Providing English Language Arts and Literacy Training and Mentorship

teachers • educators • caregivers • parents • librarians • students

• lifelong learners • all curious readers

Learn to . . .

• slow down, see, and savor words, reading not merely for a single surface “meaning “ but for multiple generative interpretations

• read visual as well as verbal narratives, finding new significance in the details of illustrations, title pages, and book design

• compare the text’s cultural, social, and political origins with the contemporary conditions of your 21st-century reading

• “talk back” to texts: absorb their wisdom, reject their appeals, track how your emotions are cued, notice what’s excluded as well as included, forge your own informed readings

• think critically, weighing how and why the text conveys meanings

• think creatively, identifying qualities of verbal style, narrative structure, and characterization that you might use in crafting your own life story

WHY I DO WHAT I DO

Readers today face multiple challenges.  Access to sustained and high-quality education is not, sadly, available to all children in America.  Covid exacerbated existing learning inequities, and many schools are not fully staffed or are staffed with teachers who desire more in-depth training in English Language Arts. Our fast-paced, increasingly digital culture renders sustained focus on books difficult for all of us, yet reading widely and deeply promotes self-awareness, empathy, and critical thinking, qualities we—and our world—need to solve complex problems.

When I first put on glasses as a near-sighted 6th grader, I was stunned to see the precision of leaves—their unique shapes, textures, and colors. Without those lenses, I had known only a large green blur of tree-ness, and I marveled at the detail that had always existed but that I hadn’t been able to perceive.

ReadingGladly provides similar “lenses” through which readers can see new truths in familiar texts (such as children’s literature, Shakespeare’s plays, foundational American documents, a favorite poem or memoir or novel).

Sessions are designed to meet the needs of all curious readers, regardless of skill level, who seek continuing education for personal enrichment, professional development, or social connection. Sessions can be offered in person and online.

Deepen your reading practices with strategies I’ve used successfully for forty years in university and K-12 classrooms.

• Intellectually rigorous and personally engaging

• Historically contextualized and text-based

• Common Core State Standards-aligned

Vocation is “the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet”

-Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC

As an experienced educator of K-12 students, undergraduate and graduate students, and in-service teachers, I founded ReadingGladly to help others engage more confidently with complex texts and to reflect on the personally and socially transformative power of the reading process.