Registration for The 2023 CCIRA Conference is Open!! 

Click below to read about the amazing sessions available!

Sign up for luncheons before seats are sold out!! Join Lester Laminack on Thursday and Penny Kittle on Friday! You don't want to miss this!

Let's Celebrate With a Discount Code!!

• Register for the conference and a luncheon
• Use discount code ccira10
• Save $10!!
• Offer expires January 10th!

When you attend A View From Here, you’ll have the opportunity to:

• explore ways to thoughtfully implement SoR recommendations
• learn from award-winning children’s and YA authors
• think about options for centering culturally responsive literacy instruction in our classrooms and schools
• build strategies for creating engaging, diverse, and inclusive classroom libraries
• strengthen the reading and writing lives of emerging bilingual learners and immigrant families
• experience community with fellow educators working to make the world of school a better place for everyone

CCIRA 2023 Luncheon Speakers

Lester Laminack

Lester Laminack will be at the 2023 CCIRA conference and we are thrilled! He has written several books for both teachers and children and will be at the conference with his new book Three Hens, a Peacock, and the Enormous Egg!! Check out his recent CCIRA blog post here as well as some of his other books: The King of Bees, Three Hens and a Peacock, The Ultimate Read-Aloud Resource 2nd edition, Writers ARE Readers, Reading to Make a Difference.

Here is a description of Lester's Thursday luncheon:

Story Matters - We are story. Story is how we make sense of our past, navigate the present, and imagine the future. Lester will explore the power of story in our classrooms and in our lives.



His afternoon session that is only open to luncheon attendees is:

When Fiction is the Front Porch to Inquiry and Nonfiction - We will explore one topic through the doorway of fiction to spark interest and questions that will launch an exploration moving through a series of nonfiction texts, taking us deeper into the topic, building vocabulary and conceptual understanding.

Penny Kittle

It is with tremendous pleasure that we welcome Penny Kittle to our CCIRA 2023 lineup for “A View From Here”. She will be joining us as our luncheon speaker on Friday, February 10, 2023. 

Penny is the author of numerous professional texts including Micro Mentor Texts: Using Short Passages From Great Books to Teach Writer’s Craft, Book Love, Write Beside Them, and two books co-authored with Kelly Gallagher: 4 Essential Studies and 180 Days. She is the founder and president of the Book Love Foundation, which annually grants classroom libraries to teachers throughout North America.

Her Friday luncheon talk is:

The Literacy Lessons I Learned from Hamilton - The Pulitzer Prize winning play by Lin-Manuel Miranda has lessons to teach us all about passion, creativity, genre, and the process of writing. Each year we can help students construct identities of power and opportunity, to challenge themselves as readers and writers, and to act with agency in our classrooms. We will unpack the classroom conditions and practices that are grounded in key principles for motivation: relevance, engagement, and community.

Her exclusive afternoon session that is only open to luncheon attendees is:

Micro Mentor Texts: using short passages from great books to teach writer’s craft - We all want readers and writers to flourish in our classrooms. We want students who see a book as a treasure chest of craft moves—the moves that skilled writers use. They can and will begin to name those moves and use them through passage study and imitation. They will learn a wide range of writing skills from grammar in context, varied sentence patterns—both the art and feel of cohesion and style—as well as all the ways a writer is an artist of words. Come to study and write together.



Find a great read AND help CCIRA! Order a book listed below from one of the 2023 CCIRA Conference speakers through Amazon Smile.

Thursday's Speakers

Ruth Ayres - Enticing Hard to Reach Writers

Matthew Kay - Not Light, but Fire: How to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in the Classroom

Nawal Qarooni - Family Literacy (Coming in February 2023!)

Linda Sue Park - The One Thing You'd Save, Prairie Lotus, A Long Walk to Water, A Single Shard, Gurple and Preen, Bee-bim Bop!

Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow - Abdul's Story, Your Name is a Song, Hold Them Close: A Love Letter to Black Children

Kristine O'Connell George - Swimming Upstream: Middle School Poems, The Great Frog Race, Toasting Marshmallows

Aida Salazar - A Seed in the Sun, Jovita Wore Pants

Dr. Sonja Cherry-Paul - Stamped (For Kids): Racism, Antiracism, Breathing New Life Into Book Clubs: A Practical Guide for Teachers

Sarah Zerwin - Pointless

Friday's Speakers

Cornelius Minor - We Got This

Jan Burkins - Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom

Clare Landrigan - Assessment in Perspective, It's All About the Books

Aeriale Johnson - Currently working on Possibilities of Poetry with Clare Landrigan! Look for it coming from Stenhouse Publishers!

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater - Poems Are Teachers: How Studying Poetry Strengthens Writing in All Genres, Read! Read! Read!, Write! Write! Write!, If This Bird Had Pockets: A Poem In Your Pocket Day Celebration, With My Hands: Poems About Making Things, Forest Has A Song, That Missing Feeling

Lesléa Newman - Alicia and the Hurricane, How to Sleep Tight through the Night, October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard, Heather Has Two Mommies (Candlewick), Sparkle Boy, Gittel's Journey: An Ellis Island Story, Ketzel: The Cat Who Composed, Remembering Ethan

Matthew Cordell - Cornbread and Poppy, Cornbread and Poppy at the Carnival, Wolf in the Snow, Hello, Neighbor!, and Bear Island

Charles R. Smith Jr. - Hoop Kings 2: New Royalty, Bessie the Motorcycle Queen, Song for Jimi, 28 Days, Brown Sugar Babies, I Am America

Kristin Ziemke - Read the World: Rethinking Literacy for Empathy and Action in a Digital Age, Amplify! Digital Teaching and Learning in the K-6 Classroom

Debbie Miller - Reading With Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades, "I'm the Kind of Kid Who"...Invitations that Support Learner Identity and Agency

Dr. Don Vu - Life, Literacy, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Saturday's Speakers

Donalyn Miller - The Joy of Reading, The Commonsense Guide to Your Classroom Library

Mr. Schu - This is a School, The Gift of Story: Exploring the Affective Side of the Reading Life

Colby Sharp - The Commonsense Guide to Your Classroom Library

Click the book titles to read more and order!

CCIRA Literacy Conversations

In the most recent episode, listen to 2023 CCIRA Conference chairs, Lori Conrad and Patrick Allen, interview Brooklyn-based equitable literacy leader, Cornelius Minor.  Several other editions are available too including Charles R. Smith, Whitney La Rocca, Krista Griffin, Melanie Conklin, Pernille Ripp, Gordan Korman, and more! Click the button below and listen in!

Remember to check out the CCIRA Blog!

The CCIRA blog features a wide variety of nationally renowned literacy experts, as well as talented practitioners from across Colorado. Check out the posts on https://ccira.blog/  

Our most recent blog post is by 2023 conference speaker Nawal Qarooni! Please take time to read  Breathing Life Into the Syllabus: How Teaching Preservice Educators Hones My Practice. We also have recent blog posts from JamilahThompkins-Bigelow (Growth and Loss: Black Children's Literature Post-George Floyd), CCIRA Past President Vicki Collet (Mentoring and Coaching to Support Colleagues), and Gravity Goldberg (Combatting Aliteracy: Mentoring Today’s Students to Become Tomorrow’s Avid Readers).

If you might be interested in submitting a guest post to CCIRA.blog, please contact Hollyanna Bates (hollyannabates@gmail.com).

Teacher as Literacy Learner Grant - Apply Now!

Are you interested in promoting literacy by encouraging the teachers in your district to become active readers and/or writers? Apply for CCIRA’s Teacher as Literacy Learner Grant to earn up to $500 to cover materials to make this professional growth opportunity a reality in your school. Proposals should focus on the use of literature to build teachers’ professional knowledge, the power of participating in a book club as a means of building one’s love for reading, or the development of teachers’ writing skills as they take risks to find their own writing voice. (See TALL Application Guidelines for more information). The deadline for the Teacher as Literacy Learner Grant is March 30, 2023.

Fannie Stabenow Award Nominations - Now Open!

We are soliciting nominations for the prestigious Fannie Stabenow Award. The purpose of this award is to recognize a CCIRA member that has made outstanding contributions to CCIRA. Eligibility for this award is as follows:

1. Any educator who has an active interest in reading and has made a significant contribution to CCIRA.

2. The nominee must be a member of CCIRA

3. Members of the Executive Committee of CCIRA are not eligible.

4. A person may be nominated more than once but may not receive the award more than once.

5. A pervious nominee who did not receive the award may be nominated again.

For more information and/or the nomination form please contact Lisa Kahn, lisakahnccira@gmail.com

CCIRA is a non-profit organization that works to empower literacy educators. As a non-profit organization, we appreciate support in a variety of ways:

• Donate
• Support a Conference Scholarship Opportunity
• Leverage fundraising programs to earn CCIRA money
• Volunteer with CCIRA

This Month's Featured Fundraiser

CCIRA Partners in Empowering Literacy Educators

TOP REASONS TO PARTNER WITH CCIRA

• Over 2000 conference attendees will learn about your partnership with CCIRA.
• Our 1300+ members will see your support on our webpage.
• Visitors to the CCIRA website will learn about your organization and its events.
• Our combined support of literacy will impact students across our state and neighboring states.

Check out one of our newest partners,

Knowledge Bound!!

Meet Members of the

CCIRA Executive Committee!

Amy Vermeulen

Hello fellow CCIRA members! I’m your Marketing Chair and the person sending you the Communicator each month. I learned about CCIRA from a fellow teacher when I moved to Colorado in 1997. She told me I absolutely HAD to attend the conference because it was AMAZING. She was absolutely right and I’ve been attending ever since! I made my way to the position of Marketing Chair by first joining the local Jefferson County council, then serving on its board in various capacities. One of the other board members kept encouraging me to be on the Executive Committee, and here I am! I’ve really enjoyed working with my fellow EC members and can’t believe I get to be a part of such a great organization.

I’m originally from a small town in Vermont and received my BS in Elementary Education with a concentration in mathematics from The University of Vermont. I taught middle school math upon graduation then decided to move west. When I relocated to Colorado, I got a job at a private school where I taught for 5 years at multiple grade levels. During that time I met my husband, Bruce, and step-daughter, Hannah. In 2000 Bruce and I had twin daughters, Kathryn and Elizabeth. I stayed home with them for 5 years and then began working my way back into teaching by taking several classes pertaining to literacy, math, and technology. Those credits earned me Jeffco’s Literacy Teacher of Excellence and Technology Teacher of Excellence certificates. Ultimately I obtained a permanent position within Jeffco at Wilmot Elementary in Evergreen. During my first few years there I took more classes and was able to add the Gifted and Talented endorsement to my license. Most recently, I added the Reading Teacher endorsement to my license as many other teachers have done with Colorado’s new requirements. I currently teach 3rd grade at Wilmot and absolutely love it! I adore my students and am super passionate about what I do. 

If you see me at this year’s CCIRA conference, be sure to introduce yourself and say hello. One of the best parts of attending the conference is meeting other inspired educators. I look forward to meeting you!!

CCIRA collaboratively encourages, supports, and advances literacy through research-based instructional practices to increase literacy access to all.

All people will be empowered to critically engage in our changing world by developing and utilizing literacy skills throughout life.