Professional Travel Grants for Graduate Students
Posts tagged RLL
Virginia State Reading Conference
8 years
On March 16th and 17th 2017 I attended the 50th annual VSRA conference. This event took place in the downtown historic Roanoake Hotel. The day began with breakfast and our first session with Dr. Steven Layne. His session was called “In Defence of Reading-Aloud” What an amazing way to start the day! He spoke about the importance of reading exciting and influential texts out loud to students. I have always been in favor of reading aloud but his session defined the importance and bought me back to what being read a dramatic reading really felt like. I told my fellow classmates that his session alone would have been worth the trip. The rest of the day was just as great and flew by with multiple professional developments. I attended 4 more 60 minute sessions, where I learned about some of the best ways to work with student who test low in comprehension, new ideas for daily 5, growing great writers and more about concept of word. Two of the 4 sessions were presented by my Reading and Literacy professors. Watching them present publically at the VSRA conference was such a treat. I am very greatful to Longwood University for providing me with the funds and insight to attend such a fantastic event. I am also very thankful to attend a school that is so focused on furthering our education through authentic experiences such as state reading conferences. Thank you.
2015 VSRA Conference Presentation
10 years
This year, I had the privilege of not only attending, but also presenting at, the 2015 Virginia State Reading Association (VSRA) conference held in downtown Richmond, Va. The VSRA is the preeminent literacy education institution within the commonwealth and this was my first time attending the conference. This year’s conference theme was “Reading is Magical,” which was truly fitting. I was immediately impressed by the diverse professionals I met, from classroom teachers to reading specialists to school administers, who were all passionate about improving reading (and all literacy) instruction in their schools. It was also a great pleasure to support and learn from many of my Reading, Literacy, and Learning program classmates and professors who also presented at the conference.
My partner, Carol Pippen, and I delivered a presentation entitled “Reading Between the Pixels: Media Literacy Instruction in the Digital Age.” Our presentation discussed the growing importance of media literacy as advancements in technology permits constant exposure to media messages. We make the case that media literacy, or the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media messages, is vital for full societal participation in the digital/information age. In addition, we also provided several examples of how media literacy can be taught in the classroom
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