World Congress winds down

The International Reading Association's 21st World Congress on Reading came to a close on August 10 with thanks to the Hungarian Local Arrangements Committee and an invitation to the 22nd World Congress, scheduled for July 28 to August 1, 2008, in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Thursday's program included a full set of meetings, including two fascinating symposia relating to the production of texts for the developing world. The first outlined the Africa Education Initiative and the Textbook and Learning Materials Project, which aim to produce as many as 15 million books for students in Subsaharan Africa by 2010. Speakers described new software that permits teachers (and even students) to easily produce their own simple books. The afternoon symposium described a project titled "Seeds of Science, Roots of Reading," which links science and literacy. Ways to adapt this project to complement the African project also were discussed.

The Closing General Session featured Andrew Biemiller of Canada, who emphasized the importance of vocabulary instruction in elementary school. "Until we are prepared to view vocabulary as important as readng and mathematical skills, at least one third of North American school children will have unnecessarily poor academic progress," Biemiller concluded.