Reading Assist Institute’s CORE Conference set for Nov. 23 at UD

More than 250 Delaware teachers and tutors have set aside Saturday, Nov. 23, for learning more about how to teach their students to read.

They will gather in the Clayton Hall Conference Center at the University of Delaware in Newark to attend the Reading ASSIST Institute’s second annual CORE Conference, an all-day event featuring presentations by nationally recognized experts in reading instruction.

“CORE stands for Creating Opportunities for Reading Excellence, and that’s what the Reading ASSIST Institute is all about,” said Vickie Innes, the institute’s executive director.

RAI was established in 1989 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the literacy skills of children at risk for reading failure. Developed by a mother determined to help her son with his struggle to read, it has evolved into a multi-sensory, phonics-based, systematic supplemental reading curriculum that is implemented in schools across the state with a proven record of success.

Over 24 years, RAI has grown to have offices in Wilmington and Milford, offering free literacy tutoring by highly trained volunteers at partner schools throughout Delaware and southeastern Pennsylvania, fee-based tutoring in schools and homes, and outreach programs designed to help parents better understand their children’s reading needs. RAI also provides professional development to more than 2,000 teachers every year to help them improve their skills in the classroom, and helps hundreds of children annually learn to read proficiently.

This year’s conference will include workshops designed to assist literacy teachers and tutors working with children in three target groups: preschool, elementary and English-language learners. The keynote speaker for the event is Dr. Maryanne Wolf, the John DiBiaggio  professor of citizenship and public service and director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. Wolf is also the author of “Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain.”

For more information on the CORE Conference, go to www.readingassist.org.