Postponed indefinitely: Inaugural King Chair Lecture

Editor’s note: as of Oct. 11 the inaugural King Chair Lecture has been postponed indefinitely.

The power of stories will be the focus of the inaugural Stephen E. King Chair Lecture Oct. 25 at the University of Maine by internationally recognized educator Nancie Atwell.

The free public lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. in Minsky Recital Hall. For more information or to request a disability accommodation, contact caroline.bicks@maine.edu.

Atwell is one of the most respected educators nationally and internationally. In 2015, she won the inaugural Global Teacher Prize, awarded by the Varkey Foundation. Atwell donated the $1 million award to the Center for Teaching and Learning, the K–8 demonstration school she founded in Edgecomb, Maine, in 1990.

Atwell’s seminal book, “In the Middle,” now in its third edition, has inspired generations of teachers; in it she describes her teaching journey and the practices she developed that led to her nomination. Her most recent book, co-authored with her daughter Anne Atwell Merkel, is “The Reading Zone: How to Help Kids Become Passionate, Skilled, Habitual, Critical Readers.”

Atwell’s innovative pedagogy and literacy research embody the mission of the King Chair: to promote the humanities; to help students become smarter, more empathetic, book-loving adults; and, as the title of her talk implies, to celebrate “The Power of Stories.” These stories include many of King’s, whose works are well represented on her school’s “Kids Recommend” site. Her talk and her work with the students of Maine epitomize why the humanities matter beyond the academy.

Contact: Margaret Nagle, 207.581.3745