Annual SCCTE Conference

Cris Tovani taught elementary school for ten years before becoming a high school reading specialist and English teacher. She still teaches high school students full-time. She has also worked for many years as a staff developer for the Denver-based Public Education and Business Coalition (PEBC), the consortium that has received national acclaim for its work in reading comprehension reform. She also served as an adjunct instructor for the University of Denver and the University of Colorado at Denver. Cris has authored the books; I Read It, but I Don't Get It (Stenhouse, 2000), Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? (Stenhouse, 2004), and the videotape sets; Thoughtful Reading (Stenhouse, 2003) and Comprehending Content (Stenhouse, 2004).

Kwame Dawes, former director of the MFA program at the University of South Carolina, is founder and director of the USC Poetry Initiative. In 2005 he was appointed the Executive Director of the University of South Carolina Arts Institute. He is the author of twelve collections of poetry. His most recent collections are Impossible Flying (Peepal Tree, 2006) and Wisteria (Red Hen, 2006), In 2007 he published the novel, She’s Gone (Akashic Books). His awards include The Forward Poetry Prize, the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and the Poetry Business Award.

Isoke Nia has been an educator for over twenty-five years. The first nine of those years were spent in independent schools for children of African descent. As a teacher in District 17 in Brooklyn and later as a staff developer there, she began and continues her quest for process teaching and learning. For thirteen years Isoke served as the Director of Research and Development at The Reading/Writing Project, Teachers College, Columbia University. Isoke founded All Write Literacy Consultants. She now travels throughout the United States and abroad, learning, and sharing that learning with others who teach.

In his 30-year career as an English teacher, Harry Noden has taught every grade from seventh through college with the bulk of his teaching experience at the middle school. He is the author of Image Grammar (Heinemann, 1999). Recommended as an important resource to meet state standards, Image Grammar is designed to provide teachers with classroom- tested strategies that can improve students’ writing. In addition, Harry has contributed articles to The Reading Teacher and the English Journal, which honored him with the Paul and Kate Farmer Award for the best English Journal article of 1996-97.