The 'Teacher Who Couldn't Read' to keynote literacy conference at Detroit Center

Grand Valley State University’s Charter Schools Office will host the Readers are Leaders Literacy Conference on August 8 at the university’s Detroit Center, featuring author John Corcoran as the keynote speaker. 

Corcoran will talk about his unique experience as a high school teacher and real estate developer who didn’t learn to read at more than a second grade level until he was 48. Now, Corcoran spends his time working with his foundation dedicated to teaching people how to read. Corcoran was invited to the conference in Detroit after Grand Valley’s Charter Schools Office reading specialist Jill Weber used his book as a discussion piece with educators and administrators in Grand Valley authorized schools. 

Other speakers at the conference will include Nora Chahbazi, founder of Evidence Based Literacy Instruction (EBLI), an effective, efficient method of teaching students to read. The research-based literacy skill program uses concepts and strategies that teach learners of any age or ability how to read, spell, and write to their highest potential. Grand Valley Charter Schools Office reading specialists Jill Weber and Wendy Miller will train 80 teachers at Grand Valley-authorized charter schools in the EBLI instruction method this fall. 

Breakout sessions at the conference will be lead by Chahbazi, Weber, Miller, and a panel of teachers who have been trained in EBLI and have been using it in their classrooms over the past school year.

For more information on the Readers are Leaders Literacy Conference, contact the Grand Valley Charter Schools Office, (616) 331-2240.