Hello everyone,
I am Thomas Bieri, Chair of the RV-IS, or Reading and Vocabulary Interest Section.
Our interest section hopes you will join us if you are interested in reading, vocabulary, and/or multiliteracy. We are a fairly "young" IS in TESOL, unfortunately starting up roughly the same time as COVID became part of all our lives and having extra challenges because of that. As we navigate shaping and building our community of practitioners in this 'new normal', we would love to have more people from around the world join and be active with us.
Our 2022-2023 Leadership team is:
Thomas Bieri, Chair
Lawrence Zwier, Incoming Chair
Tom Robb, Past Chair
Christy Williams, Newsletter Co-Editor
Doreen Ewert, Newsletter Co-Editor
Hetal Ascher, Events/Webinar Co-Coordinator
Xin Chen, Events/Webinar Co-Coordinator
Adam Smith, Community Manager
Stacy Brown, Advocacy
Tamara Jones, Events/Webinar Co-Coordinator, Board Liaison/Member-at-large
Our official mission statement notes that the RV-IS "informs teachers, materials writers, curriculum designers, test developers as well as those who set educational policy for language programs about recent advances in our understanding of the process of learning to read, acquiring vocabulary and the process of reading itself. RV-IS aims to promote research in these areas as well as action plans for promoting better reading and vocabulary practices among stakeholders. The Interest Section is not just a forum where TESOL members can share their expertise and insights internally; it also strives to reach beyond the current TESOL membership, forming liaisons with other associations and governmental agencies concerned with the promotion of reading, vocabulary and literacy. We aim to leverage our shared expertise to provide professional development opportunities, to advocate for sound guidelines, and to promote excellence in reading, vocabulary and literacy education worldwide."
So far, our main concrete activities and goals towards this have been to host or co-host two or three sessions at each international convention, to publish two or three newsletters a year, and hold two or three webinars a year. We welcome any contributions, questions, suggestions, etc. you may have which are related to any element of this mission and activities. If you would like to shadow or assist in a leadership role, perhaps with an eye to taking it on in the future, please volunteer. Also, if you have an interest in an ongoing role finding and sharing resources and/or research about literacy, reading, and/or vocabulary, we'd be happy to have your contributions.
I hope to see you joining us in the RV-IS!
Thomas
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Thomas E. Bieri
Deputy Director, Center for Int'l. Affairs, Nanzan University, Japan
Associate Member, Extensive Reading Foundation
Chair, TESOL RV-IS
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