Noted Educators to Share Literacy Expertise

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Addressing the diverse needs of today’s learners is the theme a first-time literacy symposium will address June 8-9 with speakers nationally known in the field.

Five hundred teachers from northwest and central Arkansas will hear from four literacy experts at the two-day symposium sponsored by the University of Arkansas and the Arkansas Department of Education. UA faculty, area public school teachers and administrators, and faculty members from other universities across the country will make presentations during concurrent sessions on both days.

With the enthusiastic response they received from area teachers, officials hope to make the symposium an annual event.

The symposium’s theme is “Differentiated Literacy for Diverse Learners,” and Tom Smith, UA professor of special education, explained that the symposium approaches literacy using a broad definition of diversity. Smith serves as head of the department of curriculum and instruction in the College of Education and Health Professions.

“Differentiated instruction is based on the learning needs of children,” Smith said. “It’s very important to address diversity in today’s classroom, not only racial diversity but language diversity and socioeconomic diversity. Children with disabilities are also part of that population.”

Organizers described the speakers as leaders in their disciplines.

“Carol Ann Tomlinson is the nationally recognized expert on differentiated instruction,” Smith explained. “She is highly sought after, and we were very fortunate to get her.”

Tomlinson, a professor of educational leadership, foundations and policy at the University of Virginia, also works as a researcher for the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented and serves as co-director of the University of Virginia’s Summer Institute on Academic Diversity and as president of the National Association for Gifted Children.

Richard Allington, a professor of education at the University of Tennessee, recently completed his tenure as president of the International Reading Association. Smith called it the largest and most prestigious professional organization in the world focused on all aspects of literacy. Allington previously was the Irving and Rose Fien Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Florida and chair of the department of reading at the University of Albany.

Allington also served as president of the National Reading Conference and has been named to the International Reading Association’s Reading Hall of Fame. He was also co-recipient of the Albert J. Harris Award from the association for his extensive work dealing with reading and learning disabilities.

Tom Smith described the third presenter — David Smith, professor of special education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro — as the nation’s leading scholar in special education.

“He’s the author of scholarly works on the history of special education and its leaders, and he is known as a storyteller who can capture an audience,” Tom Smith said.

David Smith has written 11 books, integrating into his research and writing the themes of concern for the rights and dignity of people with disabilities.

Ted Hasselbring held the first endowed chair in education at the University of Kentucky and is now the William T. Bryan Professor of Special Education Technology. He previously spent 17 years as professor and co-director of the Learning Technology Center at Vanderbilt University.

Hasselbring is the author of Scholastic Inc.’s READ 180, an intensive reading intervention program that addresses adolescent illiteracy. The program uses technology, print and professional development to meet individual students’ needs.

The curriculum and instruction department in the UA’s College of Education and Health Professions expects to begin offering a master of education degree in reading education beginning in the fall. The department anticipates approval for the reading degree program from the Arkansas Department of Education.

“Literacy is a huge emphasis area nationally and on the state level,” Tom Smith said. “President Bush and the U.S. Department of Education have placed a major focus on standards in general, and literacy has been identified as a key area in getting students up to standards.”

Marcia Imbeau, UA associate professor of special education, said the conference will provide area teachers with tools to help their students succeed. Much federal money is channeled toward reading and writing proficiency in early grades, Imbeau said. However, some secondary students may struggle in classes that require reading as the primary means of accessing information.

She explained that diversity extends even further to the way children read.

“Story readers may not do well in acquiring information from reading,” Imbeau said. “The structure of texts is different in stories compared to informational reading. Technical writing is different, and the way we tackle this type of reading is different.

“In this conference, we will offer tools and strategies that both elementary teachers and secondary teachers need,” she said.

Imbeau will present “Reading Instruction for Talented Readers: Recommendations for Differentiation.”

Linda Eilers, UA assistant professor of childhood education, said presenters during concurrent sessions come from the UA’s College of Education and Health Professions and the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, as well as other universities in the nation and the Springdale School District. Eilers will present “Diverse Readers Build Prosody through Poetry” with Amy Sandy, a recent graduate of the Master of Arts in Teaching program.

Sandy conducted research required in her master’s program concerning one of three components of fluent reading: prosody. Eilers described prosody as appropriate phrasing and expression of oral reading. Prosody involves volume, tone, emphasis and phrasing, which offer evidence of reading comprehension. More skilled readers read with appropriate inflection, emphasis on the correct words and proper phrasing, she said. The session will discuss how a teacher must match the difficulty of text to the reader’s proficiency level to develop this aspect of reading.

Other presenters will cover topics focused on specific aspects of diverse learners such as picture books as they offer a window on the multicultural world, learning from Marshall Island students, tools for teaching English language learners and how to use standards to guide assessment for English language learners.

Sessions also cover other current topics such as improving literacy while meeting federal No Child Left Behind requirements, making the transition from high school to college reading, ensuring content area literacy and using technology, as well as advocating the importance of administrative and building-level support for literacy.