Descriptions for the 2017 Red Clover conference workshops:
Workshop 1
Option 1
Using Technology to Support Your Red Clover Award Program (Presented by Educator/Librarian Carrie Speranza)
Learn and share ideas for using computers, tablets and other information technology to integrate 21st Century Skills into your Red Clover Program. This workshop will include both hi-tech and low-tech ideas to liven up your lessons. Please bring a device to test out some of the programs discussed.
Option 2
Overview of the Red Clover List with Visual Arts Connections (Librarian Beth Redford and Art Teacher M.C. Baker)
Join us as we present the nominees and give you some concrete ideas to help kickstart your program. *Note: This workshop was presented at the Dynamic Landscapes conference in May 2017.
Option 3
Developing Your Character: Red Clover Books and the Habits of Mind Skills
(Presented by Librarians Robin Bryce and Audri Miller)
Learn about the 16 Habits of Mind (persistence, problem solving, listening with empathy and understanding) and how to use the stories and characters from this year’s Red Clover nominees to develop your own awareness of these important life skills and how to infuse them into your program with children.
Option 4
Red Clover Across the Curriculum: Connections to Writing, Art and Music (Librarian Lis Zwick)
Want some creative ideas on how to connect this year’s Red Clover nominees to other subject areas? Looking to collaborate and get other teachers and librarians involved with the Red Clover Award program? We will be sharing writing prompts for each of this year’s nominees, writing rubrics, and examples of student work. We will also discuss collaboration ideas for art, music, and the other unified arts.
Workshop 2
Option 1
Let’s Invent: STEM and Whoosh! (Science educator Meredith Wade)
In this lively, hands-on session, you will build and test inventions, just like Lonnie Johnson did! Activities will be adaptable for different ages/grades with opportunities for observation, comparison, asking questions and engineering design.
Option 2
A Conversation With Gaia Cornwall
Meet author/illustrator Gaia Cornwall and learn about her creative process.
Option 3
Using Technology to Support Your Red Clover Program (Presented by Educator/Librarian Carrie Speranza)
(See description above.)
Option 4
Art and Design and the Red Clover Books (Presented by Children’s Literature Expert Grace Greene)
You read the story, look at the pictures, and then you’re done, right? Wrong! How about the cover, the endpapers, page design, composition, gutters, use of line and color, etc.? In Storytime or the classroom, help children talk about the whole book by examining the elements of design and art.
Workshop 3
Option 1
Everyday Diversity: How Your Library Collection Can Reflect the World Without Breaking the Budget (Presented by VT Department of Libraries’ Youth Services Consultant Cass Mabbott)
The idea behind everyday diversity is that it focuses on characters that just happen to be diverse—whether it’s ethnic, LGBTQIA, differently abled, etc. This diversity is not the focus of the story. These characters are experiencing universal occurrences, such as, going to school for the first time or celebrating a birthday. The importance of “everyday diversity” is that it allows diverse kids to see themselves reflected in the common experience and shows everyone that we have similarities. In this workshop, we will have a “hands-on” discussion of specific books that reflect everyday diversity and how incorporating these books into our collections is an economic and important way of reflecting diversity.
Option 2
You CAN Do It! Integrating Art and the Red Clover Books (Presented by Visual Arts Expert M.C. Baker)
M.C. will show you how to have some “smashing” good fun using recycled materials to make all kinds of art, incorporating the Red Clover nominees.
Option 3
Let’s Invent: STEM and Whoosh! (Science educator Meredith Wade)
(See description above.)
Option 4
Red Clover Across the Curriculum: Connections to Writing, Art and Music (Librarians Lis Zwick and Liz Bourne)
(See description above.)