| Kelly Killorn earns International Reading Association award
March 8, 2010
 The International Reading Association has named Bloomington’s Kelly Killorn this year’s winner of the Nila Banton Smith award for her outstanding leadership in the classroom and working with her peers at the school and district level.
Killorn is a 6th grade reading teacher and literacy leader at Olson Middle School. In addition to teaching regular and honors reading courses, and reading and language arts classes for struggling readers, Killorn also works with her peers to incorporate research-based reading comprehension strategies in teachers’ content area classes.
Killorn created a framework of activities, utilizing effective reading strategies, in an effort to support her students’ comprehension. The R.E.A.D. Framework helps students recognize the purpose for reading a text, engages thinking about content, assigns meaning to help readers understand content, and distributes meaning for readers to use what they’ve learned from the text to extend their thinking.
Killorn credits the R.E.A.D. Framework for her students’ success on annual assessments. Of her 103 students who took the 2009 Minnesota standardized reading tests, 89 percent scored in the proficient range, seven students were partially proficient and four did not meet proficiency. Her students also gained an average of 1.5 years in their reading ability as measured by the district’s test to determine the average Percent of Expected Growth (PEG).
Killorn will receive the award, which includes a $1,000 cash prize, next month at the International Reading Association’s annual convention in Chicago. |
