2022 News

Growing Readers and Supporting Independent Reading hosted by the Anchin Center

August 22, 2022

In this two-hour online workshop, participants explored how to support independent reading and grow readers. Throughout the workshop, there was many discussions about challenges to developing reading fluency, ways to re-engage readers, titles to ignite reading lives and identities, and genres/formats that get people talking about the books they read.

Workshop facilitator, Julia E. Torres, has taught Language Arts for sixteen years. Currently, she is a teacher librarian for the Montbello Campus serving five schools within the Far Northeast region of Denver Public schools. Formerly, a teacher of AP English Language/Literature, Julia has served Colorado Language Arts teachers as the Vice-President and President of the regional NCTE affiliate–The Colorado Language Arts Society. As a teacher/activist committed to education as a practice of freedom, her practice is grounded in the work of empowering students to use Language Arts to fuel resistance and positive social transformation. Currently, Julia is serving teachers as a 2018-20 Heinemann Fellow, focusing on libraries, digital literacy, and the formation of reading identities among secondary students in urban school districts. Julia is also the current NCTE Secondary-Representative At-Large. In co-operation with The Educator Collaborative, Julia facilitates workshops and professional conversations about anti-bias/anti-racist education, social justice, and culturally sustaining pedagogies in Language Arts, as well as digital literacy and librarianship. Julia serves on several local and national boards and committees promoting educational equity and progressivism. Teaching, aside from her family, is Julia’s greatest love. Visit Julia’s website: https://juliaetorres.blog/