Reading Recovery conference will help teachers correct early reading problems
EMPORIA, Kansas |
Elementary school teachers from Kansas and surrounding states will learn more how to spot reading problems in first graders and keep young students from falling behind their classmates at conference Feb. 24 at Emporia State University.
Over 200 educators and administrators are expected attend the fifth annual Kansas Regional Reading Recovery Conference. The conference theme will be "..And Literacy for All!" Reading experts from around the country will present sessions specifically for Reading Recovery Teachers and Teacher Leaders.
“The philosophy behind Reading Recovery is to catch the children who are falling behind in the classroom, quickly intervene and concentrate on their reading skills, and have them at the level of their peers within a short amount of time,” said Dr. Connie Briggs, director of ESU’s Reading Recovery program.
Studies have shown that most children who successfully complete the 12 to 20 week Reading Recovery program – which works with the bottom 20 percent “at-risk” first-graders – become self-sufficient in the classroom, and the success in reading goes with them as they continue from grade level to grade level and across all subjects, said Briggs.
“The difference between this and other reading programs are the teachers, who can concentrate on the students’ needs and can accelerate the children’s learning because they are highly trained in early literacy development,” said Briggs.
Keynote speaker Gay Su Pinnell will discuss the meaning of reading within the lives of children and adults, as well as its significance to society as a preface to examining the role of classroom instruction and early intervention in education today. Pinnell is a professor at The Ohio State University.
A special session – called the Administrators Academy – will provide information on effective implementation of the program, cost-benefit analysis, how to use data effectively, the place of Reading Recovery in a comprehensive literacy program, and how Reading Recovery interfaces with the national Reading First initiative. This session will be led by Dr. Clifford Johnson of the University of Georgia.
Sessions will also be provided for classroom teachers, administrators and site coordinators, board of education members, and prospective Reading Recovery teachers and teacher leaders. Sessions include:
“The Power of Language: Its Acquisition, Development and Enhancement,” Dr. Helen Perkins, Master Reading Teacher Coordinator, SMU, Dallas, Texas.
“Disciplining the ‘Wandering Eye:’ Assisting the Child’s Visual Perception of Print,” Dr. Eva Konstantellou, Trainer of Teacher Leaders, Center for Reading Recovery, Lesley University, Boston, Mass.
More information about the conference can be found at www.emporia.edu/readingrecovery/conference/
ESU was approved as the 23rd Reading Recovery University Training Center in the spring of 1998. The ESU program is coordinated through the Jones Institute for Educational Excellence in The Teachers College.
The Kansas Regional Reading Recovery Training Center oversees 10 Teacher Leaders and 167 Reading Recovery Teachers in the five-state region of Kansas, eastern Colorado, northern Oklahoma, western Missouri, and southern Nebraska.
The conference will be from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in ESU’s Memorial Union. For more information about registration for the conference, or about the Reading Recovery program at ESU, call the Jones Institute at (620) 341-5372 or e-mail Eldon Moore at mooreeld@emporia.edu.
Last Updated July 2, 2007>