A Literacy Institute

Author: Janet Allen

Be our guest at one of Janet Allen's popular Literacy Institutes, recorded live in Jacksonville, Florida. Thoughtful, amusing, and ever practical, Janet discusses and explores many of difficulties every literacy educator faces daily:
understanding the elements that get in the way of reading success;
choosing texts that match the needs and interests of children and adolescents;
using the approaches to reading--read aloud, shared, guided, and independent--to build solid reading foundations for all learners; finding specific strategies to overcome challenges to content literacy; developing strategies for effective instruction in vocabulary development; building on the mutual supports of reading and writing to increase language fluency and content knowledge;
finding and using appropriate resources for assessment and evaluation that inform classroom instruction;
combining all these elements into a comprehensive literacy-based classroom.

Each of these elements is supported by published research and writing, as well as Janet's twenty years as a classroom teacher. Her humor will hold your attention, and her vignettes of classroom experiences will resonate with every teacher who has spent days or years trying to help children and adolescents discover literate lives.

2002

Janet Allen (EdD, University of Maine) spends her time researching, writing, and consulting with schools and teachers who are changing their literacy practices. An award-winning teacher, she taught high school English and reading for twenty years in rural Maine, eventually leaving her classroom to teach English education courses as an associate professor at the University of Central Florida. Janet helped create the Orange County Literacy Project, directed the Central Florida Writing Project, and currently works with districts implementing large-scale literacy initiatives. Her first book, It's Never Too Late: Leading Adolescents to Lifelong Literacy, was published in 1995.