Neighbor News
Reading Conference Jan. 18-20 Presents Latest Research, Stresses Importance of Reading As Building Block
Research has shown the urgency of getting children to read at grade level by third grade. Evanston participates in Reading Recovery efforts.
When Karin Cecere of Oak Park started out as a teacher, instructing first-graders in a bilingual classroom, she remembers feeling frustrated.
“I had children that no matter what I did, they could not get to reading at grade level,” recalls Cecere. “Then I heard about the Reading Recovery program, and it gave me the expertise to work with these children.”
Reading Recovery, and its equivalent for young children who speak Spanish as their first language, Descubriendo La Lectura, are both systems used by educators to help struggling primary-grade children learn to read.
National Louis University’s Reading Recovery Center for Literacy is sponsoring the 26th Annual Comprehensive Literacy and Reading Recovery Conference Jan. 18-20 at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. It will feature 19 presenters on topics such as engaging reluctant learners and effective instructional practices. It attracts 600 to 700 educators and reading specialists from across the Midwest.
Research has shown the urgency of getting children to read at grade level. Children who were not reading at grade level by third grade were four times as likely as other children to not graduate from high school, according to a report commissioned by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, “Double Jeopardy: How Poverty and Third-Grade Reading Skills Influence High School Graduation.” Poverty was another factor exacerbating children’s struggle to read, so that it becomes even more paramount for low-income children to learn to master reading.
Reading Recovery has been recognized as an extremely effective way to bring struggling readers up to grade level. An independent 2016 Consortium for Policy Research in Education study of 6,888 first-graders participating in Reading Recovery found that their levels of overall reading and reading comprehension increased at a rate 130 percent higher than the national average growth rate for first graders.
Reading Recovery worked so well for Cecere that it became her passion, and she has spent the past 20 years championing it in various educational roles.
In the Reading Recovery system, a university trains teacher leaders, who in turn train Reading Recovery teachers at individual schools or districts. These teachers spend 30 minutes per day, for 12-20 weeks, with each student who is struggling to read. They offer individualized lessons, which can include learning high-frequency words, conversing about whatever the child is interested in, such as pets, writing a very brief story about the child’s topic of interest on paper, then scissoring apart the individual words on the paper and stringing them back together into a sentence or story.
Cecere works as a teacher leader at the Illinois Reading Recovery and Descubriendo La Lectura Literacy Center at National Louis University, teaching graduate courses to primary-grades teachers so they can better teach six-year-olds how to read.
She also coaches teachers in NLU’s partner school districts to enable them to teach Spanish-speaking children how to read. That work takes place with teachers in Evanston, Grayslake, Blue Island, Lake Zurich, Springfield and Carbondale, Illinois and Madison, Wisconsin.
About the Reading Recovery Center for Literacy at National Louis University
It is one of 18 Reading Recovery training centers across the United States. Its network of affiliated teachers reaches nearly 3,000 academically at-risk first graders each year. Nationally, Reading Recovery teachers work with nearly 50,000 students in roles such as literacy coach, reading specialist and classroom teacher.
National Louis University has sustained a commitment to the statewide and regional work of its Reading Recovery Center for Literacy, offering graduate courses, consulting services and continuing professional learning opportunities like this conference.
About National Louis University
Founded in 1886, National Louis is a nonprofit, non-denominational University offering bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in fields of education, management, human services, counseling, public policy, and others concerned with human and community development. From its inception, National Louis has provided educational access to adult, immigrant and minority populations – a mission it sustains today. National Louis is well-known for an exceptional history in teacher preparation, and continues to be a leader in educating future teachers and community leaders to succeed in urban environments. For more information, visit www.nl.edu.
