The Literacy Promise Conference

I've had the opportunity of attending the Literacy Promise conference in Salt Lake City the past two days. There have been several presenters who discussed various methods we can involve adolescent students in the reading and learning process. My personal favorite was the "Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century" session done by David Warlick. During this session, he helped remind us of the need to help students become literate beyond what is on the printed page. I enjoyed seeing the reactions of various people as he reviewed the need to help students learn to validate the authenticity of an article whether on a web site or Wikipedia. He challenged participants to find a printed reference source that indicates if an article is Neutral, subject to vandalism, or contradictory of itself or other articles. The session got me more excited to help students become literate beyond the words they find printed on pages.