President’s Message

Dear Oklahoma Reading Association Colleagues,

The Oklahoma Reading Association, also referred to as ORA, is a state affiliate of the International Reading Association. Our Association was chartered in 1956, and in June ORA celebrated 50 years of service to our state through projects aimed at increasing literacy and instilling a love for reading among all the people in Oklahoma.

I have chosen “Literacy Empowers Lives” for my theme during 2006-2007. As we state in our Association Bylaws: Improved literacy enhances personal development for a better future for all Oklahomans. Some stories with children illustrate the power of literacy.

When he was 15, Dustin, who is like a nephew to me, visited me in Florida. We made the rounds of every amusement park in Orlando. It was the summer. I was tired and hot. And, at one of the parks I became irritated by an incident. In the midst of my complaining Dustin teased my by saying, “Oh no, I think a letter is coming out of this.” A decade earlier Terri, my dearest friend and Dustin’s mother, and I were sitting on her bed engaged in a frivolous discussion about clothes and men. Dustin came into the room angry because he expected the Incredible Hulk cartoon to be on television, and demanding an explanation for why it was not. The teacher in me suggested that Dustin write a letter of protest to the television station. I became the scribe for his ideas, and we mailed the letter. Later Terri told me that Dustin actually received a response personally signed by the station manager. At five Dustin learned about the power of literacy, a lesson that has stayed with him through his life.

The summer before she started kindergarten, Rachel met me on the porch when I arrived for a visit. “Look, Priscilla. I want to show you this.” Rachel had a copy of Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends open to “Sick,” the poem about Peggy Ann McKay whose manifold illnesses were destined to keep her home from school, that is until she realized it was Saturday. “I want you to read it to me,” Rachel said. Then, looking cautiously at me, she asked, “You know how to read, don’t you?” Well, Rachel and I read that poem and several others before the evening was over. Interspersed throughout our reading was our discussion about school. I told Rachel about the first time I went to school, and about my own first grade classroom. Rachel shared her excitements and her hesitations about starting school. “Sick” became our vehicle for allaying fears about beginning school.

Reflecting on these experiences and on the many other literacy events I have shared with children, I realize that literacy and empowerment are tied together in so many different and powerful ways. Reading allows us to span the ages in our own lives as we make connections across books and from books to our experiences. Through literacy we can cross generations as we read and write with children. It is one of the ways in which we transmit our culture from one generation to the other. Reading and writing with children exposes them to experiences that may not be a part of their everyday life and to vocabulary and language structures that may not be a part of their everyday speech. In this way literacy empowers children by moving them to a higher level of thought and knowledge.

In 2000 the International Reading Association published the statement Making a Difference Means Making It Different: Honoring Children’s Rights to Excellent Reading Instruction. This statement addresses the rights children have to instruction that meets their needs as learners; that is provided by well-prepared teachers; that involves parents and communities; and that incorporates a wide variety of books, materials, technology, and assessments. To me this IRA statement says that children are entitled to the empowerment that literacy provides. And, is not empowerment also incorporated into our ORA mission though our words “increasing literacy” and “instilling a love for reading.”

I am looking forward to this year as President of Oklahoma Reading Association. Overall, I hope to build on the successes of past presidents to continue to raise ORA’s visibility as an advocacy group for literacy in Oklahoma. I also have some specific goals I hope to accomplish.

• Emphasize membership services. This will include a review of our publications and awards to be sure we are meeting the needs of our membership. I want to conduct an online survey to ascertain how ORA can serve you, its members. I also believe we need to look at how we can accomplish long-range planning with our annual conference to be sure we can bring outstanding professional speakers and intriguing book authors to our state.
• Emphasize participation among local councils and our ORA state council in IRA/ORA awards. Achieving awards such as Horizon, President’s Cup, Advocacy, Award of Excellence, Honor Council, Exemplary Reading Program and the many others that recognize parents, teachers, administrators, and community members is a mighty achievement because it also means achievement of our mandate as an IRA affiliate and attainment of our mission to increase literacy and instill a love for reading in Oklahoma.
• Review our internal functioning. This includes looking at the duties of our elected officers to be sure work is distributed in a way so as not to overload any one position. I hope at board meetings we will continue to educate ourselves on all officer duties, and on the responsibilities of our committees as outlined in our bylaws.
• Strengthen our interactions with local councils. The regional directors are at the heart of the work with local councils. I hope they will facilitate state officers’ visits to local councils, and encourage and support local councils as they apply for IRA Honor Council, ORA Award of Excellence, and ORA President’s Cup.

I believe that each of us are involved in the Oklahoma Reading Association because we recognize the power of literacy and because we LOVE READING. We delight in discussing our reading - books, news, information, and events. And so my last goal for the year is for us all to have some fun and fellowship as members of the Oklahoma Reading Association.

Sincerely,

President for 2006-2007