BookLove VPLN

Virtual PD for Middle/High School Librarians, ELA teachers & Literacy Coaches

Why: We want to build more passionate Maine readers! We are three educators who are dedicated to cultivating and engaging readers, and have been inspired by Penny Kittle’s work. Offering this professional learning opportunity to Maine’s middle and high school literacy educators (classroom, specialists, and librarians) in a virtual way also serves to expand our professional networks around the state. 

What: A virtual book study on Penny Kittle’s Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina and Passion in Adolescent Readers (2013). 

“In Book Love, Penny takes student apathy head on, first by recognizing why students don’t read and then showing us that when we give kids books that are right for them, along with time to read and regular responses to their thinking, we can create a pathway to satisfying reading that leads to more challenging literature and, ultimately, a love of reading.”

This virtual professional learning network (VPLN) will be structured around the ideas and content in Kittle’s book, with prompts and questions designed to engage participants through a variety of virtual platforms. There will be asynchronous as well as “live” online events, including a Google Hangout on Air with author Penny Kittle. We plan to use a closed Facebook group as our home base for discussions, but will experiment with other platforms as well, including Twitter slowchats, Google docs, and FlipGrid. The goal is to explore Kittle’s ideas so that we can apply them in our schools.

When: Starting on January 24, 2019 and running for 8 weeks.

Who: Co-sponsored by MASL and MCELA, the BookLove VPLN will be for School Librarians, Middle and High School English and ELL teachers, and literacy specialists. The facilitators are Debra Butterfield (2018 Maine School Librarian of the Year, Gardiner High School), Iris Eichenlaub (2017 Knox County Teacher of the Year, Camden Hills Regional High School), and Patti Forster (English Department Chair at Camden Hills Regional High School, NBCT Candidate, Bay Area Writing Coach).

FMI - to get advance notification when registration opens and more details: 

https://goo.gl/forms/SinDzj8dO3xSN5Ij1