Institutes at 53rd Convention cover gamut of literacy topics

Educators and researchers seeking a full day of presentations, lectures, discussions, and dialogues with experts thronged to the Institutes held Sunday in the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) and at the Omni Hotel.

Among the 20 institutes offered, topics ranged from vocabulary instruction to literacy coaching to teacher quality and performance. Speakers ranged from leading researchers to former governors.

Adolescent literacy, still one of the “hot” topics in the 2008 survey of “What’s Hot” in the literacy field, drew about 100 educators to Institute 3, Adolescent Literacy: Policy Into Practices and Practices Into Policy-Strategies for Teaching Adolescent Learners, chaired by former IRA President Carol Santa. Bob Wise, former governor of West Virginia (2001-2005) and current president of the Alliance for Excellence in Education was the keynote speaker. Wise described the current crisis in middle and high school education, acknowledged minimally, he said, by the federal government in 2004, but which has since become an issue addressed in the Striving Readers’ Act, currently before Congress.

With the increasing need for higher-level literacy skills in what used to be “blue-collar” occupations, such as auto mechanics and mining, literacy is “critical to all of us,” he said. The United States must have a work force possessing not only basic literacy skills, but a high level of literacy to cope with the increasing demands of technology.

In recognition of the seriousness of the problem, liberals and conservatives have come together to support the Striving Readers legislation (S958, HR 2289) in both houses. The legislation calls for $200 million in new funding over five years in formula grants to states. The money would support adolescent literacy with materials, professional development, and plans to devote the time necessary in the school day to improve literacy skills.

“We all have a role to play” was his mantra, and he urged tireless advocacy by those who attended, saying, “You’re the only ones who can explain the issues to those who make policy.” He exhorted researchers to provide a clear message wherever there is consensus on studies, educators to focus on the needs of struggling adolescent readers, and advocates to insist federal policy reflect best practices and research.

Motivating not only adolescent, but also beginning and struggling readers sometimes requires an inventive approach. In Institute 7, New Literacies Practices: Learning from Youth in Out-of-School and In-School Contexts, Strategies for Teaching Adolescent Learners, chaired by Michael Bitz, Amy Johnson, an assistant professor in the College of Education at the University of South Carolina, presented one: Pancake Mountain.

The television show for kids ages 3 to whenever, is equal parts parody, spoof, and satire rolled into a series of skits and dance parties and fake news programming. The volunteer, parent-produced program can be seen in Chicago and Washington, D.C., and is available on DVD at minimal cost, she said.

Johnson said the show was developed in response to corporate-branded programming, which is heavily laden with advertising and “product placement” for kids and often can seem condescending to the astute child observer. She likes to recommend that parents and teachers watch Pancake Mountain with their children and help them learn to think critically about what they see on television. It’s also a way to introduce “new literacies” skills to children demanded by proliferating information and communication technologies such as the Web, e-mail, text and instant messaging, and some of the latest—personal avatars in virtual worlds like Second Life.

Pancake Mountain is "cool," too, she said. Parents generally approve its anti-commercialism message and kids can reflect on how they are “positioned” in programs, making them more sophisticated consumers of all types of media geared toward them.