Gantos, Popular Children's Author, Other Literacy Symposium Speakers, to Discuss Common Core

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Jack Gantos, from left, Doug Hesse and Carla McClafferty

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The annual University of Arkansas Literacy Symposium will focus this year on Common Core State Standards for nonfiction reading and writing. It will feature award-winning children’s author Jack Gantos; professor Doug Hesse, founding executive director of the University of Denver Writing Program; and author Carla McClafferty, whose literary nonfiction books bring a new perspective on using informational books in the classroom.

The symposium is in its eighth year and will be held Sept. 6 at the Fayetteville Town Center. The daylong event is an opportunity for educators to earn professional development credit and share their experiences teaching students how to read and write. The literacy symposium is sponsored by the department of curriculum and instruction in the College of Education and Health Professions.

This year, the college has partnered with several Fayetteville groups to present the symposium as part of the first True Lit Fayetteville Literary Festival, which is being held from Sept. 5-8.

Registration for the university’s literacy symposium can be done online. The cost is $100 for teachers and $40 for full-time students. Educators will earn 6 hours of professional development credit approved by the Arkansas Department of Education for attending the symposium. Students can also earn the professional development credit, and professors have the option to give them some academic credit for attendance.

Gantos has written books for children, teens and adults, including the Joey Pigza and Rotten Ralph series for children. Dead End in Norvelt, his most recent novel, is semi-autobiographical and won the 2012 John Newbery Award and the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction.

Hesse is a noted essayist and co-author of four books, most recently Creating Nonfiction, co-authored with Becky Bradway Hesse. He coordinates the Norman Mailer/NCTE National High School and College Writing Awards in Creative Nonfiction.

McClafferty is known for writing complex, literary nonfiction. Her book, Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium, won the NTSA Outstanding Science Trade Book Award in 2007, and The Many Faces of George Washington: Remaking a Presidential Icon was an ALA 2011 Notable Children’s Book nominee. She provides educators with concrete examples of how to accomplish the goals of the Common Core State Standards by using literary nonfiction to develop close reading and facilitate writing.

Gantos, Hess and McClafferty will also lead writing workshops as part of the True Lit Festival. Other partners presenting the festival are Friends of the Fayetteville Public Library, Fayetteville Montessori School, Fayetteville Public Library, Fayetteville Public Schools and the Fayetteville Public Education Foundation.