Kids, Books & Anti-Racism Series 2023
Closing the Opportunity Gap: Promoting Access & Equity through Literacy
Deepen your understanding of how to cultivate anti-bias and anti-racist practices in classrooms and schools. Learn how to facilitate rich, inclusive discussions with your students to honor their lived experiences and ensure each child grows up literate in our educational system.
These nationally known speakers will challenge your thinking, inspire you and your students to take action, and equip you with the literature, language, and tools so you can make a difference in your school, community, and the world.
- Classroom Teachers, Interventionists & Specialists
- Literacy Coaches & Teacher Leaders
- District & School Leaders
- Complete Series ($499)
- February 8 with Allison Briceño ($199)
- March 10 with Lorena Escoto Germán ($199)
- May 4 with Afrika Afeni Mills ($199)
- Discounts available for groups, Lesley students and alumni! Email CRRLC@lesley.edu to inquire.
Featured Speakers & Series Details
Wednesday, February 8, 2023 (This event has passed.)
Creating Conscious Classrooms: Using Diverse Books for Anti-Racist Teaching with Allison Briceño
Sponsored by Benchmark Education Company
When you look at the books in your classroom, are all students’ voices and experiences well represented? You are invited to explore ways teachers can use diverse children’s books to advance their anti-racist teaching, engage all readers, and support literacy and identity development.
This research-based workshop will provide teachers the opportunity to learn to identify and center the lived experiences of students of color and other diverse students. We will analyze books, explore ways to use them across the school day, and address how to handle “controversial” topics with kids and other adults.
Topics discussed during this session will include:
- The significance of including rich, authentic diverse texts
- Analyzing children’s books to determine if they reinforce or resist stereotypes
- Strategies for using diverse texts with kids, including how to navigate problematic texts
- Tools and prompting cards for meaningful and respectful comprehension conversations
- Ways to integrate diverse texts across the curriculum
- Approaches to progress along the diverse text continuum
- Strategies for easing the concerns of adults
This full-day workshop will share proven ways to help educators engage diverse learners in reading, so it is of interest to teachers of diverse students as well as administrators, instructional coaches, specialists, paraprofessionals, and other educators.
Registered participants will receive a copy of the professional text, Conscious Classrooms: Using Diverse Texts for Inclusion, Equity, and Justice.
This full-day workshop will be recorded. Registered individuals will have 30 days to access this recording starting on the day that it is distributed. Instructions to access the recording will be sent about 1-2 weeks following the session. Due to the workshop’s interactive structure, we highly recommend that registrants participate live on the day of the event.
Attendees will earn 6 professional development hours for their participation.
For full details and pricing for this workshop with Allison Briceño, click this link.
Friday, March 10, 2023 (This event has passed.)
Teaching for Literacy & Social Justice Through Culturally Sustaining Instructional Practices with Lorena Escoto Germán
Do you find it challenging to implement the concepts of anti-bias, anti-racist teaching into your everyday classroom practice? Learn more about Lorena German’s innovative approach to culturally sustaining instructional practices that she explains in her text, Textured Teaching. Lorena will guide you to consider how you can humanize your practice through reflecting on: the ways you teach your subject matter; how you design learning experiences; how you relate with students; and how you impact the culture of your school community. Through Textured Teaching you will learn how to increase student engagement, teach for social justice, and work on healing as an outcome of education.
Participants will:
- Understand and name the four traits of Textured Teaching:
- Student driven and community centered
- Interdisciplinary
- Experiential
- Flexible
- Identify practices to implement immediately to bring back culturally sustaining instructional practices in your classroom and school
Through this workshop, you will be able to move from theory into action and see sample lessons and units that you can build your own ideas upon. There is too much at stake for us educators to be inactive in response to what we, students included, are facing. Come to be encouraged and equipped to support students with expanding their literacy learning all while working toward making our nation a better place.
Registered participants will receive a copy of the professional text, Textured Teaching: A Framework for Culturally Sustaining Practices.
This full-day workshop will be recorded. Registered individuals will have 30 days to access this recording starting on the day that it is distributed. Instructions to access the recording will be sent about 1-2 weeks following the session. Due to the workshop’s interactive structure, we highly recommend that registrants participate live on the day of the event.
Attendees will earn 6 professional development hours for their participation.
For full details and pricing for this workshop with Lorena Escoto Germán click this link.
Thursday, May 4, 2023 (This event has passed.)
Using Picture Books to Center Humanity and Connect Across Differences with Afrika Afeni Mills
The African concept of Ubuntu, which means I am because we are, provides a powerful lens through which we can explore our diverse identities and experiences as well as our connectedness with our students. It is by demystifying our differences through various texts in our literacy instruction that we develop the understanding and empathy needed to truly be united. Learn how to equip students to look at themselves in mirrors and discover what lies beyond the familiar through windows so they can effectively make meaning of the world around them.
Participants will:
- Explore the books that have shaped our identities and perspectives as a foundation for supporting students
- Develop a resource list of children’s books to implement in our instructional practices
- Recognize and value the histories, perspectives, and experiences of people who are unlike us in order to support students to do the same
- Learn to use picture books and our own literary experiences to create and sustain learning that equips students to: understand the complexity of the human experience from multiple perspectives; see one another and themselves more fully; and work toward a more just society
Registered participants will receive a copy of the professional text, Open Windows, Open Minds: Developing Antiracist, Pro-Human Students.
This full-day workshop will be recorded. Registered individuals will have 30 days to access this recording starting on the day that it is distributed. Instructions to access the recording will be sent about 1-2 weeks following the session. Due to the workshop’s interactive structure, we highly recommend that registrants participate live on the day of the event.
Attendees will earn 6 professional development hours for their participation.
For full details and pricing for this workshop with Afrika Afeni Mills, click this link.
COVID-19 Protocols for In-Person Attendees
In-person training is available to a limited number of participants and you may choose that option. Should any of the conditions change and it is determined the training can be offered online only, you will be notified as soon as possible. We recommend that you email us at CRRLC@lesley.edu before reserving travel and lodging.
At this point in time, participants who have opted to come to Lesley University for the in-person format of professional learning must be prepared to follow the University’s COVID-19 protocols before and during the event.
- You must be “up to date on vaccinations” as defined by the CDC.
- You must submit a COVID Self-Assessment Visitor Form no more than 48 hours before each event.
- Lesley University no longer requires that participants submit a negative PCR result before attending an on-campus event. If possible, complete a rapid test before coming to campus. If you are feeling sick or symptomatic, please stay home and email CRRLC@lesley.edu to switch your registration to virtual.
- Masks are highly recommended indoors, but not required.
- Lesley University’s COVID-19 protocols are designed to protect the health and safety of our community.
Cancellation Deadline & Refund Policies
For a registrant who purchased the Complete Bundle and would like to cancel their registration, the last day to get a full refund is January 24, 2023. A cancellation must be submitted in writing. Cancellation requests received between January 25 – 31, 2023 will be subject to a $50 processing fee. No refunds will be issued starting February 1, 2023.
For a registrant who purchased individual sessions and would like to cancel their registration, the last day to get a full refund for Allison Briceño’s session is January 24, 2023, Lorena Escoto Germán’s session is February 23, 2023, and Afrika Afeni Mills’ session is April 19, 2023. A cancellation must be submitted in writing. Cancellation requests received within the 7 days following each of these dates will be subject to a $35 processing fee per session. No refunds will be issued during the week before each session.
Email CRRLC@lesley.edu to cancel or request a substitution. Regardless of conditions, if the event is held but you cannot attend, you will be billed for the full amount.
Registration Deadline
We highly recommend registering at least five business days before the event to allow the minimum amount of time to ship the professional texts.
Independent Learning Policy & Recordings
Each full-day workshop will be recorded. Registered individuals will have 30 days to access a recording starting on the day that it is distributed. Instructions to access the recording will be sent about 1-2 weeks following the session. Due to the workshop’s interactive structure, we highly recommend that registrants participate live on the day of the event.
The registrant agrees to access the live sessions and/or recordings for the purpose of independent learning. Access to the live sessions and/or recordings is restricted to the registrant and may not be accessed in a group setting.
Requirements for Participation
In order to receive your certificate of attendance, you will be asked to complete an electronic one-page insight form. We will provide more information about this process after each session. Please allow our team 2-3 weeks to process your certificate.
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SERIES SPONORS
Pinnell Education Foundation
Terri Ziegler-Lowell
Patron Opportunities
Show your support and partner with us as a Patron to support the children. Whether you are an individual contributor, a small business or a large one, your donation will help advance the knowledge of education professionals, a critical factor for ensuring every child will have a literate life. To learn more about patron opportunities, contact us.
“Everyone who becomes a teacher or lives and breathes should participate in this series.
It should be required for all teacher training.”
Valerie P., Literacy Coach, Whitney Point Central School District, New York
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