LITERACY NEWS

School of Education, UCC & Reading Association of IrelandHost 3rd Annual Literacy Research Symposium for TeachersThe School of EducationUCC and the Reading Associationof Ireland jointlyhosted a very successfulliteracy research symposiumentitled Enhancing theTeaching of Literacy in IrishClassrooms: Insights fromResearch Conducted byTeachers’ on Saturday February7 th 2015. The eventwas very well attended withover 60 teachers participating,coming from primaryand post-primary schoolsfrom West Cork across toFrom left to right, Dr Brian Murphy (Senior Lecturer, School of Education,UCC and Executive Committee RAI; symposium organiser), Máiréad Quinn,Ali Geary, Maria Healy, Fiona Nic Fhionnlaoich (RAI President, 2014-15), ProfessorKathy Hall (Professor of Education and Head of School, UCC) andNiamh Dennehy.West Waterford. This 3rd annual symposium, a key continuing professional development event forteachers in the region, was organised and chaired by Dr Brian Murphy of the School of Education,on behalf of the School of Education, UCC & the Executive Committee of the Reading Associationof Ireland.In the context of an enhanced emphasis on literacy development in all Irish classrooms and a strongdesire for continuous professional development with respect to literacy in schools, the researchsymposium sought to disseminate to teachers at all levels pertinent school and classroom-focusedliteracy research undertaken by teacher researchers who have completed or are in the process ofcompleting MEd degrees at UCC. The symposium provided a forum for the sharing of best practicewith respect to literacy development in key areas ranging from poetry pedagogy to vocabulary, tothe teaching of English and automatic word recognition.Dr Brian Murphy gave the opening address, ‘Current Policy Developments Impinging on LiteracyDevelopment in Schools’, setting the context for the morning. Three MEd students then presentedtheir current research: Ali Geary presented on ‘The Poetry/Pop Music Mash-Up – A Teaching Strategyto Aid Academic Literacy Development in Post-Primary Students’; Maria Healy’s paper was ‘AnExamination of Teachers’ Understandings and Practices of Vocabulary Instruction’ and these werefollowed by Niamh Dennehy, MEd student and Scholarship Holder, on the topical issue of 'An Investigationof the Position of English as a Language in the Post-Primary School Curriculum throughan Examination of Policy and Practice’. The final presentation was by Máiréad Quinn, MEd graduate,on ‘Teaching Word Recognition at Early Primary School: A Study of the Understandings andPractices of Primary Teachers’. The closing session was chaired by Professor Kathy Hall, Head ofthe School of Education, UCC, where she brought together the key themes of the presentations andfacilitated discussion on some of the key issues. The symposium was very well received by all participantsand feedback was extremely positive.12