Presented by Dr. Peggy O’Brien, Director of Education, Folger Shakespeare Library; Corinne Viglietta, Associate Director of Education, Folger Shakespeare Library; and Noelle Cammon, English Teacher, Heritage High School, Perris Union High School District (CA)

Sponsored by Folger Shakespeare Library

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Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation.
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You can empower students to own their learning and the language of complex texts. You can create opportunities for ALL students to interact, inquire, and discover amazing things for themselves. Your classes can be buzzing with student voices, whether it’s online, in person, or hybrid.

Experience firsthand a literacy methodology that thousands of teachers have called “transformative.” Working with a range of texts, from Adichie to Alvarez to Shakespeare, practice the core principles and strategies of a radically equitable and effective way of teaching texts in secondary classrooms. Learn how to get every single student not only understanding but also speaking back to a vast range of texts. Walk through the most essential strategies for getting ALL students thinking deeply about words and ideas, making inferences and interpretations, and feeling confident in their ability to grapple with complexity. With these language-based techniques, any student can make meaning from any text—all on their own.

You’ll leave this recorded edWebinar with practical tools you can use in class tomorrow and forever and learn why teachers all over the country call Folger workshops “the best PD of my life.” This recorded presentation will be of interest to teachers, librarians, school and district leaders, literacy specialists, English learner specialists, and curriculum specialists of the upper elementary through higher education levels. 

About the Presenters

As an English teacher in the DC Public Schools, Dr. Peggy O’Brien’s Eastern High School classroom is the place where what has come to be known as the Folger Method first showed up and took hold. She came to the Folger initially in 1981, establishing the Library’s education department, its vision and mission, and the bulk of its programs, including the Teaching Shakespeare Institute. She was the creator and general editor of the Shakespeare Set Free series published by Washington Square Press. Beginning in 1994, she served in a series of other positions including Senior Vice President for Education at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Chief of Family and Public Engagement for DC Public Schools. Her love of teaching literature and of the Folger is what brought her back to the Folger in 2013. Under her leadership, Folger Education has expanded its materials and programs to teachers across the country: robust online professional development on teaching Shakespeare and other complex texts, Teacher Memberships, the Teaching Race Everyplace initiative, and The Folger Guides to Teaching Shakespeare series (Spring, 2022).

Corinne Viglietta has the joy and honor of working alongside brilliant teachers on amplifying the voice of every learner and using language and literature as forces for good. As a classroom teacher, she saw firsthand how the Folger Method transforms teaching and learning. After years of using it with all kinds of students in all kinds of settings, here and abroad, she wanted to share it with everyone. Now, she works with teachers far and wide to empower adolescents to ask good questions, approach texts with skill and confidence and wonder, and make their own contributions to the ongoing conversation of humankind. Corinne has degrees in English and French from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Maryland. She is a fierce advocate (and a proud alum) of student-run writing centers, the mother of a word-loving toddler, and the daughter of a high school principal and ESL teacher.

Noelle Cammon is a high school English teacher at Heritage High School in Menifee, California. This will be her 15th year in education. She is a proud alum of the Folger Shakespeare Library’s NEH-funded Teaching Shakespeare Institute. She is also a mentor teacher and curriculum writer for a variety of Folger initiatives for teachers. She loves the work that she gets to do and is always honored to work with teachers to hone their teaching skills.

Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation.

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Folger Shakespeare Library is the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, the ultimate resource for exploring Shakespeare and his world, and a gateway to the humanities. Opened in 1932 by Henry Clay Folger and his wife Emily Jordan Folger as a gift to the American people, the Folger welcomes millions of visitors online and in person. We provide unparalleled access to a huge array of resources, from original sources to modern interpretations. Folger Education, the team bringing you this edWebinar, is the part of the Folger that works most directly with teachers, students, and families on this irresistible thing called learning–what a dream! For four decades–beginning in a DC public school English class and taking shape with brilliant teachers in the Folger community–we have helped all kinds of students and teachers unleash the power of language and the power of their own minds with the Folger Method, a framework of teaching strategies that teachers consistently call “transformative.”