News release Public Information Office   SLU 10880   Hammond, LA 70402   phone: 985-549-2341   fax: 985-549-2061 publicinfo@selu.edu     www.selu.edu/news Contact: Christina Chapple Date: 10/1/03   Click on image for publication quality photo INTERNATIONAL READING SPECIALIST TO SPEAK AT SOUTHEASTERN        HAMMOND -- Teachers, education majors and area residents interested in literacy are invited to attend a presentation by international reading specialist and author Robert B. Cooter Jr. October 13 at Southeastern Louisiana University’s Cate Teacher Education Center.       Cooter, professor of reading and urban literacy education and chair of the Department of Instruction and Curriculum Leadership at the University of Memphis, is the author of the best-selling textbook “Teaching Children to Read: Putting the Pieces Together.” His presentation, scheduled for the TEC’s new lecture hall, will begin with registration and refreshments at 4:30 p.m. Cooter’s presentation will take place at 5 p.m.       Cooter’s campus visit was coordinated by the university’s chapter of the Kappa Delta Pi international education honor society. Joining Kappa Delta Pi as sponsors are the Southeastern College of Education and Human Development, the Tangipahoa Parish School System, Student Council for Exceptional Children, Southeast Louisiana Reading Council, and Neill Corporation/Salon Paris Parker. Door prizes, compliments of Salon Paris Parker, will be awarded at the close of the program.       Cooter’s primary research focus pertains to urban literacy issues in all grades. Cooter has taught elementary, junior high school and high school grades in public schools and also served as a Title I reading specialist.       Cooter served as the first “Reading Czar” -- the name given to the associate superintendent for reading/language arts for the Dallas Independent School District in Dallas. In that position he engineered the district’s highly acclaimed Dallas Reading Plan, a collaborative project supported by Dallas area business and community enterprises involving the training of approximately 3,000 teachers in “comprehensive literacy instruction.” As a result of the initiative’s success, he was recognized in 1998 as a “Texas State Champion for Reading” by then-Governor George W. Bush and Texas First Lady Laura Bush.       In addition to his best-selling text, currently used at more than 200 universities, Cooter has also authored or co-authored six other professional books. He recently served as contributing editor of a new book, “Perspectives on Rescuing Urban Literacy Education: Spies, Saboteurs, &  Saints,” published this year by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.        Cooter is currently working on several new books dealing with urban literacy education, reading assessment, and teaching English language arts. He has had more than 50 articles on reading assessment and education published in such journals as “The Reading Teacher,” “Journal  of Reading,” “Language Arts,” and the “Journal of Educational Research.” He contributes a regular column on urban literacy issues for “The Reading Teacher,” which is the professional journal of the International Reading Association.  Return to News Releases