Guide to Raising Passionate Readers and Writers in the Digital Age (Virtual)

Are you worried that your kids have spent too much time on the screen, and haven’t read enough? Or do they only read the “easy and fun” books and complain that the “more serious” books are all too boring? Do they only write the bare minimum at school?

Join Dr. Jiang Pu and William Rubel for a hands-on parent workshop on supporting K-8 readers and writers on the following topics:

• How to help kids (esp. the reluctant readers and writers) to foster a passion for reading and writing in the digital age?
• How to encourage the reading-writing connection? How to support both academic and social emotional learning through reading and writing?
• How to pick books with the right reading level and encourage kids to read a variety of books? What are some strategies to help improve reading comprehension?
• What makes a writer? What are some pitfalls to avoid in raising a writer? How to help your kid become a published writer?

We’ll recommend a K-8 summer reading list and talk about book clubs, free resources, and more! You can help your kid combat the summer slide by encouraging them to read and write daily.

This meeting will be held online via Zoom. Please register and a link and password will be sent to you in advance of the event. Learn more about Zoom at zoom.us

To request an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act for library-sponsored events, please call 408-808-2000 at least three business days prior to the event.

Presenter Bio:

Jiang Pu holds a Ph.D in Education from Michigan State University and M.A. in English literature. She is a published author, editor and translator of many textbooks, literature/children’s literature books; and has 20+ refereed publications in academic journals and presentations in prestigious national/international conferences on language and literacy. She is the Founder of NextGen Education and a founding member of the National Book Club for Kids. She has 15+ years’ of experience teaching in university and K-12 classrooms and has worked as an international consultant for the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training and United Nations’ World Bank since 2019. Jiang loves nature, museums, gardening, cooking, and making ceramics.

More about Dr. Jiang Pu: https://www.nextgeneducationus.org/meet-our-team

William Rubel: William is founder of Stone Soup and the Children’s Art Foundation (https://stonesoup.com/). In 1972, he gathered together a group of fellow students at the University of California Santa Cruz who shared his vision of creating a magazine written by and for children to highlight their creative talents and inspire them.

William is also an author specializing in traditional foodways, the history of bread, and Early Modern British kitchen gardens. His book on hearth cooking, The Magic of Fire (2002), was a World Gourmand Cookbook award winner and a James Beard nominee. His second book is Bread, a global history (2011). He is currently writing a history of bread for the University of California Press. William lives in Santa Cruz with his daughter, Stella, and their cat, chickens, rabbits, and aviary birds

More about William: https://williamrubel.com/