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On Saturday, Oct. 5, former middle school teacher, current researcher and University of Wisconsin-Madison reading professor Gay Ivey, will deliver a keynote address highlighting her engaged reading research as part of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Literacy and Language Department’s 2013 Hot Topics in Literacy conference.

The annual, one-day event explores the latest issues in literacy, with breakout sessions for K-12 classroom teachers and others in literacy leadership roles, including a new conference track specifically for science educators.

While many educators know engaged reading, which is driven by students’ interests and curiosities versus assigned texts, has a strong relationship with higher reading achievement, Ivey will share other, surprisingly positive outcomes of engaged reading, including social, intellectual, emotional and moral development.

“Engaged reading is not just about reading development, it is about healthy human development,” Ivey said. “When students are engaged in what they read, they feel compelled to talk to others about it, to recruit others to read and to use others as resources for different ways to think about what they read.”

While Ivey’s initial interest stemmed from the goal of getting students to read more to increase their reading achievement, once she began to take a closer look she realized it is a much more complex phenomenon.

“Engaged reading is not just about reading development, it is about healthy human development,” she said. “I hope to be able to give participants at the Hot Topics conference some ideas about how to create these engaged reading communities in their own classrooms.”

In addition to Ivey’s presentation, participants will have an opportunity to learn about current literacy topics through breakout sessions, that include meaningful implementations of the Common Core State Standards, literacy coaching basics, adolescent literacy, literacy in content area teaching and what’s new in children’s literature.

To register for Hot Topics in Literacy 2013, visit uwosh.edu/go/hot_topics. Conference registration includes lunch and on-campus parking will be available for free.

For more information about the conference, contact the Department of Literacy and Language at (920) 424-4444 or send an email to litlang@uwosh.edu.

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