smith, Beverly Tyner, Debbie Diller, and Janet Allen. They will offer insights and guidance on such compelling topics as enhancing understanding through discourse, teaching with pizazz, formative assessment, creating strategic readers, summers and the achievement gap, literacy work stations, and the Common Core.

Authors

Once again the convention will offer ample opportunities to hear and meet well known authors of children’s and young adult book titles, both in the luncheon series and in publisher sponsored panels. Book signings will be conducted in the exhibit hall at various times throughout the convention. Consult the convention web site for additional details.

Planning Tools

Attendees can start planning their convention experience using the convenient tools provided on the convention website. These include a program grid for each day, an itinerary planner, and an event search feature. There is also a special sign in resource for convention speakers.

For more information or to register, visit www.iraconvention.org.

2012 Convention Program/Schedule

Convention Housing and Travel

Convention Itinerary Planner

2012 Convention Features Teaching Edge Speaker Series