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!

📢📢   PRIZE ALERT!!   📢📢

How to Enter

1. Share on social media that you registered for the 2023 CCIRA Conference
2. Tag friends that may be interested in the conference
3. Tag CCIRA in your post so we can see it

We will announce the winners every two weeks!! Don't wait! Register now before prizes run out!

Our first prize winner was Erin from

Inspiration View Elementary!

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

Penny Kittle

It is with tremendous pleasure that we welcome Penny Kittle to our CCIRA 2023 line up for “A View From Here”.  She will be joining us as our luncheon speaker on Friday, February 10, 2023.  Unfortunately, Nikki Grimes is unable to attend the conference due to personal reasons.  We are delighted that Penny has decided to join us.

Penny is the author of numerous professional texts including Micro Mentor Texts: Using Short Passages From Great Books to Teach Writer’s Craft (Scholastic, 2022), Book Love (Heinemann, 2013),Write Beside Them (Heinemann, 2008), and two books co-authored with Kelly Gallagher: 4 Essential Studies (Heinemann, 2021) and 180 Days (Heinemann, 2018). 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 will be:

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 available only to luncheon ticket holders will be:

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.

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.

CCIRA 2023 Featured Speakers

Dr. Sonja Cherry-Paul

CCIRA welcomes Dr. Sonja Cherry-Paul to the 2023 conference! Dr. Cherry-Paul's research and work stem from an unyielding commitment to anti-bias and antiracist pedagogy and practices. She supports educators in developing the capacity and will to continually examine themselves and to critically inquire into their own practices. Register for her sessions at the conference titled Cultivating Liberatory Practices in Book Clubs and Stamped (For Kids): Keeping Hope at the Core. Check out her books Stamped (For Kids): Racism, Antiracism, and  Breathing New Life Into Book Clubs: A Practical Guide for Teachers.

Sarah Zerwin

Sarah Zerwin is a language arts teacher and instructional coach in Boulder, CO. She is also a consultant for the Colorado Writing Project. Sarah's ultimate goal as a teacher is to invite her students to read our complex world so they can write their own futures within it. She is the author of Pointless: An English Teacher’s Guide to More Meaningful Grading and is currently working on her second book. Look for her middle and high school sessions when registering for the conference. They are Invite Readers to Drive Their Own Meaning Making and Put Learners Out Front with Student-led Assessment.

Linda Sue Park

Linda Sue Park is the author of many books for young readers, including the 2002 Newbery Medal winner A Single Shard, the New York Times bestseller A Long Walk to Water, and her most recent title Prairie Lotus. Linda Sue spends most of her time on equity/inclusion work for We Need Diverse Books and the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators. She is also on the advisory board of the Rabbit hOle national children’s literature museum project. Look for her session for 3rd-Middle School titled More Stories, Greater Truth and another for 3rd-High School called Hands-on Workshop: Real-time Revision.

Here are just a few of the other CCIRA 2023 conference speakers and their books:

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

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

Ruth Ayres - Enticing Hard to Reach Writers

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

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

Click the book titles to read more about them.

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!

Stevi Quate

While growing up, I had two dreams: to become a ballerina or to teach. Teaching won out. Most of the 25 years that I spent in the classroom were in Adams Five Star District where I taught middle school language arts and high school English with a short stint at teaching social studies. As a teacher at Thornton and Horizon High, I learned about both reading and writing workshop at the high school level.

Little did I know that I would become a published writer myself. A few years ago, my colleague, John McDermott, and I wrote Clock Watchers and The Just Right Challenge. In addition, my published writing includes a short story, multiple journal articles, and a few chapters about professional development.



I never imagined that I would leave the classroom, but when I was encouraged to be the literacy coordinator at Colorado Department of Education (CDE), I thought I would give it a try. For over four years at CDE, I lived the journey of implementation of the state standards and the early years of our state assessment. At the same time, I co-directed Colorado Writing Project and later on Colorado Critical Friends. During this crazy time, I was president of CLAS and a few years later president of CCIRA. After CDE, I moved to the teacher education program at the University of Colorado at Denver. Since I officially retired from UCD, I’ve worked as a staff developer with PEBC (Public Education and Business Coalition); consulted on adolescent literacy throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South America; and continued my work with Colorado Writing Project and CCIRA.

In my spare time, I travel with my wonderful husband Jim, tussle with my dogs, indulge in Pilates, and play pickle ball. You will always find me with a book in my hand and a plan for our next traveling adventure.

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.