Keynote Speakers, Fall Conference 2008

Jan Kristo

Jan Kristo has been a Professor of Literacy Education at the University of Maine for 27 years. She received her Master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from Teachers College, Columbia University and her Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut. Her areas of specialization include children’s literature, reading and language arts, and integrated literacy learning. She has extensive instructional experience in these areas at both the pre-service and graduate levels. She served on the Children’s Literature Assembly Advisory Board of the National Council of Teachers of English and as Past President of the Children’s Literature and Reading Special Interest Group of the International Reading Association. She also served as chair of the notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English and on the National Council of Teachers of English Excellence in Poetry Committee. She is currently on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Children’s Literature.

Jan is a co-recipient of the University of Maine’s Presidential Research and Creative Achievement Award and was awarded the New England Reading Association’s Special Recognition Award. Dr. Kristo is co-author and editor of several texts, including Nonfiction in Focus, Living Literature, Checking Out Nonfiction K-8: Good Choices for Best Learning, the second edition of Making Facts Come Alive: Choosing and Using Nonfiction Literature K-8, , the 13th edition of Adventuring with Books, Books that Invite Talk, Wonder, and Play, and Inviting Children’s Responses to Books, and numerous chapters and articles on literacy learning. Her current area of research interest is nonfiction literature and its use in the classroom.

Seymour Simon