Kari-Lynn Winters, née Moore (born 1969) is a Canadian children's author, playwright, drama educator, and literacy professor. She taught children's literacy, literature, dance and drama education at the University of British Columbia^[1] from 2004 to 2009. In 2010, Winters became an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education at Brock University (Ontario) and co-editor of Teaching and Learning.^[2] She advanced to associate professor in 2014, and to full professor in 2021.

Early life and education

Winters was born in St. Thomas, Ontario. She holds a teaching degree from the University of Toronto, in regular and special education for children ages 3–13. She is also a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, where she earned a certificate in technical theatre.^[3] Her master's thesis "Developing an Arts-Integrated Narrative Reading Comprehension Program for Less Proficient Grade 3 and 4 Students," on exploring the efficacy of using the arts to strengthen less proficient students' reading comprehension, was selected as best Master's Thesis in Literacy in Canada, 2005.^[4] Winters completed her PhD from the University of British Columbia in 2009 with a dissertation entitled "Authorship as Assemblage: Multimodal Literacies of Play, Literature, and Drama."^[5] Her dramatic work included writing scripts for and performing with Vancouver's theatre-for-literacy troupes Carousel Theatre and Tickle Trunk Players.^[6]

Career

Winters has published numerous children's books,^[7] children's non-fiction articles, and academic articles, and has herself won multiple Excellence in Teaching awards^[8] and won the St. Catharines Arts Awards 2016 "Emerging Artist Award" and the St. Catharines Arts Educator Award in 2020.^[9][10]

Winters says she didn't always consider herself a writer; many of her elementary school years were spent either resisting composition or struggling to write.^[11] Her current work explores how she came to appreciate storytelling and children's literature and eventually became a writer herself, and ways to effect a similar transformation in her students.^[12] Winters has been featured in radio and newspaper interviews^[13] and her academic work has been cited by other literacy researchers.^[14][15][16]

From 2010 to 2012 Winters expanded her work to educational activism, from organizing an annual "Arts Matters" educational conference^[17] to raising funds for girls' education in Africa. Proceeds from her book Gift Days are being used to support the charity Because I am a Girl, a movement to "unleash" the power of girls and women in the developing world through education and women's rights;^[18] at its book launch in November 2012, enough money was raised to send 10 girls to school in Uganda for a year.^[19] Her advocacy for arts research and arts-based practices continued throughout the Covid pandemic, including creating a play and film for "What’s Art Got to Do With It? The role of arts and culture in a community’s survival during a global pandemic."^[20]

By 2020 she had twenty-nine books published or press.^[21]

Books (selected)

• Jeffrey and Sloth (Orca Book Publishers, 2007)
• When Chickens Fly (Gumboot Books, 2009)
• On My Walk (Tradewind Books, 2009)
• On My Swim (Tradewind Books, 2018)
• On My Bike (Tradewind Books, 2017)
• On My Skis (Tradewind Books, 2016)
• Runaway Alphabet (Simply Read Books, 2010)
• aRHYTHMetic: A book and a half of poetry about math, by K. Winters, T. Stone, and L. Sherritt-Fleming, ill by S. Ritchie (Gumboot Books, 2009; Tickle Trunk Publications, 2011)
• aRYTHMétique, adapted by Christine Jutras-Tarakdjian (Gumboot, 2009; Tickle Trunk Publications, 2011)
• Gift Days (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2012)
• Buzz about Bees (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2013)
• Stinky Skunk Mel (Simply Read Books, 2014)
• No-Matter-What Friend (Tradewind Books, 2014)
• Hungry for Math: Poems to Munch On (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2014)
• Bite into Bloodsuckers (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2015)
• Bad Pirate (Pajama Press, 2015)
• Good Pirate (Pajama Press, 2016)
• French Toast (Pajama Press, 2016)
• Let's Play a Hockey Game (Scholastic, 2016)
• Hungry for Science: Poems to Cunch On (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2018)
• Hungry for The Arts: Poems to Chomp On (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2021)
• On the Line (Pajama Press, 2021)
• Just Bea (Tradewind Books, 2022)

Anthology contributions

• "Rumors," in Stephen Rogers (ed.), My First Year in the Classroom: 50 Stories That Celebrate the Good, the Bad, and the Most Unforgettable Moments (Cincinnati: Adams Media, 2009)
• "Rhyme or Reason," ill. by S. Ritchie, in World of Stories (Gumboot Books, 2008)

POETRY

• "A Scientist Lives in Our Kitchen." Know Magazine, 9 (May/June, 2007), p. 18.

Journal articles (selected)

• Winters, K. et al. (2017). "A Reason to Respond: Finding Agency Through the Arts." International Journal of Education & the Arts 18:25.^[22]
• Winters, Kari-Lynn, Griffin, S. (2014). "Singing is a Celebration of Language: Using Music to Enhance Young Children’s Vocabularies." Language and Literacy, 16(3), 78–91.^[23]
• Wager, A. & Winters, K. (2012). "Expanding Educators’ Awareness of Youth Homelessness through Critical Dramatic Inquiry." In Teaching and Learning 7(3).
• Winters, K. et al. (2010). "From image to ideology: analysing shifting identity positions of marginalized youth across the cultural sites of video production" In Pedagogies: An International Journal, 5(4), 298–312.
  • This article was later selected among Pedagogies 10th anniversary "Top Articles."^[24]
• Winters, K. (2010). "Quilts of authorship: A literature review of multimodal assemblage in the field of literacy education." In Canadian Journal for New Scholars in Education, 3(1).
• Winters, Kari-Lynn, Belliveau, George, & Sherritt-Fleming, Lori. (Spring, 2009). "Shifting identities, literacy, and a/r/t/ography: Exploring an educational theatre company." Language and Literacy, 11(1).^[25]
• Rogers, Theresa, Winters, Kari-Lynn, Bryan, G., Price, J., McCormick, F., House, L., Mezzarobba, D., & Sinclaire, C. (March, 2009). "Developing the IRIS: Toward Situated and Valid Assessment Measures in Collaborative Professional Development and School Reform in Literacy." The Reading Teacher, 59(6), 544–553.^[26]
• Winters, K. "Letting Arnold Lobel Pack My Luggage". (Spring 2006) The Dragon Lode: Journal of the Children's Literature and Reading Special Interest Group, International Reading Association, 24(2) 46–50.

Children's non-fiction articles (selected)

• "Honey, I Shrunk My Liver." Know Magazine, 6 (Nov/Dec 2006), p. 4.
• "Monkeying Around with Perfume." Know Magazine, 9 (May/June, 2007), p. 3.
• "Measure Me A Measurement." Know Magazine, 11 (September/October, 2007), p. 18.
• "Colorful Mistakes." Fandangle Magazine for Children, (September, 2007).

Children's fiction articles (selected)

• "Jeffrey's Wor(l)ds Meet Sloth," illustrated by Oana Capota. Chameleon Magazine, 2:1, 24-28 (2004).
• "Esper's Dream," illustrated by Tami Thirlwell. Chameleon Magazine, 3:1, 24-28 (2006).
• "Extreme Rollers." ChickaDEE Magazine, (January, 2008)
• "The Mightiest of All." Know Magazine, ( January, 2008)

Academic books

• Winters, K. (2010). Beyond Words: Using the Arts to Enhance Early Reading Comprehension. Birmingham, AL: Look Again Press. Available online.
• Rogers, T., Winters, K., Perry, M., & LaMonde, A. (2014). Youth, Critical Literacies, and Civic Engagement: Arts, Media, and Literacy in the Lives of Adolescents. New York: Routledge.^[27]

Academic book articles (selected)

• Winters, K. Rogers, T., Schofield, A (2006). "The Antigone Project: Exploring the Imaginative, Active, and Social Dimensions of Drama, Print Literacy, and Media." In Crumpler T., Schneider, J., and Rogers, T. (eds.). Process Drama: an Educational Tool for Developing Multiple Literacies. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
• Winters, K. and Rogers, T. (2010). "Textual Play, Satire, and Counter Discourses of Street Youth Zining Practices." In Alvermann, D. (ed.) Adolescents' Online Literacies: Connecting Classrooms, Digital Media, and Popular Culture (New Literacies and Digital Epistemologies), pp. 91–108. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

Conference papers cited in third-party publications

• Rogers, T. and Winters, K. (2008). "Within 14 blocks: Zining with street youth in the YouthCLAIM project." Presented at the National Reading Conference. Orlando, FL.^[14][28]
• Rogers, T., Winters, K., Perry, M., & LaMonde, A. (2009). "The YouthCLAIM project: Researching critical literacies and arts-integrated media production among youth in classroom and community sites." Presented at the annual meeting of American Educational Research Association. San Diego, CA.^[29][30]

External links

• Brock University faculty page
• Kari-Lynn Winters personal website
• "Developing the IRIS: Toward Situated and Valid Assessment Measures in Collaborative Professional Development and School Reform in Literacy"
• "Esper's Dream" Archived 2008-09-07 at the Wayback Machine
• "Jeffrey's Wor(l)ds Meet Sloth" Archived 2008-08-29 at the Wayback Machine
• Orca Book Publishers' Jeffrey and Sloth page Archived 2010-11-19 at the Wayback Machine
• Tickle Trunk Players literacy drama troupe

Notes