Alan Sitomer, author of the ELA curriculum product The Alan Sitomer BookJam and several acclaimed young adult novels, joined Coretta Scott King Award-winner Sharon Flake and New York City’s first Youth Poet Laureate Zora Hurston at the BookJam Bash on November 21. The special event featured student poetry performances and discussion highlighting proven techniques for using engaging novels to elevate literacy levels and boost student achievement.
The evening began with a performance by 16-year-old Howard reading “Stage,” the poem that helped her win the title of Youth Poet Laureate. Performances by other student poets, all members of New York’s Urban Word NYC, followed. A panel discussion led by Pennsylvania’s 2009 Teacher of the Year Rebecca Snyder, award-winning author Sharon Flake, and high school English teacher and edtech blogger Paul Hankins. A presentation by author and teacher Alan Sitomer closed out the night.
“It was an invaluable experience to sit and talk with published authors, successful and celebrated teachers, professionals from other states, and the young people brought down from New York to present,” said Dana Gubitosa, English Teacher at Fairhill Community High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “In a profession where you exist 98% of the time within the four walls of your own classroom, it was refreshing and invigorating to be a part of something bigger than myself.” For more information on The Alan Sitomer BookJam, visit http://www.thebookjam.com. To see photos and videos from the BookJam Bash, visit http://thebookjam.ning.com.
Recorded Books contact: 800.638.1304
Beth Eaton: x1122 beth at thebookjam dot com
###
ABOUT RECORDED BOOKS: Recorded Books, a Haights Cross Communications company, produces and distributes unabridged audiobooks and other audio products for schools and libraries, in CD, cassette and Playaway formats. Over 9,000 titles are available for children, young adults, and adults, narrated by professional, award-winning actors. Recorded Books also publishes and distributes curriculum products including Dr. Janet Allen’s Plugged-in to Reading (www.pluggedintoreading.com), Plugged-in to Nonfiction, and The Alan Sitomer BookJam (www.thebookjam.com). Packaging is designed for high circulation. One-year warranty, cataloging, processing, and free MARC records are available. For more information, visit www.recordedbooks.com.
ABOUT HAIGHTS CROSS COMMUNICATIONS: Founded in 1997 and based in White Plains, NY, Haights Cross Communications is a premier educational and library publisher dedicated to creating the finest books, audio products, periodicals, software and online services, serving the following markets: K-12 supplemental education, public library and school publishing, audiobooks, and medical continuing-education publishing. Haights Cross companies include Sundance/Newbridge Educational Publishing (Northborough, MA), Triumph Learning (New York, NY), Buckle Down Publishing (Iowa City, IA), Options Publishing (Merrimack, NH), Recorded Books (Prince Frederick, MD), and Oakstone Publishing (Birmingham, AL). For more information, visit www.haightscross.com.
Safe Harbor Statement: This press release contains forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “would,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “potential,” and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and are based on assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties. These risks, uncertainties, and other factors may cause our actual results, performances, or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements include, among others, changes in external market factors, changes in our business or growth strategy, or an inability to execute our strategy due to changes in our industry or the economy generally, the emergence of new or growing competitors and various other competitive factors. In light of these risks and uncertainties, there can be no assurance that the events and circumstances described in forward-looking statements contained in this press release will in fact occur. You should read this press release completely and with the understanding that our actual results may be materially different from what we expect. We will not update these forward-looking statements, even though our situation may change in the future. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.
