Adria Klein to Speak at REG Winter Dinner

Reading Educators Guild will host its annual Winter Dinner on February 18, 1998 at the CSUF Marriot. This years featured keynote speaker will be Adria F. Klein, Ph.D.

Dr. Klein received her Ph.D. in the major areas of Reading and English as a Second Language from the University of New Mexico. She earned her Masters of Arts degree in English and English Education from West Virginia University, and her Bachelors of Arts degree in English, Drama and Speech from George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Klein is presently a Professor of Reading and Teacher Education at California State University, San Bernardino; she has also taught in the English and Communications Department at CSUSB. She has written several books, book chapters, and numerous articles on various topics including emergent reading, readers theater, integrated language arts, English as a second language, staff development, and technology. She is an editor of Literacy, Teaching and Learning, the professional journal of the Reading Recovery Council of North America. She served as the President of the California Reading Association in 1995-96 and as the editor of the California Reading Association’s quarterly journal, The California Reader, for three years. Dr. Klein was selected as the outstanding Professor by the faculty and students of CSU, San Bernardino. She has taught at various levels from Kindergarten through graduate school. Her keynote address, Supporting Struggling Readers, should be of great interest to all REG members

Alumni Hall Of Fame

REG welcomes and congratulates the Fall 1997 graduates of the Reading Program.

Ann Margaret Apodaca
Shanna Birkholz
Brenda Marie Brown
Shannon R. James
Christine King
Michelle Anne Koagel
Jessica Mercer
Sandra Tiffany Miller
Beverly J. Minehart
Mitzi A. Sloniger
Carrie Sue Smart
Gloria Lynn Steele
Sandra J. Wong

Technology Talk

Learning 100: Reading Strategies by Educational Development Laboratories, Inc. (EDL) is a comprehension and vocabulary program that many community colleges are finding effective for use with developmental readers.

The program contains twenty readings (approximately 1000 words each) at nine different levels, which students can use to practice word recognition, rate building, and comprehension. Reading passages are presented in two ways: "Timed" or "Read at Your Own Pace." If the student chooses the "Timed" option, he may then opt for one of four modes of paced presentation.

All nine levels of Reading Strategies contain lessons built around high -interest stories of particular interest to older students and adult learners. Comprehension skills covered through the readings include: author’s message, cause and effect, character and feeling, comparisons, context clues, drawing conclusions, fact and opinion, figurative language, following directions, inferences, judging relevance, main idea, organizing information, persuasion, plot, predicting outcomes, problem and solution, recognizing bias, sequence, setting, tone and theme, skimming and scanning, story organization, substitutions, summarizing, supporting details, and theme.

In addition to the Read the Story exercise, there are six vocabulary activities in Reading Strategies designed to teach "target" words from the stories. About ten ‘target words" are introduced per lesson for a total of 200 words per level. Lessons have adult appropriate graphics, color and audio support (words are pronounced in Flash and Read exercises).

The Reading Strategies demo menu includes:

1. Flash and Type-Students type new vocabulary after they hear the words and see them flashed on the screen.

2. Fill in the Blanks-Students practice new vocabulary words in cloze-formatted exercises.

3. Read the Story- Students read stories at their own pace or set a speed and view them line-by-line or left-to-right. Four modes of paced presentation are available.

4. Comprehension Check- Students answer multiple- choice questions to check their understanding of stories.

5. Vocabulary Review- Students answer multiple-choice questions to review lesson "target words."

6. Word Search- Students find "target words" within letter grid.

7. Crossword Puzzle- Students complete puzzle using "target words."

8. Word Roll- Students unscramble letter "blocks" to build "target words."

Note- In the actual program, only one of the vocabulary games is available for each lesson. There is also a New Lesson and a Quit option at the bottom of the student menu.

Recommended Reading

By: Carla Thomson

Cold Mountain, a first novel by Charles Frazier, is probably the most popular novel about the Civil War since Gone With The Wind. Since its publication in June, Cold Mountain has sold more than a million copies. In November, it won the National Book Award. John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, has said of Cold Mountain that it is "utterly convincing down to the last detail."

It is the story of Inman, a Confederate soldier who is wounded in 1864, briefly hospitalized, and who then deserts to find his way home. He travels raggedly from Tennessee to the mountains of North Carolina where he had grown up.

There, near Cold Mountain, waits his sweetheart, a woman called Ada Monroe. The daughter of an upper-class Charleston, S.C., minister who has died just before the book begins, she is struggling to make her old farm profitable. The novel alternates Inman’s story and Ada’s story. She waits; he travels.

Check out this URL for an in-depth review and links to related sites http://www.slate.com/BookReview/97-12-23/BookReview.asp

upcoming events

REG’s Winter Dinner will be held on Wednesday, February 18, 1998 at the CSUF Marriot. Cocktails will be available from 6:00pm-6:30pm. A buffet dinner and keynote speaker, Dr. Adria Klein, will follow from 6:30-9:00pm. Don’t miss this opportunity to network with faculty and friends. Send your RSVP today.

food for thought

Some Thoughts On A Well Rounded Education
By: Robert Heinlein

The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

Reading Educators Guild Newsletter Staff

Editor: JoAnne Greenbaum

Recommended Reading: Carla Thomson

If you would like to contribute to the newsletter, by being a regular column writer or just an occasional article donator, please contact JoAnne Greenbaum at jgreenbaum@fullerton.edu. We need all of you to help make REG great!