New Zealand literacy professionals who hope to create "a love of literature to fire the minds of learners" are in Queenstown for the 33rd New Zealand Reading Association national conference, which started yesterday.
Conference convener Robyne Selbie said it was more than 30 years since the conference had been held in Queenstown.
The participants include literacy educators, researchers and authors.
Ms Selbie said the conference would be about sharing a love of literature, a passion for new and challenging ideas, and creativity for turning theory into best practice.
She called for educators to be adventurous to ensure New Zealand pupils were well equipped for their journey through the 21st century.
"Our committee hope this conference will provide registrants with research-informed debate, discussion and challenges."
She said the 2007 revised New Zealand curriculum was a "vision for excellence".
"The English curriculum provides a framework for delivering a flexible and responsive curriculum which recognises the role of multi-literacies, along with those enduring goals of learning to read, write and speak effectively," she said.
Presenters at the conference would be identifying trends in national and international education, and running practical sessions.
She said the workshops were designed to pack best practice into New Zealand classrooms and early-childhood settings.
"We plan to celebrate the people; those educators who work to promote learning in New Zealand classrooms. Our teachers are amongst the best in the world. Theirs is the story of the remarkable adventure," she said.
Speakers at the conference include Bill O'Brien, Dunedin writer and former police officer, who has written numerous fiction and non-fiction books for adults and children; and children's writer Tania Roxborogh, of Dunedin, whose works range from gritty young-adult novels to Fifteen-Minute Shakespeare.
Ms Roxborogh teaches English at Columba College.
The conference started yesterday and runs to Wednesday at the Millennium Hotel.
The president of the International Reading Association, Kathryn H. Au, is a plenary speaker at the national conference.
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