Part 2: Powerful Picturebooks in the Senior Primary Classroom (Monday 23rd November)

Explore the potential of high-quality children’s picturebooks to inspire deep thinking and sophisticated literacy learning in the senior primary classroom.

Using carefully selected core texts and connected nonfiction and poetry, this practical webinar demonstrates how teachers can design meaningful, integrated learning experiences.

Participants will discover approaches that foster critical thinking, rich discussion and purposeful reading and writing while engaging older primary students with complex ideas, language and perspectives.

Bio: 
Dr Clara Maria Fiorentini is a lecturer in Initial Teacher Education and Course Leader for the Master’s in Early Childhood Education at Marino Institute of Education, Dublin. She specialises in literacy, children’s literature and early childhood education.

A former primary school teacher with eleven years’ classroom experience, Clara is deeply committed to inclusive and culturally responsive literacy education. She completed her PhD at Trinity College Dublin, where she examined literacy provision in Irish preschools through a bioecological lens.

Clara is an Executive Committee member and Director of the Literacy Association of Ireland, having served as its President in 2024. Her research interests include early literacy development, playful pedagogy, reading aloud and the use of children’s literature to create meaningful, inclusive and engaging language and literacy experiences for all children. She is also a co-founder of the Centre for Children’s Literature and Pedagogy, Ireland (CCLPI).