Join us for another free virtual event this year, with all the most popular features of our typical in-person conference: training from our presenters, peer-to-peer sharing, updates on CLiF’s research and work, and books! The concepts presented by this talented group will inspire you to try new things, provide ideas that can scale to PK through grade 6 students, and offer community in which to ask questions and offer advice.
Dates: Consecutive Wednesdays, March 16, March 23 and March 30, 3pm-4:30pm
Cost: Free
We invite all CLiF partners – librarians, teachers, school staff, administrators, out-of-school time providers, early educators. We will provide certificates of professional development.
This year’s conference will include all the beloved aspects of the CLiF Community Literacy Conference:
- Presentations with ideas you can use in your classroom or library with opportunities to share with the group and ask questions of the presenters and attendees.
- Book giveaways! One of the most popular features of the conference is a giveaway for attendees. We will be sending books in April to those in VT and NH who attend sessions.
- Raffle! Look for opportunities to win prizes at each session.
To allow for increased sharing, presentations will be recorded, but discussions will not. You must attend that day’s session to receive a link to the recording.
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Wednesday, March 16, 3-4:30pm
Building Diverse Classroom Collections and Facilitating New Conversations – Kymberlee Powe (she/her) Childrens and YA Consultant for Connecticut State Library
Back by popular demand! Join Kymberlee Powe as she guides educators on building diverse classrooms. You will learn how to identify the difference between a diverse collection and an inclusive one, how to perform a diversity audit, and where to find resources and book recommendations for increasing diversity and inclusion. Kym will offer ways to incorporate new books and topics into your classroom, and some tips for guiding conversations with students and parents about the new books.
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Wednesday, March 23, 3-4:30pm
The Power of Story: Finding Your Voice – Ann Braden, CLiF presenter, and author of The Benefits of Being an Octopus and Flight of the Puffin
Ann writes middle grade novels about kids standing up for themselves when life gets hard. Her characters discover how to channel their emotions and inner strengths to overcome obstacles and identify allies. Ann will talk about her books, ways to use them in the classroom, her experience with sharing personal stories, and how to channel the dialogue into action. The theme “The Power of Story” applies to all ages. Ann will talk about the Local Love Brigade that sends love postcards to people who are facing hate and the growing #teamoctopus movement.
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Wednesday, March 30, 3-4:30pm
Using Nonfiction Graphic Novels – Cartoonists Dan Nott and Daryl Seitchik, Center for Cartoon Studies
Dan and Daryl will talk about different types of nonfiction cartooning and using comics to explore the topics most important to your students! Dan will be talking about the comic This Is What Democracy Looks Like which uses drawing to visualize the many layers of our democracy and how we can be more involved. Daryl will talk about How We Read, a new comic about brain science, literacy, and how we teach reading in schools. Together, Dan and Daryl will give a tutorial on how to use comics as self-expression and as tools to discuss the issues students care about, such as fighting for equality and increasing awareness about climate change.
