International Reading Association

I had the pleasure of attending and presenting at my first IRA conference earlier this week in Chicago. I was amazed by how many teaching professionals attend this annual event. The attendees are all employed in various roles in education including classroom teachers, literacy coaches, reading specialists, administrators, and college/university faculty. Although the participants represent various disciplines, personal beliefs regarding literacy, and utilize a myriad of teaching materials and strategies, what connects them all is their love for reading and education.

During our institute on Sunday, Julie and I presented our findings from the forty-two teacher interviews that we conducted with K-8 reading teachers. This definitely appealed to the practitioners in the audience who listened intently to the voice of the classroom teacher. Petra and I then shared the results of our study on state standardized reading assessments and state standards. We looked intently at four states which represent different geographic locations across the United States, have large populations, and often are relied on by textbook publishing companies when revisions to editions are needed. Since high stakes testing continues to be a "hot topic" in schools, the audience was very interested to learn which states explicitly contain the word "inference" in their reading standards, and how often inferential questions are asked on the state reading assessments. We were fortunate to have representatives from the states we researched (Ohio, Florida, Texas, and California) in our audience who shared their thoughts and frustrations with the testing process.

On Tuesday morning, Liz, Julie, and I presented at a Special Interest Group (SIG). The format differed a bit from a session by highlighting the research from three studies based on the theme "Teacher as Researcher". Although we presented to a small audience, the experience was truly beneficial. Tuesday afternoon brought us to our final presentation, a one-hour session on the pedagogical implications for teaching inference. Petra, Liz, Julie, and I shared further findings from our research and focused more on practical classroom applications, such as finding books with text potential to teach inference. We were ecstatic with the attendance, approximately 75 individuals, who each expressed a desire to learn more about inference and how to teach it in their classrooms.

Our trip provided a wonderful professional opportunity to disseminate data that we have been collecting and analyzing for over a year and a half. Although we were exhausted by the end of our journey, each of us was so grateful for what the "Inference Project" has provided. Who knows, the four of us may just decide to write our dissertation on different aspects of the study!