Community Literacy Conference Workshops & Presenters

Workshop Block 1: 12:45-1:30PM

Literacy Moves Outdoors: Five Approaches to Try in Any Environment
with Valerie Bang-Jensen

Literacy is everywhere! What might literacy look like if we move it outdoors deliberately? This session will offer five approaches to moving literacy outdoors: Story Walks, Word Gardens, Interpretive Signage, Literacy Trails, and bare bones “grab and go” experiences. These approaches help students see that literacy goes beyond the classroom and build an understanding of visual literacy in using symbols, emojis, icons to make meaning. In this session, after an overview, participants will create the beginning of their own “moves” that work in their own outdoor settings, whatever they may be.

Valerie Bang-Jensen is a literacy consultant for schools, libraries, and outdoor spaces. She earned her A.B. at Smith College, and MA and Ed.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University. After teaching in K-6 schools, she was a Professor of Education at Saint Michael’s College for 23 years, teaching literacy methods and children’s literature courses. She loves serving on the Vermont State Library’s Red Clover committee. Her most recent book is Literacy Moves Outdoors: Authentic Learning Approaches for Any Environment.

Using Picture Books to Build Racial Literacy
with Sarah Norsworthy

Picture books support the development of racial literacy, a term that encompasses the skills, knowledge and awareness to talk about race and racism, to identify it and to act against racism. Research has found that many caregivers and educators benefit from support in developing and practicing racial literacy and that racial literacy contributes to feelings of belonging. In this workshop we will explore picture books that have been designed explicitly to develop racial literacy as well as practice talking about race as we explore several racially diverse picture books. Participants will leave with strategies for passively and actively building racial literacy.

Sarah Norsworthy has over 20 years of experience in public education as a classroom teacher and literacy coach. On March 6, she is defending for her doctorate, exploring the affordances and constraints of using picture books to deepen our senses of identity and belonging. In addition to her anticipated doctorate, Sarah holds an M.Ed. in Reading Education from the University of New Hampshire. As the social and emotional learning implementation specialist, at a state department of education, she designed a project leveraging picture books which tell the modern story of human migration as a tool to develop social and emotional literacies. She brings deep knowledge of literacy, an intuitive and informed sense of how to create spaces of belonging, where people of all ages can create connected and compassionate communities of learning. A researcher, presenter and trainer, Sarah is currently also teaching adult learners of English in her community outside of Portland, Maine. Picture books are central to her practice, some of her work can be seen at www.ThePictureBookProject.com.

“But That’s Not ‘Real’ Reading!” Advocating for Comics and Graphic Novels for Readers of All Ages
with Shawna Coppola

Do you find yourself in the position of constantly having to justify why students should have time, access, and opportunities to read comics and graphic novels in your school/classroom/library? Are you someone who finds it challenging to advocate for this kind of reading practice in your own mind? Let’s work to build a collective document that we can lean on when we are faced with these challenges!

Shawna Coppola is an educator with over two decades of experience teaching children as young as five, adults with three or more decades of teaching experience, and every age learner in between. The majority of her professional life has been spent teaching literacy to middle school-age children as well as serving as a literacy specialist/coach in a K-6 school. She currently spends most of her time teaching writing to undergraduate students, facilitating engaging professional learning opportunities for educators, and speaking at local, regional, and national educational conferences. She is the author of three books about teaching; her most recent book, Literacy for All: A Framework for Anti-Oppressive Teaching, was published in December of 2023.

Early Education and Literacy
with VELI and special public library guests

Unlock the full potential of early literacy development in your library with this workshop that is designed to equip librarians with the knowledge, tools, and strategies to create engaging early literacy activities that go far beyond traditional storytimes. Join librarians from all over Vermont who have successfully incorporated meaningful activities into their programs.

Wendy Martin is a member of the Vermont Humanities early literacy team, co-developing professional development opportunities for early childhood educators through the new Foundations of Educational Philosophy and Literacy Development and Never Too Early programs. She also works closely with public librarians through the Vermont Early Literacy Initiative (VELI), which provides libraries with books, hands-on materials and training. Prior to joining Vermont Humanities, Wendy was director of the Vermont Center for the Book’s Mother Goose Programs, where she oversaw professional development for educators, librarians and parents of young children.

Workshop Block 2: 1:45-2:30PM

Deepening Our Ability To Use Picture Books In Affirming & Sustainable Ways
with Sarah Norsworthy

Picture books contain intended and unintended messages. This workshop will explore a variety of socio-cultural messages in picture books. Recent research on socio-cultural messages in picture books will be shared, as well as strategies to identify and be in conversation with these messages, so that we may increase our ability to use picture books in affirming and sustaining ways.

Sarah Norsworthy has over 20 years of experience in public education as a classroom teacher and literacy coach. On March 6, she is defending for her doctorate, exploring the affordances and constraints of using picture books to deepen our senses of identity and belonging. In addition to her anticipated doctorate, Sarah holds an M.Ed. in Reading Education from the University of New Hampshire. As the social and emotional learning implementation specialist, at a state department of education, she designed a project leveraging picture books which tell the modern story of human migration as a tool to develop social and emotional literacies. She brings deep knowledge of literacy, an intuitive and informed sense of how to create spaces of belonging, where people of all ages can create connected and compassionate communities of learning. A researcher, presenter and trainer, Sarah is currently also teaching adult learners of English in her community outside of Portland, Maine. Picture books are central to her practice, some of her work can be seen at www.ThePictureBookProject.com.

Exploring Science Concepts in Children’s Literature
with Valerie Bang-Jensen and Mark Lubkowitz

Children’s picture books are powerhouses when it comes to learning science through read-alouds. In this session, Mark and Valerie will use children’s books to present the 7 crosscutting concepts that frame how scientists think. You will come away with a better understanding of how scientists use this cognitive framework and you will develop tools to explore this type of thinking in any children’s book with your learners.

Valerie Bang-Jensen and Mark Lubkowitz have each served as Professor and Chair of their respective departments–Education and Biology– at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, VT. Surprisingly (or perhaps not) this molecular biologist and literacy expert have worked together for over twenty years exploring this natural partnership by creating a collection of gardens that are a learning laboratory to explore the relationship between science and children’s literature. This initial project blossomed into two books: Reading Books, Talking Science: Exploring science concepts with children’s literature (2017) and Books in Bloom: Discovering the science in great children’s literature (2014). Both recipients of the college’s teaching award, they work across the country with teachers exploring how the crosscutting concepts form a framework not only for scientific thinking but also for understanding children’s literature.

“Now What?” Tools & Strategies for Assessing the Comics Our Students Create
with Shawna Coppola

Your student writers have created an entertaining array of comics, and both you and they are proud of their compositions. What now? How can we create an authentic assessment tool that feels appropriate for the multimodal work students have done? And how might this work translate to more “traditional,” or dominant forms of writing that educators are most often held accountable for teaching their students?

Shawna Coppola is an educator with over two decades of experience teaching children as young as five, adults with three or more decades of teaching experience, and every age learner in between. The majority of her professional life has been spent teaching literacy to middle school-age children as well as serving as a literacy specialist/coach in a K-6 school. She currently spends most of her time teaching writing to undergraduate students, facilitating engaging professional learning opportunities for educators, and speaking at local, regional, and national educational conferences. She is the author of three books about teaching; her most recent book, Literacy for All: A Framework for Anti-Oppressive Teaching, was published in December of 2023.

Sparking Curiosity with Play for Young Learners
with Deborah Dutcher

Since 2018, New Hampshire has promoted play-based learning and that we should think about school readiness as a robust developmental process that spans the early childhood years through age eight. NH Public Libraries became a part of the Reimagining School Readiness project in 2019 to support the state’s schools in helping children to develop complex thinking skills, be affective at self-regulation and control and independently make and carry out plans and finally get along with peers and adults. 

You don’t have to choose between English language arts and STEM activities! One of the best ways to encourage students to think critically about what they’ve read is to have them complete a book-inspired project or activity. In this session we will explore the use of picture books to inspire projects or activities (appropriate for ages 3-8). There will be a giveaway for several session participants to go home with a set of Ada Twist, Scientist; Rosie Revere, Engineer and Iggy Peck, Architect books. 

A native of northern New Hampshire, Deborah Dutcher began her library career in over the river in northeast Vermont as the Public Library Director and Media Specialist to a small K-12 School. In 2014, Deborah moved to Concord, NH continuing in libraries and became the Library Services Consultant at the New Hampshire State Library in 2018. She received her MLS from Drexel University, has and continues to serve on multiple state, regional and national library and education boards. Deborah is the creator of initiatives like the NH Naturebrary program and the Wellness Café.