REG Newsletter - Volume 27, Issue 6

Reading Educators Guild Newsletter
Volume 27 issue 6 May/June, 1998

THE READING CONNECTION
BY JANICE BLANTON

"Life After Graduation"

Congratulations Graduates! You have now officially joined an elite group of exhausted and exhilarated educators who possess a Masters of Science Degree specializing in Reading Instruction. If the experience of other graduates holds true, it will take several months for the full realization that it is technically over to sink in. Embrace and enjoy your achievement, but do not think that you have been cut loose!!!! You have now entered the amazing real world of the "Reading Connection."

Honestly, you do not have to stay in touch, but there are numerous benefits in doing so.

Through the Reading Educators Guild (REG), you can maintain the networking and knowledge base that you appreciated while you were toiling toward your graduate degree. As a graduate of the CSUF Graduate Reading Program, you are automatically enrolled in REG free of charge for one year. This membership will provide you with copies of the quarterly newsletter and invitations to events of interest and pleasure. The bi-monthly CSUF REG newsletter provides you with news, views, book reviews, dates of upcoming conferences, future events, academic and technological innovations in the field of reading, and more. Two major events of interest to which you will be invited are the CSUF Fall "Concert Under the Stars" and the Winter Dinner.

As a graduate myself only one year ago, I timorously attended the "Concert Under the Stars" with my husband not really knowing what to expect. It was a kick and if I had only known how delightful it was going to be, I would have spread the word. I'm doing that now!!! REG reserves tables for us amidst hundreds of tables on the lawn behind the CSUF Theatre where we were entertained by the CSUF Music, Choral, and Theatre Departments. All the university's departments have designated tables for their colleagues and guests. You can bring your own picnic dinner or purchase "fast food" from several booths that are available. Many of our beloved professors attend as well as the REG members and their guests. Surprisingly, the professors are still friendly and supportive even after you graduate!!! Ha! Ha! The only sad part about finishing your degree is that everyone is so busy that it is difficult to stay in touch; the fall concert provides us with an opportunity for "authentic" gathering. You are now an REG member!! Plan now to attend this event in the fall and spread the word to your graduate friends. Give yourself an enjoyable opportunity to stay in touch!

The Winter Dinner is held in February and involves dinner, a short meeting, and speakers of interest in the field of reading. This past year, it was held at the Marriott Hotel next to the CSUF campus. The details of the dinner will be provided in the January newsletter.

Membership in REG provides you with options in a small way to keep abreast of fellow graduates, job opportunities, instructional strategies, and innovations in the field of reading. While a graduate student, so much is learned in the classroom. Additionally, so much is gleaned from interacting with fellow students-sharing ideas and methods that they have used, endorse, and reject. REG attempts to keep this ball rolling in your postgraduate professional life. Congratulations on your most worthy achievement.

RECOMMENDED READING
BY CARLA THOMSON

Just in time for summer - CRLA's listserv, LRNASST, clues us in to the latest.

Announcing the new Built-in Orderly Organized Knowledge device (BOOK).

The BOOK is a revolutionary breakthrough in technology: no wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on. It's so easy to use even a child can operate it. Just lift its protective cover!

Compact and portable, it can be used anywhere - even sitting in an armchair by the fire - yet it is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD-ROM disc. Here's how it works...

Each BOOK is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets of paper (recyclable), each capable of holding thousands of bits of information. These pages are locked together with a custom-fit device called a binder which keeps the sheets in their correct sequence.

Opaque Paper Technology (OPT) allows manufacturers to use both sides of the sheet, doubling the information density and cutting the costs in half. Experts are divided on the prospects for further increases in information density; for now BOOKs with more information simply use more pages. This makes them thicker and harder to carry, and has drawn some criticism from the mobile computing crowd.

Each sheet is scanned optically, registering information directly into your mind. A flick of the finger takes you to the next sheet. The BOOK may be taken up at any time and used by merely opening it. The Book never crashes and never needs rebooting, though like other display devices it can become unusable if dropped overboard.

The "browse" feature allows you to move instantly to any sheet, and move forward or backward as you wish. Many come with an "index" feature, which pinpoints the exact location of any selected information for instant retrieval.

An optional "Bookmark" accessory allows you to open the BOOK to the exact place you left it in a previous session -even if the BOOK has been closed. BOOKmarks fit universal design standards; thus, a single BOOKmark can be used in BOOKs by various manufacturers. Conversely, numerous bookmarks can be used in a single BOOK if the user wants to store numerous views at once. The number is limited only by the number of sheets in the BOOK.

You can also make personal notes next to BOOK text entries with an optional programming tool, the Portable Erasable Nib Cryptic Intercommunication
Language Stylus (PENCILS).

Portable, durable, and affordable, the BOOK is being hailed as the educational and entertainment wave of the future. The BOOK's appeal seems so certain that thousands of content creators have committed to the platform. Look for a flood of new titles soon.

To subscribe to CRIA'S listserv (LRNASST):

( Send a message to
LJSTSERV@LISTSERVARJZONA.EDU

( Leave the subject header blank. Jn the body type: SUBscribe LRNASST YOURFIRSTNAME_YOUR LAST NAME

You will then receive further instructions including directions for unsubscribing to the listserv in case you decide to sign off the list either temporarily or permanently.

FACULTY FOOTNOTES UPDATE

Congratulations to Toni Chambers on her new appointment as a full-time Reading Instructor on the staff at CSUF.

Hope you have had an opportunity to take a look at the recently published article co-authored by Dr. Brenda Spencer and Kathi Bartle Angus. The article,
"Demonstrating Knowledge: The Use of Student Presentations in the College Classroom," appeared in the latest issue of the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy.

NEWS FROM THE REG BOARD
Lifetime Memberships are now available for $175.00

There may be no more pleasing picture in the world than that of a child peering into a book-the past and the future entrancing each other

Roger Rosenblatt, "Would You Mind If I Borrowed This Book?" The Man In The Water (1994)

TECHNOLOGY TALK
BY JOANNE GREENBAUM

While reading through the many messages that I have e-mailed to me daily from the Open Forum for Learning Assistance Professionals (LRNASST) I learned of a software program for college development writers that may be of some interest to those of you who work with these students. The program, Interactive English, from Academic Systems was developed by basic writing teachers including Karen Greenberg, Ph.D. of Hunter College in New York.

Dr. Greenberg describes the program as one that "uses technology to promote idea-rich, student-centered writing environments that can be modified to meet the needs of individual students and teachers. It is grounded in a communicative model that requires students to consider their purposes, possibilities, and potential readers. It presents writing as a recursive multi-stage process that includes exploring, prewriting, drafting, revising, evaluating, and editing. It teaches collaborative learning by requiring students to respond to one another's drafts and revisions. And it provides developmental students with access to clear, comprehensive learning resources at the time that they need them (whether these resources be instruction on prewriting strategies or instruction on finding and correcting errors in grammar and usage)."

HANCOCK FUND CONTINUES TO GROW

The Deborah Osen Hancock Fund was established several years ago on the retirement of Dr. Hancock from the CSU system. Dr. Hancock taught in and served as Chair of the Reading Department for over fifteen years. She was subsequently Dean of Education at CSUSB and then worked at the state level until she returned to CSUF in Secondary Education. Her contributions to the field and specifically to the Reading Department, prompted REG to establish this fund in her honor.

REG is the administrator of the Fund. It is solely for use by the CSUF Reading Clinic. When Dr. Norma Inabinette, Clinic Director, sees a need she may access the account. Over the years, the Fund has supplied books and technology for use by clinicians and students.

Dr. Norma Inabinette and the REG Board would like to acknowledge the following individuals for their generous contributions over the last few months.

$5 - $10
CLAUDIA LEYERLE
PATRICIA TRAVIS
ANY TALAGANIS

$15 - $25
LISA HAWKINS

Books, the oldest and the best, stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage.... Their authors are a natural and irresistible aristocracy in every society, and, more than kings and emperors, exert an influence on mankind Thoreau, "Reading,"
Walden (1854)

Reading Educators Guild Newsletter Staff

Editor: Nancy Rucker

Faculty Footnotes: Kathi Bartle Angus



			California State University, Fullerton