• History
• Past Topics

• Past Presidents

2011 Conference Presenters [back to top]

Dr. Negar Farakish is the Provost and Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs at Union County College in New Jersey. She holds a doctorate degree in Higher and Post-secondary Education, an Education Specialist degree in English, a Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and a Bachelor of Arts in English. In 2008, under the direction and guidance of her advisor, Dr. Anna Neuman, at Teachers College, Columbia University, Negar completed her doctoral dissertation entitled, Educating the Academically Underprepared. Her dissertation later received the National Association for Developmental Education Outstanding Dissertation Award and was also recognized as one of the five outstanding dissertations of 2008 by American Educational Research Association.

As a developmental education practitioner, Negar's experience with the field and her familiarity with the challenges faced by developmental instructors in meeting the academic and non-academic needs of their students motivated her to research and document the practices of experienced developmental reading/writing instructors who have the ability to help students learn these skills. In her dissertation study, Negar focused on a group of developmental instructors who were credited with success in teaching reading/writing at their institutions, and captures their pedagogical and professional development practices, providing a window into the views, experiences, and promising practices of these successful instructors.

Beth Johnson has been a writer and editor with Townsend Press since 1988. She has contributed to many of Townsend Press' reading skill  textbooks, but has found a special niche as a writer of true-life stories, primarily concerning disadvantaged men and women who have overcome life obstacles with the assistance of education. Titles of some of Johnson's books include Reading Changed My Life; Brother to Brother, Sister to Sister; Voices Latinas; Everyday Heroes, and Surviving Abuse. Johnson has also been a community college teacher of developmental writing.

In her presentation, Johnson will offer an interactive workshop on how to help students master the key components of effective writing, making a point, and generating support for that point (and how to distinguish between the two). Each participant will receive a free copy of Townsend Press's helpful guide Clear Thinking and Writing.

Johnson will also discuss the value of using class time to read aloud to adult students. She will model read-aloud activities and demonstrate how teachers can use such activities to encourage their students' evolving ability to identify and generate points and supporting details.

Alexandra Fields is Developmental English faculty at Burlington County College and the coordinator of the college's Developmental English Program. She earned her Masters in English Education at Harvard University, and prior to teaching at the college level, she taught English at the secondary level in predominantly low-SES school districts. Recently, Fields began to realize that many students placed in her lowest level English classes were struggling readers because they lacked phonemic awareness and were, in many cases, dyslexic, and she is in now using a multi-sensory reading program to teach the students how to read.

According to the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress report (NAEP), millions of students across the nation are struggling to read in our nation's elementary schools, middle schools and high schools with 25% of students scoring below basic in eighth grade. Many of these students never master the basics of reading, and they end up in our classes with high school diplomas. In this workshop, we will discuss key identifiers of students who may suffer from dyslexia and/or have little phonemic awareness, and identify a variety of options that instructors and institutions may want to offer students who are identified as needing intensive direct reading instruction.

History [back to top]

The Mid-Atlantic College Reading Association (MACRA) includes reading and writing faculty from community and four-year colleges. Faculty from Maryland community colleges initially formed this organization as the Maryland Community College Reading Association in 1974. In 1991, the Maryland group decided to expand its membership to include the five neighboring states (New Jersey, Virginia, Delaware, West Virginia and Pennsylvania) and changed its name to the Mid-Atlantic Community College Reading Association. As membership increased, we found our rolls included many faculty from four-year colleges and universities. At our annual conference in 1997, we changed the name to more accurately reflect the interests, needs, and diversity of our membership.

Each fall MACRA holds a two-day conference in Ocean City, Maryland. This conference features a noted authority in reading or a related field. The second day is devoted to colleague interchange on topics such as

• Critical Reading
• Learning Disabilities
• Vocabulary Development
• Study Skills
• Reading/Writing Connections
• Textbook Readability
• Computer Assisted Instruction
• Reading in the Content Areas
• English as a Second Language for teachers of reading or related fields.

Past Topics [back to top]

Dr. Negar Farakish 2011 Educating the Academically Underprepared

Dr. Janet Zadina 2010 Using Brain Research to Orchestrate Learning: The Multiple Pathways Model

Dr. Teresa H. Filbert 2009 The Digital Cave: Literacy In and Beyond the 21st Century

Dr. Shelley A. Chapman  2008 Theory Like Theatre: Viewing Our Educational Practice Through Different Lenses

Dr. Jennifer Cuddapah 2007 Transforming Teaching through a Multiple Strategies Approach

Dr. Dee Tadlock 2006 Transforming Poor Readers to Excellent Readers: Relying on the Plasticity of the Brain

Dr. Rita Smilkstein 2005 Brain-Based Learning

Dr. Beth Holmberg 2004 Critical Reading, Writing, and Thinking: Research Findings and Implications for Developmental Education

Dr. David Caverly 2003 Integrating Technology into Developmental Reading: Past, Present and Future

Dr. Catherine Wambach 2002 A High Feedback Model for Teaching General Psychology

Dr. Anne Goodsell Love 2001 Collaborative Learning Strategies

Past Presidents [back to top]
1998-99  Ken Kerr Frederick, Community College
1999-00  Marci Dawson, Prince George's Community College
2000-01  Eva Griffin, American Association of State Colleges and Universities
2001-02  Patricia J. Bozeman, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, VA
2002-03  Eric Reitz, Community College of Baltimore County
2003-04  Ann Ritter, Baltimore City Community College
2004-05  Sandy Jones, Community College of Baltimore County, MD
2005-06  Nancy Cannon, Cecil Community College, MD
2006-07  Lisa Tittle, Harford Community College, MD
2007-08  Betsy Gooden, Community College of Baltimore County, Dundalk
2008-09  Judy Josephson, Community College of Baltimore County, MD
2009-10  Elizabeth Holmes, Harford Community College