FOR RELEASE: Friday, April 20, 2007
Second Annual Literacy Conference Scheduled for June 14-15, 2007
Five nationally known literacy experts will speak June 14-15, 2007, at a literacy symposium in Fayetteville. The College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas and the Arkansas Department of Education are sponsoring the conference at the Fayetteville Town Center.
- 2007 Literacy Conference Schedule
- 2007 Literacy Conference Flyer & Registration Form (4-page/.pdf format)
- 2008 Literacy Symposium Preview
- Pictures from the 2006 Literacy Symposium
Carol Ann Tomlinson, Ed.D., Professor
Leadership, Foundations, & Policy Department
University of Virginia, the Curry School of Education
Author of "Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom," Dr. Tomlinson's speciality is differentiation of curriculum and instruction for academically diverse learners, including teacher and administrator attitudes and practices related to academic diversity, impacts of initial teacher preparation on novice teacher readiness to teach in academically diverse settings, and impacts of varied school and teaching practices on low economic and minority learners.
Maureen McLaughlin, Ed.D., Professor of Reading Education
East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania and
International Reading Association Board of Directors
Dr. McLaughlin, a professor of reading education at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association. She has served as an IRA volunteer professor in Estonia with the Reading and Writing Critical Thinking Project (RWCT) from 1997 through 2000. She has authored numerous books for the association's publication division and has served on the editorial review board of The Thinking Classroom. After spending 15 years in the public school sector as a teacher, reading specialist and departmental chair, her statement of philosophy is: "As a reading professional, there is nothing more exhilarating than witnessing a young child read for the first time, and there is nothing more disheartening than observing an older student or adult who struggles to read."
Ted Hasselbring, Ph.D., Professor of Special Education
Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
Over the past 25 years, Dr. Hasselbring has conducted research on the use of technology for enhancing learning in students with mild disabilities and those who are at risk of school failure. He has authored more than 100 articles and book chapters on learning and technology and serves on the editorial boards of six professional journals. He is also the author of several computer programs, including READ 180. Between 2000 and 2006, Dr. Hasselbring left Vanderbilt and served as the executive director of the National Assistive Technology Research Institute at the University of Kentucky. In the fall of 2006, Dr. Hasselbring returned to Vanderbilt where he had been a professor of special education and co-director of the Learning Technology Center for 18 years. Dr. Hasselbring is a graduate of Indiana University, earning a Bachelor of Science in 1971, the Master of Arts in Teaching with a major in biology in 1972, and an Ed.D. in special education in 1979.
Earl H. Cheek, Jr., Ph.D. the Patrick and Edwidge Olinde Endowed Professorship in Education
College of Education, Louisiana State University
Dr. Cheek's research interests include Diagnostic-Prescriptive reading instruction, assessment of individual and group strengths and weaknesses in reading, characteristics of effective teachers of reading, and content reading. He has taught at the middle and high school levels and has served as an elementary school reading specialist. He has also presented at the National Reading Conference (December 2002) on "Engaging Sixth-Grade Readers: An Instructional Intervention."
J. David Cooper, Ed.D.
Retired university professor and senior author of Houghton Mifflin's Reading Program
J. David Cooper is a senior author of Houghton Mifflin's #1 nationwide Invitations to Literacy as well as author of the #1 literacy methods text, Literacy: Helping Children Construct Meaning, 6/e (HMCo 2006). Most recently, he is co-author of Cooper/Chard/Kiger's The Struggling Reader: Interventions That Work (Scholastic, 2006). He has served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, numerous state departments of education and school systems throughout the country. An accomplished scholar, Dr. Cooper has also served as an editor of Indiana Reading Quarterly and as a reviewer for leading literary journals including The Reading Teacher and the Journal of Reading. In 1990, he was awarded the Outstanding Service Award from Indiana Reading Professors. Now retired from Ball State University where he was professor and director of reading, Dr. Cooper works as a speaker and literacy consultant for school districts throughout the country.