When Dr. Peter Afflerbach goes through airport check points he tries not to mention that he used to be chair of the IRA.

Otherwise he gets some funny looks until he explains that IRA stands for the International Reading Association, one of the most preeminent literacy committees in the world.

Dr. Afflerbach, a reading expert, will be speaking at the 26th Annual Bermuda Reading Association Conference on Saturday. The theme of the conference is 'Servicing the Whole Child for Literacy Success'.

Dr. Afflerbach is the author of 'Understanding and Using Reading Assessment, K-12', and the 'Adolescent Literacy Inventory, Grades 6-12' (with William Brozo).

He is a Professor of Education at the University of Maryland and specialises in reading assessment, reading comprehension strategies, and the verbal reporting methodology.

"My focus is on classroom assessments of reading," Dr. Afflerbach said.

The idea is that daily classroom reading assessments enhance student performance, and help them prepare better for standardised testing. It also gives the teacher a better indication of how they will do on standardised testing.

"In the United States there is extreme pressure on teachers and students in the form of standardised testing," said Dr. Afflerbach.

However, Afflerbach felt that very often the standardised tests did not give an accurate or complete picture of how well the student was reading and he also felt they encouraged teachers to teach towards the "average" student in a classroom.

"We have a lot of students who are not really an average student," he said. "If we teach to the average student a lot of students will miss out."

Dr. Afflerbach said classroom resources and teacher time also has to go towards students who are reading well, not just those who are struggling.

"It is a really difficult issue to deal with and resolve," he said. "I don't know many schools who have been able to resolve it.

"In some classrooms where two and third grade students know how to read, they are given books they can read while the teacher works with the students who cannot read.

"But the third grader who is reading doesn't necessarily know everything about reading. The school experience should take each student to the highest level possible."

Dr. Afflerbach has done research on students who are "expert" readers.

He previously worked on the National Assessment On Educational Progress (NAEP) Committee for more than ten years NAEP is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. Assessments are conducted periodically in mathematics, reading, science, writing, the arts, civics, economics, geography, and U.S. history.

Dr. Afflerbach wrote a book based on his research called 'Verbal Protocol of Reading: The Nature of Constructive Responsive Reading', which NAEP used as a featured source with its 2009 framework.

"That book is the synthesis of all the research on talented reading," he said. "It describes where our constructional efforts should help route children."

He said the rate at which someone read did not necessarily make them a talented reader.

"The rate of reading is always important," he said. "But the true hallmark of a talented reader is self-awareness."

He said a talented reader will sense when they are having difficulties with a text and slow down their reading, and sometimes re-read.

"They know if it is smooth sailing, or troubled going," he said. "Speed is a little bit over-sold. If you are reading something that is not familiar, you have to slow the rate down to make sure you understand it. If it is familiar, you will be reading close to your fastest speed as a reader."

Dr. Afflerbach grew up in a house with parents who read a lot. "The value of reading was consistently modeled," he said. "I believe my parents just felt that reading would happen for their children and it did. So I had the added bonus of no pressure from my parents."

He said there was now evidence to suggest that the pressure students feel about reading from their parents can turn them off.

"That pressure can turn into a habit of non-reading," he said. "They associate reading with parental pressure."

Dr. Afflerbach has two daughters ages 12 and 14-years-old. "I had lots of books around as they were growing up," he said. "I believed that if they saw their parents getting enjoyment from books, and talking about books they would intuit the value."

He said that plan has been largely successful. And even though they are now in their teens, he still loves buying books for them. "There is so much stuff out there it is very easy to find books that are matched up to my daughters' interests," he said.

He said he often enjoys reading young adult novels, because they give him something to discuss with his daughters.

He has taught reading, writing and English in elementary school and middle school, but he said that all the increases in technology have changed reading for many people.

"What I have seen as a drastic change is the electronic media," he said. "There are now things like texting and the Internet. There are now places where children and adults can read where they never had an opportunity to read before (such as on-line or social networking sites).

"My hope is that kids who do a lot of texting and Internet are still intrigued and entertained by novels, poems and short stories. Which needs to be more than the norm."

The 26th Annual Bermuda Reading Association Conference is on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess. The cost is $35 and includes continental breakfast.

Workshop topics include using 'Reading assessment to help students achieve', 'Reading well and testing well' and 'How to help each student and what students must have to comprehend text well'.

Keynote speakers include Dr. Afflerbach and Bermudian Darnell Todd-Wynn of the Ministry of Education.

Other speakers will include Dr. Jackie Outerbridge, School Psychologist and Marie Beach, Fitness Coach. Gary Moreno will be the MC.

For tickets telephone Marla Smith at 295-0487 or email mlsmith@gov.bm