Season 2, Episode 6:

Episode Description: In this episode, Kate Jackson sits down with teacher, author, and literacy advocate, Penny Kittle. Penny is an English teacher, literacy coach, and director of new teacher mentoring in North Conway, New Hampshire. Each year, Penny manages to light a fire inside her students and they become real, habitual readers. Listen in as Kate and Penny discuss the importance of choice, volume, and access to books.

Bonus Episode Description: In this bonus episode, Penny shares three stories of former students she believes she failed to reach. What can we learn from these “former failures”, as Penny calls them. How do they impact the work we do today?

Penny Kittle teaches freshman composition at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. Penny Kittle taught 10th, 11th, and 12th graders each fall and also occasionally in the alternative night school for adult students. Her career in teaching began in a third grade classroom in California, and has taken her to Oregon, Washington, Ohio, Michigan, and now to New Hampshire.

Throughout the year, she travels across the U.S. and Canada (and once in a while even farther) speaking to teachers about empowering students through independence in literacy. She believes in curiosity, engagement, and deep thinking in schools for both students and their teachers.

In 2008, Penny received the Literacy Leader award for the state of New Hampshire, given by the New England Reading Association. In 2015, Penny was given the Exemplary Leader Award from the Conference on English Leadership.

Click HERE to visit the Book Love Foundation