Welcome to the home page of the Annual Penn State Lehigh Valley Diverse Literacies Conference.
The Penn State Lehigh Valley Diverse Literacies Conference has become a very successful professional educator meeting in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. Focusing on significant, current educational issues such as the diverse literacies students bring into our classrooms, the diverse literacy competencies necessitated by and developed through modern living, and the need to effectively reach all our students, the conference is attended by interested educators of various grade levels and student populations.
Since its inception, the conference has been featuring prominent scholars as keynote speakers: in 2007, the conference plenary talk was delivered by Danling Fu, in 2008, our keynote speaker was Patrick Shannon, and in 2009 we were happy to welcome Dr. Mary Kalantzis to deliver the keynote. Last year, Dr. Anne Haas Dyson shared her ideas on literacy development in the early childhood years.
In 2011, we are fortunate to have as our keynote speakers David and Yvonne Freeman, renowned second language learning scholars, whose current research focuses on the development of academic language for English Language Learners. The Freemans’ research looks critically at language learning, the development of linguistic structures for the academic classroom, bilingual education, and biliteracy.
2011 Diverse Literacies Conference
The 2011 Diverse Literacies Conference, organized by Penn State Lehigh Valley in collaboration with the Penn State Lehigh Valley Writing Project, will be held on Saturday, September 24, 2011, at the Bear Creek Resort and Conference Center in Macungie, PA. The theme of the conference will be Developing New Literacies: Capitalizing on Diverser Learners' Experiences and will feature keynote speakers David and Yvonne Freeman.
The Freemans are renowned second language learning scholars, whose current research focuses on the development of academic language for English Language Learners. The Freemans’ research looks critically at language learning, the development of linguistic structures for the academic classroom, bilingual education, and biliteracy.