Keynote speaker, Peter Johnston is Professor Emeritus at the State University of New York at Albany. He did his Bachelors at Victoria in Wellington New Zealand (Psychology), a Teaching Diploma at Dunedin Teachers’ College, a Masters degree (Educational Psychology) at Otago University and a PhD (Educational Psychology) at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He researches the consequences of teaching and assessment practices for the literate lives of children and teachers. He is particularly interested in factors that influence classroom talk and student engagement, and in the consequences of teachers’ classroom talk for the ways children learn and experience themselves and each other. He has published many articles and books, the most recent books being; Reading to Learn: Lessons from Exemplary Fourth-grade Classrooms (with Allington), Choice Words: How our language affects children’s learning (2004), Critical literacy/critical teaching: Tools for preparing responsive teachers (2005, with Dozier & Rogers), RTI in Literacy – Responsive and comprehensive (2010), and Opening Minds: Using language to change lives (2012). His work has received recognition from several institutions including; the Albert J Harris Award from ILA; the State University of New York, Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activities and, most recently, the Literacy Research Association’s P. David Pearson Scholarly Influence Award, citing his book Choice Words as having “demonstrably and positively influenced literacy teaching in classrooms and districts nationally.”