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AASL 2004 Fall Forum

Collaboration and Reading to Learn @ your library^®
October 1-3, 2004 • Dallas, Texas

General Session

How to Encourage Reading

Keynote Speaker: Stephen Krashen
Saturday, October 2, 11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

Everyone knows it is a good idea to encourage reading, but there is disagreement as to how to do it. Often the most popular means of encouraging reading are through extrinsic rewards (e.g. pizza, Accelerated Reader), yet there is no compelling evidence supporting these methods, and there is a possible danger in rewarding children for an activity that is intrinsically pleasant.

Don't miss the AASL Fall Forum General Session as keynote speaker Stephen Krashen, Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Southern California, relates how recent studies confirm the importance of the school library and librarians, although the financial support for libraries is often unavailable. Krashen points to the obvious way of encouraging reading: making sure there is access to good books. Krashen says it is well established that those with more access to reading material read more, and thus read better. In his keynote address Krashen will focus on how to encourage reading.

Stephen Krashen has published over 300 papers and books. His most recent books include Explorations in Language Acquisition and Use (Heinemann), Condemned Without a Trial: Bogus Arguments Against Bilingual Education (Heinemann), and Three Arguments Against Whole Language and Why They Are Wrong (Heinemann).