A literacy conference

I went to the Vermont Council on Reading's spring conference today at the beautiful Stoweflake Mountain Resort and Spa.  The topic this year was "Building Literate Lives Through Common Core Standards" and Gay Su Pinnell was the keynote speaker.  In her introduction the presenter said it would be her last conference keynote event, but she seems far too energetic for this to be her last speaking engagement ever, so I'm not sure what exactly they meant by that.  For her keynote she talked about how to encourage a love of learning and the importance of reading for meaning and understanding, not just for speed.  "Giving the gift of a literate life should be our goal for our students," she said. 

In the afternoon Q&A she talked about leveled reading and the importance of not broadcasting a child's F&P level.  There was a discussion around whether or not to share the specific level with parents (she says no) and the pros and cons of doing so.  The pros being that parents want to know and it's an easy way to mark progress.  The cons being that it is important not to rank children by reading level and you run the risk of making it a competition.  Parents often don't understand the importance of fluency, not just speed reading.  Pinnell talked about fluency as involving many parts, including phrasing, pausing, word stress, intonation, rate, and integration.  There's more to it than just comprehension.  She recommended a book titled "The Art of Slow Reading," by Tom Newkirk as a starting point for thoughtful consideration of text.   

In the mid part of the day we attended breakout sessions.  I went to one called "Asking Questions, Answering Questions, and Everything in Between: Making Learning Visible with the Common Core Standards (K-8)."  I think they are just throwing the term "common core standards" at the end of everything these days!  Very little of the conference dealt with the CCSS at all.  The parts I attended anyway, perhaps some of the other breakout sessions touched on it more.  My breakout session had an interesting sounding title, but in truth had very little to do with making learning visible.  She did however have interesting thoughts on promoting social change.  She touched briefly on learning walls and demonstrated an interesting, interactive version of Reader's Theater which she called "imagery theater."  Using the book "The Story of Ruby Bridges", she showed us a way to pause the story (after having read it through to the children at least once, possibly several times), have students volunteer to play roles from the story and act out a scene.  At a pivotal moment have your actors freeze while the rest of the class walks around them, discussing what is going on and presenting alternative options for how the story could continue.  It creates a powerful way for children to change the outcome of a story, to be the agents of change. 

I had the good fortune to carpool with a fellow UVEI intern, so we had time for lots of great discussions and idea sharing.  Add in the sunshine and our lunch-time walk and I'd say it was a great day!

“We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else's mind.”
― Anna Quindlen, How Reading Changed My Life