Thursday | May 18, 2006

Research has demonstrated that students’ vocabulary and background knowledge are vital to reading comprehension, and that poor children and struggling readers are disproportionately disadvantaged by this fact. What are the implications of these findings for improving curriculum and instruction at the elementary and secondary levels? And how do schools impart this knowledge to students who don’t read well enough to acquire it from the written word?

Speakers

E.D. Hirsch, Jr. Founder of the Core Knowledge Foundation.

Donald Deshler Professor of Special Education and Director, Center for Research on Learning, University of Kansas.

Nat Lacour Secretary-Treasurer, American Federation of Teachers and Albert Shanker Institute. (Moderator)