Joelle Charbonneau is the author or the New York Times best-selling The Testing trilogy (comprised of The Testing, Independent Study, and Graduation Day), as well as two mystery series: The Rebecca Robbins mysteries (including Skating Around the Law and Skating over the Line) and the Glee Club mysteries (comprised of Murder for Choir, End Me a Tenor, and A Chorus Lineup). Her YA books have appeared on the Indie Next List, on the YALSA Top 10 books for 2014 as well as the YALSA Quick Picks for reluctant readers.
Joelle has performed in opera and musical theater productions across Chicagoland, and now teaches private voice lessons.
Book signing to follow
6:30 pm, Plenary Session 3
Awards Dinner
- Drawing for Basket Raffle
- Minority Scholarship Recipients
- Student Literature & Art Contest Winners
- Lifetime Achievement Award
- Author of the Year
Jose Olivarez is the author of two collections of poems, including Promises of Gold and Citizen Illegal. He co-edited the poetry anthology The BreakBeat Poets, Volume 4: LatiNEXT, with Felicia Rose Chavez and Willie Perdomo.
Promises of Gold was long-listed for the 2023 National Book Award and Citizen Illegal was a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and winner of the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Poetry Prize.
In 2018, Jose Olivarez was awarded the first annual Author and Artist in Justice Award from the Phillips Brooks House Association and was named a Debut Poet of 2018 by Poets & Writers. In 2019, the Poetry Foundation awarded Olivarez a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship.
Olivarez’s work has been featured in the New York Times, Paris Review, POETRY magazine, among others.
Book signing to follow
Yes, it can be taught! Through action research, daily interactions, project based learning, and a little help from technology, building a culture of kindness is not only feasible, it’s part of the curriculum! Think you have too much to cover? This session will explore how you can tie kindness to content and course skills while promoting and supporting SEL.
The curricula and methods of ELA can be powerful tools for reaching disempowered, disconnected students and motivating them to act, think, interact, and appreciate through the enchantments of language and story and expression. In a discussion format, a panel of early career, veteran, and preservice teachers share their approaches to cutting through the malaise and resistance often promoted by school environments to reconceive school as a space for humanistic, creative, and moral involvement.
The pandemic and social divisiveness has exacerbated inequities and made it difficult for teens to reflect on their place in the world. Apprenticing adolescents in action research grounded by inclusive Young Adult novels is an authentic and engaging way to reframe their civic learning and empower them to shape their world for healing, dreaming, and unity. The presenters will share work grounded in Freire’s Critical Literacy theory and further scaffolded by scholarship in action research and positioning. The presenters will model how to use Young Adult Literature and Critical Action Research to provide students the participatory spaces to critique the world and engage them with relevant interrogation of texts and exploration of of political language, civic values, and their agency in the world (Cammarota & Fine, 2008, Freire, 2016; Mirra & Garcia, 2017). As educators continue to shape literacy practices, we recognize schools, one of the largest enculturating institutions in the world, have the opportunity to teach adolescents how to use literacy to navigate humanity & social contexts. This presentation is of interest to educators wishing to reimagine a liberating pedagogy that privileges inclusive adolescent voices.
