Manitoba Reading Association's 

Professional Learning Series

Welcome to the Manitoba Reading Association Adolescent's

Professional Learning Series

This Professional Learning Series consists of six webinars.  Registration for this series includes access to each of the three webinars listed below.  Webinars will he hosted at 7 PM CST.  Webinars will be available to view for a short time after the event.  

Wednesday, February 2, 2022 - Tara McLauchlan

Tuesday, March 8, 2022 - Novelist Panel - Natasha Donovan, Chirstine M'lot, Tasha Spillett-Summer, & Katherena Vermette

Tuesday, April 5, 2022 - Carol Jago

Wednesday, February 2, 2022     Time: 7 PM CST          Presenter:  Tara McLauchlan

Topic: What to Read Next:
Love reading young adult fiction, but don't know what to read next?  Looking for book recommendations for the young adult readers in your life?  Using an "If you liked that, then you'll love this" type format, this session will share some up-and-coming books and graphic novels for adolescent readers (or any reader that loves YA books).

Biography: Tara McLauchlan is a Remote Learning Teacher & Literacy Coach at the Professional Staff Development Centre in the St. James-Assiniboia School Division.

Tuesday, March 8, 2022     Time: 7 PM CST         Host: Christine M'Lot

Novelists: Natasha Donovan, Tasha Spillett, and Katherena Vermette

Topic: Indigenous Perspectives in Literature
On March 8, 2022, International Women's Day, Anishinaabe consultant and educator, Christine M'Lot, hosts a panel discussion with three renowned Indigenous authors and illustrators, Natasha Donovan, Tasha Spillett and Katherena Vermette.

Biography: 

Christine M’Lot is an Anishinaabe educator, curriculum developer and consultant from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She has experience working with children and youth in multiple capacities including child welfare, children’s disAbility services family programming and teaching. Some of the resources she has created include Essential Math from an Indigenous Perspective, and an Indigenous Teen Dating Violence Prevention Program. She is also a member of Red Rising Magazine, a non-profit Indigenous collective from Winnipeg that produces an annual magazine.

Natasha Donovan is an illustrator with a focus on comics and children's illustration. Natasha is Metis; her family is from Saskatchewan, but she grew up mostly in Vancouver BC. Her short comic work has appeared in The Other Side Anthology (2016), edited by Melanie Gillman and Kori Handwerker, This Place Anthology (2018), published by Portage & Main, and Wonderful Women of History, published by DC. Natasha illustrates the award-winning children’s book series The Mothers of Xsan (written by Brett Huson). She was also the illustrator of the graphic novels “Surviving the City” and “From the Roots Up” (written by Tasha Spillett-Sumner) and the picture book biography “Classified” (written by Traci Sorrell).

Tasha Spillett-Sumner, of Cree and Trinidadian background, is a celebrated educator, poet and author. She is well-known for her graphic novels Surviving the City and From the Roots Up, illustrated by Natasha Donovan, as well as her brand-new picture book I Sang You Down from the Stars. An active member of Manitoba’s Indigenous community, Tasha is a ceremony woman and a traditional singer. Tasha shares her cultural knowledge and teaching background beyond the classroom, serving as a mentor in the Sisters Circle, an after-school program for Indigenous girls that is focused on promoting cultural identity, positive self-esteem and academic success. She is also a member of the Manito Ahbee Festival Board of Governors and the Miss Manito Ahbee Youth Ambassador gathering in honour of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

Katherena Vermette is a Métis writer from Treaty One territory, the heart of the Métis nation, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Her first book, North End Love Songs (The Muses Company) won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry. Her novel, The Break (House of Anansi) was a bestseller in Canada and won multiple awards and nominations.  She is also the author of the picture book The Girl and The Wolf  (Theytus), the graphic novel series, A Girl Called Echo (Highwater Press), and co-wrote and co-directed the Canadian Screen Award winning short documentary, this river (NFB).

Tuesday, April 5, 2022     Time: 7 PM CST         Presenter: Carol Jago

Topic: The Book in Question: Why and How Reading is in Crisis

Today’s students must be bi-literate: capable of reading proficiently in both digital media and traditional print. In this session Carol Jago will demonstrate the instructional moves she described in The Book in Question: Why and How Reading Is in Crisis, protocols that scaffold complex text for hesitant readers. She offers practical advice for creating a community of readers in your classroom and will share new book titles that are sure to delight your students. The more students read, the more they know. The more students know, the more they will be able to do.

Biography: Carol Jago has taught English in middle and high school for 32 years and is associate director of the California Reading and Literature Project at UCLA. She served as president of the National Council of Teachers of English and chair of the College Board’s English Academic Advisory committee.  Carol is a Member at Large of the International Literacy Association for 2021-2024.

Carol has published many books with Heinemann including With Rigor for All: Meeting Standards for Reading Literature; Papers, Papers, Papers;  Classics in the Classroom; and Cohesive Writing: Why Concept Is Not Enough. She has also published books on contemporary multicultural authors for NCTE. Carol wrote an education column for the Los Angeles Times, and her essays continue to appear in educational journals and online forums.

Carol edits California English the journal of the California Association of Teachers of English and worked on the planning committee for the 2009 National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) Reading Framework and the 2011 NAEP Writing Framework. She is a consulting author on the HMH Collections program.

In 2015 Carol was awarded the International Literacy Association’s Adolescent Literacy Thought Leader Award and in 2016 the CEL Exemplary Leadership Award. She has been named by the U.S. Department of Education to serve on the National Assessment Governing Board overseeing the NAEP assessments.

She can be reached at cjago@caroljago.com or on Twitter @CarolJago .

» Listen to an interview with Carol Jago on Education Talk Radio—2/23/2012 (34:20)