Jane M. Gangi, a former Education professor (and current adjunct) at Mount Saint Mary College, presented “Hot Reads! Exploring 2022 Award Winners Though Multiple Modalities” at the latest CELL Literacy Conference.
From poetry for elementary students to the educational potential of graphic novels, Mount Saint Mary College’s 28th Annual Conference on Literacy on Saturday, March 26 offered plenty of exciting material for area educators.
Spearheaded by the college’s Collaborative for Equity in Literacy Learning (CELL), the theme of the conference was “No Time Like the Present: Promoting and Validating Young People’s Worlds Through Literacy.”
Participants attended two workshops of their choice before enjoying a keynote speech by author and illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczk, whose books appeal to a wide range of children and young adults.
Workshops included “Unrolling the Graphic Novel: A Hands-on Introduction to Exploring Graphic Novels in Scroll Form” by Dave Middlebrook, founder of Textmapping.org; “#KidsLoveNonfiction” by Meredith Inkeles, librarian at Kinry Road Elementary School; and “Hot Reads! Exploring 2022 Award Winners Though Multiple Modalities” by Jane M. Gangi, a former Education professor (and current adjunct) at the Mount.
Krosoczk’s graphic novels include the Lunch Lady and the Star Wars: Jedi Academy series. Hey, Kiddo, a National Book Award Finalist and the Harvey Book of the Year in 2019, describes his childhood through words and art.
During his speech, Krosoczk wowed conferencegoers with live drawings that illustrated his life and his path to authorship. Because his mother struggled with substance abuse, he explained, his maternal grandparents adopted him when he was just three years old. Both grandparents drank, smoked, and adored Krosoczk. This loving and challenging environment, he explained, left an indelible impact on his development as an artist and writer.
Established in 2012, CELL provides tutoring and out-of-school literacy activities for children pre-school to grade 12 with a focus on reading, conversation, and activities. It explores multicultural books, offers family literacy programs, and more. Each semester dozens of Mount teacher candidates, graduate and undergraduate, help instill a love of reading in local youth as part of their community fieldwork requirement.