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Developing Critical Literacy through the Works of Mark Twain *For more information about our program, please contact Dr. Meg Monaghan, Project Director at mmonaghan@sjc.edu*

During the summer of 2011, Saint Joseph College, in collaboration with The Mark Twain House and New Britain and Hartford Public Schools, conducted a professional development institute for secondary English and Social Studies teachers. This project was generously sponsored by the Connecticut Teacher Quality Partnership Grant Program. Participants completed 60 hours of study at Saint Joseph College and the Mark Twain House exploring how a critical literacy approach could be used to examine the works of Mark Twain. This approach encourages students to move beyond simple comprehension and summarization by analyzing and evaluating both the context and the content of their reading and writing.

The Summer Institute was held from June 24-30, 2011, with a concluding session on August 22, 2011. Three follow-up sessions were held in the fall of 2011. Sessions were conducted by a variety of critical literacy, technology, and Mark Twain scholars, including Dr. Kerry Driscoll, Mr. Craig Hotchkiss, Dr. Regina Chatel, Linda Labbadia, Esq., Dr. Marialice Curran, Ms. Meghan Gagne, and Dr. Meg Monaghan. More specific session titles can be found by reviewing the daily agendas (use link on left). This program also brought together a tremendously talented group of 33 English and Social Studies teachers from 11 districts throughout Connecticut. Participating districts included: Hartford, New Britain, East Hartford, Bristol, Coventry, Manchester, West Hartford, Newtown, New Canaan, Vernon, and Berlin. At the conclusion of the Summer Institute, participants created three days of lesson plan, which incorporated a variety of materials from the program. These lesson plans can be found using the links to the left.