Preconvention activities set stage for Annual Convention

Conferees have filled San Antonio’s hotels and begun thronging its downtown area, and the preconvention activities on Saturday and Sunday have built the momentum toward the official opening on Monday of the 50th Annual Convention of the International Reading Association.

On Saturday, the Research Conference drew some 700 conferees who were especially interested in discussing the latest research in key areas of literacy instruction. In addition to the formal presentations, there were informal discussions and ad-hoc peer networks formed in lobby areas and over dinner as educators from around the world swapped information and stories.
More people arrived to register on Sunday, and almost two dozen Institutes featured day-long examinations of a particular topic. Most Institutes included keynote presentations, panel discussions, and breakout sections and workshops. Institute 4, Celebrating Leadership: Reading Specialist/Literacy Coaches and Administrators, had some 20 presentations by a variety of leading educators. In one, Diana J. Quatroche of Indiana State University discussed how to prepare specialists and coaches to work collaboratively and led a lively discussion among the conferees there. In a later session, IRA’s President-Elect Richard Allington discussed what he has identified as misinterpretations and misrepresentations of the U.S. National Reading Panel report and offered what he calls the “five missing pillars” of reading education: access to interesting texts, matching students with appropriate texts, the recognition that writing and reading have reciprocal positive effects, limiting whole class teaching, and making expert tutoring available.

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