Five Go To Reno: Presenting at the IRA conference in Reno, Nevada
At the beginning of May 2004 the 49th IRA Annual Convention, that is, the International Reading Association - no relation to the Irish organisation, which uses the same initials - was held in Reno, Nevada, USA. It attracted 23,000 delegates and was judged a huge success by many American educators from all parts of the country.
Reno is a gaming city. Known as the “The Biggest, Little City in the World”, it initially seemed rather an incongruous venue for an academic, literacy conference being full of huge glitzy, glamorous and rather ostentatious hotels. However it is surrounded by spectacular scenery and beauty spots. Americans are well known for working hard and playing hard and the IRA delegates lived up to expectations. Many took advantage of the gambling opportunities on their doorstep trying their luck on the slot machines and blackjack! Others took to the great outdoors and in their spare time they toured the region discovering breathtaking places such as Lake Tahoe, Lake Pyramid and the snow covered Sierra Nevada.
The conference sessions, micro workshops, symposiums and research poster sessions were many and varied. They ranged from the frankly bizarre: See, Hear and Connect: Teaching Synthetic Phonics With Unifix Cubes to the intensely thought provoking Special Interest Group (SIG) on Psycholinguistics and Sociolinguistics. Some sessions were attended by thousands (the conference halls are huge), whilst others seemed to be very small intimate gatherings. Author talks, luncheons and dinners play an important part of most American teacher conferences and this one was no exception with authors such as Jon Scieszka, Joy Cowley and Mem Fox attracting enormous crowds of admiring fans. One other big attraction was the exhibitors’ hall with over 2500 booths! Mooching around can be very tiring but also very rewarding as one can read the latest award winning books as well as picking up all manner of free gifts: posters, bags, pens, pencils and sweets. It also seems to be the place where one meets up with old friends and new acquaintances. Quite an experience.
Educators from overseas regularly attend and present at these conferences and so it was that this year five academics from England, (Janet Evans, Ros Fisher, Jackie Marsh, Guy Merchant and Elaine Millard) and one from Canada, (Margaret Mackey) joined forces with two Americans, (Dominic Scott and Vivian Vasquez) to speak on a full day research institute dedicated to the changing nature of literacy at the beginning of the 21st century. The institute, entitled, Many Kinds of Texts, Many Kinds of Readers: Reconceptualising Readers and Reading, was attended by over 60 delegates who paid an extra day rate to hear experts speak about their area of research. It addressed issues which are currently at the fore of literacy educators’ minds: multimodal texts, popular culture, new technologies and critical literacy. Despite the fact that there had been no “rehearsal”, the individual presentations hung together really well and succeeded in offering a balance between well designed, thought provoking research findings linked to practical classroom based activities with children aged 4 to 14 years. The delegates seemed well satisfied and oral feedback was very complimentary.
Anyone wanting to know more about the work may be interested in looking at Literacy Moves On: Using Popular Culture, New Technologies and Critical Literacy in the Primary Classroom published by David Fulton and Heinemann it is edited by Janet Evans and contains chapters by the above presenters along with Eve Bearne and Barbara Comber and Helen Nixon. If interested please refer to the books and resources section or to either of the following web addresses:
http://catalogue.fultonpublishers.co.uk/fulton/disp...
www.books.heinemann.com/products/E00738.aspx
UKLA and IRA have been affiliated organisations since 1967. For more information on these organisations access www.ukla.org and/or www.reading.org