RAP Spearheads 2009 Annual Reading Convention

School administrators, department heads, reading program coordinators, and professors from all over the Philippines participated in the Reading Association of the Philippines (RAP) Annual Summer Conference held last April 24 – 25, 2009 at St. Paul University Auditorium, St. Paul University in Pedro Gil St., Manila.

Organized by the Reading Association of the Philippines, in cooperation with the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education, the conference carried the theme, “Developing Reading Comprehension Across Levels”. The event aims to bring together reading education, readership, methods and strategies in teaching reading practitioners from various parts of the country, to share their research and best practices on reading assessment and intervention.

During the annual convention, several plenary sessions on literacy, developmental reading, and literacy and technology were conducted by professors from different universities in the Philippines. This year’s featured speaker was Dr. Maryann Manning, a board member of the International Reading Association, who explained about early literacy and Research on Reading Teacher Development.

On the other hand, Dr. Rosemary Green from Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao and Dr. Dianne Dekker from Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) discussed about Multilingual Literacy. Representatives from the Philippine Board on Books for Young People, Reach out and Read – Philippines, and Read or Die Book Club informed the participant about their literary advocacies. Department of Science and Technology Undersecretary Dr. Fortunato De la Peña and DepEd Assistant Secretary Jesus Mateo jointly shared their knowledge on Literacy and Technology.