Home > CITES > Conferences > The Literacy Promise Conference
The Literacy Promise Conference - 2010
February 17-19 , 2010
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
Calvin L. Rampton
Salt Palace Convention Center
Keynote Speaker: Shannon Hale
Author of "The Goose Girl"
February 17, 6:30 pm
New York Times best selling author Shannon Hale started writing books at age ten and never stopped, eventually earning an MFA in Creative Writing. After nineteen years of writing and dozens of rejections, she published The Goose Girl, the first book in her award winning series, followed by Enna Burning and River Secrets. She also has two standalone books for young readers—Book of a Thousand Days, a CYBILS award winner, and Princess Academy, a Newbery Honor Book. With Austenland and The Actor and the Housewife she crosses over into books for adults. Her latest is a graphic novel co-written with her husband Dean, Rapunzel’s Revenge, an Al’s Book Club for Kids selection featured on NBC’s Today.
Featured Speakers
Jim Burke teaches English at Burlingame High School in California. He is the author of numerous books, including The English Teacher’s Companion, Writing Reminders, Tools for Thought, Illuminating Texts: How to Teach Students to Read the World, Reading Reminders, and I Hear America Reading: Why We Read - What We Read, all of which are published by Heinemann. He is also the author of The Reader’s Handbook (Great Source) and Academic Workouts (First Choice Publishing). His newest books are School Smarts: The Four Cs of Academic Success, ACCESSing School: Teaching Struggling Readers to Achieve Academic and Personal Success, and Letters to a New Teacher. He has received numerous awards, including the NCTE Intellectual Freedom Award, the NCTE Conference on English Leadership Award, and the California Reading Association Hall of Fame Award. He served on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Committee on Adolescence and Young Adulthood English Language Arts Standards and recently worked with ACT on their high school English Language Arts standards. Visit his website (www.englishcompanion.com) or English Companion Ning (http://englishcompanion.ning.com), a social network started in 2008 that now has 3669 members, for more information.
Harvey “Smokey” Daniels has been a city and suburban classroom teacher and a college professor, and now works as a national consultant and author on literacy education. In language arts, Smokey is known for his pioneering work on student book clubs, as recounted in Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in Book Clubs and Reading Groups, and Minilessons for Literature Circles. Smokey has recently coauthored two bestselling books on content-area literacy: Subjects Matter: Every Teacher’s Guide to Content-Area Reading, and the companion volume, Content-Area Writing: Every Teacher’s Guide. He is also coauthor of Best Practice: Today’s Standards for Teaching and Learning in America’s Schools. Daniels works with elementary and secondary teachers throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe and renewing student-centered inquiries and discussions of all kinds. Smokey shows colleagues how to simultaneously build students’ reading strategies, balance their reading diets, and strengthen the social skills they need to become genuine lifelong readers.
Roni Jo Draper is an associate professor in the Department of Teacher Education in the David O. McKay School of Education at BYU. Her research interests include content-area literacy, especially in the areas of mathematics and science, and teacher education. Her work has been published in the American Educational Research Journal, the Harvard Educational Review, the Journal of Literacy Research, and the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. Roni Jo currently serves as the Professional Materials Review Editor of the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy.
Kelly Gallagher teaches high school English full-time in Anaheim, California. He has been a teacher-leader in the California Readings and Literature Project both at UCLA and UCI and is currently the co-director of the South Basin Writing Project at California State University, Long Beach. Kelly is the author of Reading Reasons: Motivational Mini-Lessons for Middle and High School and Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts, 4-12.
Jo Gusman grew up in a Spanish speaking farm-working family who experienced the challenges that non-English speakers face in the United States. Based on her childhood experiences as a “limited English speaker,” she truly understands the complexities
and multiple variables that surround the English language learner. Jo began her teaching career in 1974 as a bilingual instructional assistant, and later attended California State University, Sacramento where she received her Bilingual Cross-Cultural teaching credential and Masters. Jo was a Bilingual Education teacher for many years, and in 1981 her career led her to the nationally known Newcomer School, where Jo worked in a multilingual setting with refugee and immigrant K-8 students. It is there where she developed her many brain-based ESL strategies. Because of her extensive experience and exceptional work with English language learners, she has been featured on national television, and is the recipient of numerous awards, including President Ronald Reagan’s recognition for teaching excellence.
Katie Wood Ray is the author of Already Ready, Study Driven, About the Authors and its DVD companion The Teaching Behind ABOUT THE AUTHORS, and What You Know by Heart. A former Associate Professor at Western Carolina University, Katie is now a full time writer and researcher of the teaching of writing. With a particular focus on the study of writing craft, she leads teacher workshops and summer institutes across the nation related to the teaching of writing. Her professional background includes both elementary and middle school teaching experience and two years as a staff developer at The Reading and Writing Project, Teachers College, Columbia University. She was also the coeditor of the journal Primary Voices K–6, a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English.
Will Richardson is known internationally for his work with educators and students to understand and implement instructional technologies and, more specifically, the tools of the Read/Write Web into their schools, classrooms and communities. His critically acclaimed, best-selling book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms has sold over 50,000 copies and is already being used by tens of thousands of teachers to reinvent their practice, and his keynotes, presentations and workshops to audiences in China, Australia, Europe and throughout North America communicate a fresh and inspiring vision of what schools can and must become. Through the Powerful Learning Practice Network which he co-founded with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, he works with schools and teachers around the world to re-envision their learning cultures and communities
Dr. Stuart Robertshaw received his Bachelors degree in Special Education from MacMurray College, his Masters degree in Psychology from Illinois State University, his Doctorate in Special Education from the University of Kansas and his law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School. From 1971 until 1998, he was a professor of Psychology and Special Education at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. In June of 1998, he retired from the University to assume full time responsibilities as President and CEO of the National Association for the Humor Impaired.
Regie Routman is an internationally respected teacher and author. Regie’s teaching experience of more than forty years includes being a classroom teacher (for most of the elementary grades), a reading specialist, a learning disabilities tutor, a Reading Recovery teacher, a language arts resource and mentor teacher, a staff developer, and a literacy coach. Her current work involves weeklong demonstration teaching and coaching in diverse schools around the U.S. Her most recent book, Teaching Essentials, follows Reading Essentials and Writing Essentials and provides the ideas and principles behind all effective teaching and learning. Her new DVD-based, job-embedded professional development program, Regie Routman in Residence: Transforming Our Teaching series, shows what those ideas “look like” and “sound like” in teaching reading and writing in diverse classrooms.
Dr. James Stone is a native of Washington D.C. and is currently a professor in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Louisville. Dr. Stone was part of the University of Minnesota team that developed the successful bid for the National Centers in Career and Technical Education (1999). He initially served as the Deputy Director of the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education from 1999-2002 and then Director from August 2002 to October 2007. Stone led the University of Louisville group that successfully competed for the new National Research Center recently awarded by the USDE/OVAE that began operations on October 1, 2007 where he continues to serve as Director.
Cris Tovani taught elementary school for ten years before becoming a high school reading specialist and English teacher. A nationally known consultant, she chooses to continue teaching high school students full-time. She has also worked for many years as a staff developer for the Denver-based Public Education and Business Coalition (PEBC), the consortium that has received national acclaim for its work in reading comprehension reform. Her book I Read It, But I Don’t Get It has helped thousands of teachers nationwide improve their instruction in reading comprehension.
Dr. Brad Wilcox is an adolescent literacy expert who focuses on strategies to encourage adolescents to actively engage in the writing process. He has directed Literacy Study Abroad programs in Chile, Mexico, and New Zealand. He is the author of many books, including the picture book Hip, Hip, Hooray for Annie McRae!, winner of the Utah Children’s Choice Award. Dr. Wilcox is an Associate Professor of Teacher Education at Brigham Young University and speaks throughout the United States and abroad.
Steve Zemelman is a long-time school reform expert who directs the Illinois Writing Project and presently works to build long-term sustainability of innovative schools through a network called the Chicago Schools Alliance. He works with both in-district and charter schools, and has guided the start-up of a number of small schools in Chicago. His main areas of expertise are literacy, whole-school development, and teacher leadership. With several partners he has written numerous books on education, including Content Area Writing: Every Teacher’s Guide; Subjects Matter: Every Teacher’s Guide to Content Area Reading; Best Practice: Today’s Standards for Teaching and Learning in America’s Schools; Rethinking High School; History Comes Home: Family Stories Across the Curriculum; and A Community of Writers: Teaching Composition in the Junior and Senior High School.
Susan Zimmermann is the coauthor of 7 Keys to Comprehension: How to Help Your Kids Read It and Get It and Mosaic of Thought, educational best-sellers that are changing the way reading is taught in classrooms throughout America. Susan co-founded and served as the executive director of Denver’s Public Education and Business Coalition. During her ten years there, she initiated numerous programs to improve the quality of public schools, including the Reading Project, which has been implemented in more than one hundred schools and provides the examples in 7 Keys and Mosaic of Thought. Susan is also the author of Keeping Katherine, Writing to Heal the Soul, winner of the Colorado Book Award, and Grief Dancers, a finalist for the Colorado Book Award and winner of the Exceptional Parent symbol of excellence for its “profound contribution to human understanding and dignity