Keynote Speakers
Cynthia Shanahan
Thursday, November 2, 2017 | 8:00 AM–10:00 AM
Cynthia Shanahan is a Professor Emerita in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She was a former professor of Literacy, Language and Culture, Executive Director of the Council on Teacher Education, and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). In her role as professor, she prepared pre-service and in-service teachers to teach middle and high school literacy. Before becoming a professor, she taught for K-8 schools in California, Guam, Colorado, Arizona, and Georgia as an elementary teacher, special education teacher, and reading specialist. She received an EdD in Reading Education from the University of Georgia in 1984, and taught at Georgia State (1984-1986) and the University of Georgia (1986-2000).
At the University of Georgia, she taught college students to meet the reading and study demands of their college courses of study. She was also a principal investigator in the National Reading Research Center, an OERI-funded center for the study of literacy, and studied the role of text in learning science and history. Her research and teaching interests are in adolescent and college literacy, including disciplinary literacy. Specifically, she is interested in how students’ knowledge of the discourses and practices in a particular subject matter (e.g. history or science) influences their ability to comprehend and critically think about text information. She has extensive publications, including the book Learning from Text Across Conceptual Domains (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates). Through a project funded by the Carnegie Corporation, she has investigated the differences in the disciplines in the ways they approach reading and writing. She also worked on Project READi, an IES funded Reading for Understanding grant studying argumentation in science, history, and literature in grades 6-12. Additionally, she worked with the Southern Region Education Board and the Gates Foundation to produce a 12th grade transition to college course.
Past Presidents Panel
Saturday, November 4, 2017 | 9:45 AM–12:15 PM
Join us as CRLA takes you back to the Golden Age of television games shows. You watched the Dating Game. You loved the Newlyweds Game. You cannot forget the Gong Show (even if you try). Now join your hosts for the CRLA Game where past CRLA Presidents match knowledge and wits as they strive to win great fame and little or no fortune by answering provocative questions about past events that have become across five decades the myths and legends of your CRLA. A good time will be had by all..