Award-winning teacher to speak at Center for Education conference

Award-winning teacher to speak at Center for Education conference
…………………………………………………………………

Vivian Gussin
Paley, the first teacher to win the prestigious MacArthur
“Genius” Award, will speak on “The Amazing
Road to Literacy We Call Fantasy Play” at 8:30 a.m.

Saturday in the
auditorium of the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management.
Paley’s speech will kick off the fourth annual mini-conference
of the School Literacy and Culture Project of Rice’s
Center for Education. The half-day conference is expected
to bring 200 Houston-area preschool and elementary teachers
to the Rice campus.

The author of
10 books on teaching, Paley began the storytelling approach
to literacy in Chicago in the early 1980s. Her groundbreaking
program encourages young children to dictate stories to
their teacher and then turn the stories into plays with
their classmates as actors.

The Classroom
Storytelling Project of the School Literacy and Culture
Project — with its 70 actively involved teachers —
is the largest of more than 20 programs nationwide that
are based on Paley’s work.

Beginning with
her first book, “White Teacher,” Paley has shared
her own reflections on pivotal issues of childhood and teaching.
She has covered such topics as the role race plays in creating
a quality classroom, the responsibility of the teacher and
the school to create a democratic environment and how children
create meaning in their school lives.
One of her more provocative books is “You Can’t
Say You Can’t Play,” where she explores with her
kindergarten the idea that no child should have the power
to exclude another from play or classroom life.

Paley also has
won the 1998 American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement
and the 1987 Erikson Institute Award for Service to Children.

For information
on attending the presentation or the conference, call (713)
348-5333 or email <slc@rice.edu>.