| Reading
Reform Foundation Holds 21st Annual Conference
Inside
the New York Hilton and Towers recently, 600 teachers gave up
the Sunday of a three-day weekend to attend the twenty-first annual
conference of Reading Reform Foundation entitled, “Effective Techniques
for Teaching Reading, Writing & Spelling.” Sixteen speakers,
who conducted twenty-four educational workshops, also gave up
their day and donated their time to provide teachers and administrators
with new information and ideas.
Linnea
C. Ehri, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology,
Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and Judith
C. Hochman, Ed.D., Program Consultant, Windward Teacher Training
Institute, White Plains, New York, delivered inspiring keynote
speeches. Dr. Ehri’s overview of recent research findings indicated
strongly that phonetic methods are the most effective strategies
for teaching reading and writing. Dr. Hochman stated the perils
of ignoring such research. The audience responded to her impassioned
call for a multisensory approach to teaching reading, writing
and spelling with a standing ovation.
A highly
successful seminar was conducted for administrators, thirty-two
principals, assistant principals and school district staff members.
Several principals praised Reading Reform Foundation’s courses
and twice-weekly in-classroom mentoring for public elementary
school teachers in the teaching of reading, writing and spelling
through multisensory instruction.
Professor
Margaret Jo Shepherd (professor emeritus at Teachers College)
described Young Readers at Risk, a professional development program
for certified K-2 classroom teachers working with urban children,
at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Education and the Hello
Friend/Ennis William Cosby Foundation. Administrators encouraged
Reading Reform Foundation to reach out further to the supervisory
and administrative community and offered to help.
Gloria
Schwartz, an outstanding community leader who is director of the
Harbor Literacy Center, received the Leona D. Spector and Dr.
Philip J. Spector Award, named for the Reading Reform Foundation
conference organizers for the last twenty years.
The
day motivated participants to bring new information and energy
to their schools. One teacher said, “All these workshops were
fabulous: no-nonsense approaches that will work. I am ready to
try some of these approaches now.”#
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