Valerie Bang-Jensen Professor of Education, Emerita

Bio

Teachers College, Columbia University MA, M.Ed., Ed.D
Smith College, A.B.

Areas of Expertise:

Children’s Literature, Nonfiction, Literacy

Courses I Teach:

Digging Down to the Roots : The Meaning of Gardens (first-year seminar)
Literature for Children and Adolescents
Making Meaning: Content Area Literacy
Student Teaching Seminar
Nonfiction in the Elementary Classroom (Graduate)

Currently involved in National Science Foundation grant, offering workshops at Saint Michael’s College (2023-2026).

Awards & Recognition

Recent Publications:

Books

Bang-Jensen, V. (2023). Literacy Moves Outdoors: Learning Approaches for Any Environment. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. In second printing.

Bang-Jensen, V. & Lubkowitz, M.* (2017). Sharing Books, Talking Science: Exploring scientific concepts with children’s literature. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. In second printing.

Bang-Jensen, V. & Lubkowitz, M.* (2014). Books in bloom: Discovering the plant biology in great children’s literature. National Gardening Association.

Interview

I am a co-founder of The Teaching Gardens with Professor of Biology Mark Lubkowitz. I study connections between literacy and gardening.

Recent News

Valerie Bang-Jensen of the Education Department this fall was an invited guest on a blog by nonfiction advocate and author Melissa Stewart called Celebrate Nonfiction. Valerie contributed a blog post describing how she helps her education majors learn about different types of nonfiction for children. Here are some of her other projects from recent months: A book [citation: Bang-Jensen, V. (2023). Literacy Moves Outdoors: Learning approaches for any environment, Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. (Release date April 2023); “Literacy Moves Outdoors,” an online conversation for Kidsgardening. January 24, 2023; Books in Bloom: Integrating science and literacy through school gardens. A series of workshops for K-12 teachers, February and March 2023. (Part of: 2022 National Science Foundation grant. NSF Plant Genome Research Projects: Genome-Wide Dissection of Leaf Angle Variation Across the Canopy in Maize. Senior Personnel; An article [citation: Hindes, K., & Bang-Jensen, V. (2022). Lighthouses: Shining A Light Through Challenging times. Feature Contribution. In Book Links. American Library Association. November 2022]; “Read Like a Scientist: Exploring crosscutting concepts with children’s literature.” Webinar for Science Educators Presidential Awardees (SEPA) from PAEMST (Presidential Awards for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching)., presented December 8, 2022 with Mark Lubkowitz; and, “Read Like A Scientist: Exploring the Crosscutting Concepts with Children’s Literature” — A webinar for Wicomico County Public Schools, MD. October 20, 2022, again, with Mark Lubkowitz.
(posted February 2023)

Mark Lubkowitz and Valerie Bang-Jensen learned in July they have been awarded a four year grant from the National Science Foundation as part of a collaborative research group led out of Iowa State. This $2.3 million dollar project is headed by Jianming Yu from Iowa State with collaborators Michael Scanlon from Cornell, Bing Yang from University of Missouri, Lie Tang from Iowa State, along with Mark and Valerie from Saint Michael’s College. Over the course of the funding, this team will investigate how leaf angle in corn can be genetically manipulated to increase photosynthesis and thereby crop yield. Additionally, Mark and Valerie will develop outreach modules to disseminate plant science to primary and secondary school systems. Mark and Valerie also will design workshops about school gardens and literacy for K-12 teachers to be held on campus. Valerie and Mark also presented online webinars this past fall semester, one for the STEM Teacher Leadership Network titled “The Crosscutting Concepts: Science, children’s literature, and beyond,” and the other titled “Literacy in the Garden” on behalf of the website Kidsgardening.org — they had 267 global “attendees” for that one.
(posted July 2022)

Valerie Bang-Jensen presented “Literacy Moves Outdoors: Story Walks, Word Gardens, and Interpretive Signage.” National Children and Youth Garden Symposium, American Horticultural Society. Virtual Conference. July 7-9, 2021. More recently Valerie was appointed to the Vermont Department of Library’s Red Clover selection committee, summer 2022. Also, Valerie and colleague Mark Lubkowitz (biology), presented online webinars this past fall semester, one for the STEM Teacher Leadership Network titled “The Crosscutting Concepts: Science, children’s literature, and beyond,” and the other titled “Literacy in the Garden” on behalf of the website Kidsgardening.org — they had 267 global “attendees” for that one.
(posted July 2022)

Valerie Bang-Jensen of the Saint Michael’s education faculty presented “ Literacy Moves Outdoors: Story Walks, Word Gardens, and Interpretive Signage” at this year’s virtual National Children and Youth Gardening Symposium, run by the American Horticultural Society. Also, she and Mark Lubkowitz of the biology faculty, frequent collaborators on a wide variety of projects, this past winter “spent a delightful hour with members of the Massachusetts Association of Science Teachers on Wednesday, February 24.” Valerie and Mark, the co-authors of Sharing Books, Talking Science, kicked off the STEM Book Share-A-Thon with a brief introduction to the connections between science concepts and children’s literature (via Zoom). Later in the spring semester, a website and podcast for educators called Read-Aloud Revival featured Valerie and Mark presenting ideas from their book. Given that the Saint Michael’s College Word Garden is now 10 years old, Valerie and Mark, its creators, in June also held a spontaneous Zoom class on the Word Garden with a group of teachers attending a week-long professional development workshop on school gardens at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. An LSU professor who was part of the workshop in comments afterward referred to the St. Mike’s duo as “rock stars.”
(posted July 2021)

Valerie Bang-Jensen of the education faculty and Mark Lubkowitz of the biology faculty were featured speakers at the virtual conference STEM20. This year with the pandemic, the National Science Teaching Association had to cancel its spring conference where Valerie and Mark, frequent Saint Michael’s faculty collaborators, were to be the live featured “elementary strand” speakers. However, on July 27-28, they spoke at the NSTA’s re-envisioned virtual conference, STEM20, giving a featured talk called “The Crosscutting Concepts: Science, Children’s Literature, and Beyond.”
(posted February 2021)

Valerie Bang-Jensen of the education faculty was a winner of one of this year’s major faculty awards at the Annual Academic Convocation in the fall, being presented with the Joanne Rathgeb Teaching Award. She and Mark Lubkowitz of the Saint Michael’s biology faculty presented a session at the annual Vermont Science Teachers Association conference, “Science for All Learners” on October 24, in Fairlee, Vermont. They addressed an audience of teachers, curriculum coordinators, and college professors on their favorite topic, seeing scientific crosscutting concepts in literature and beyond. She and mark are finding that local and national organizations are interested in their seminal work in using children’s literature to teach scientific crosscutting concepts. Last October, they presented to the Vermont Science Teachers Association Conference in Fairlee, VT, on “The Crosscutting Concepts in Children’s Literature.” Currently, they are providing the Burlington, VT, Public Schools with a five-day professional development strand for elementary teachers on content-area writing. In April, they will be featured speakers at the National Science Teaching Association conference, delivering the McCurdy Lecture. Valerie and Mark’s 2017 book on this concept, titled Sharing Books, Talking Science (that’s its cover in image at right) is the basis of professional development work by a school district in the Michigan community of Manistee; a photo at the district’s Facebook Page features all the teachers holding it. The authors will be having a video chat next week with the teachers from that district studying their book.
(posted February 2020)

Valerie Bang-Jensen, professor of education, and Mark Lubkowitz, professor of biology, continue their mission to convince everyone they encounter that the scientific crosscutting concepts appear everywhere in books and our daily lives, enriching our understanding of daily life experiences. This fall the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) published their blogpost on structure and function, and on Friday, October 26, they were invited to present their work on science and children’s literature at the Massachusetts Science Education Leadership Association’s annual conference in Marlborough, MA.
(posted January 2019)

Valerie Bang-Jensen of the education faculty and Kristen Hindes of the College’s Durick Library staff co-authored a fun piece appearing in the online newsletter/website School Library Journal this past winter, titled “Picture Books in the Dorm Room?”
(posted June 2018)

Valerie Bang-Jensen, professor of education, and Mark Lubkowitz, professor of biology, collaborators on the book Sharing Books, Talking Science (Heinemann publishers) on March 8 did an interview with Heinemann Podcast author Amy Ludwig VanDerwater to discuss the poetry of science. They talked about how language and literature can work in the same way science does, how both literature and science have stability and change and how both also have cause and effect.
(posted June 2018)

Valerie Bang-Jensen, professor of education, and Mark Lubkowitz, professor of biology, made a juried presentation, “Read Like a Scientist: Exploring science concepts with children’s literature,” at the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Conference in St. Louis, MO, on November 19, 2017; an invited presentation: “Read Like a Scientist: Exploring science concepts with children’s literature” for Science Outreach at Whitman College, Walla, Walla, Washington. September 15 & 16, 2017; and presented a professional development workshop: “Exploring the NGSS Crosscutting Concepts with Children’s Literature,” a full day of professional development for Addison North East Supervisory Union, Vermont, on Nov 3, 2017. Also, a podcast called “Vegetable Gardening with Mike the Gardener” features in its episode #303 “The Wonders of the Teaching Gardens at St. Michael’s College in Vermont with Founders Valerie [Bang-Jensen] & Mark Lubkowitz.” The two professors have continued to provide professional development for elementary teachers and curriculum directors about the integration of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) crosscutting concepts and children’s literature. They were among the four featured authors at their book-publisher Heinemann’s summer “Teacher Tour” in July. Their book, Sharing Books, Talking Science: Exploring science concepts with children’s literature (Heinemann, 2017) was in recent months named a National Science Teachers Association recommended book. Mark and Valerie write seasonal blog posts to provide context for anyone learning how to see science in everyday life
(posted December 2017)

Valerie Bang-Jensen, professor of education, and Mark Lubkowitz, professor of biology, presented “Read Like a Scientist: Exploring Scientific Concepts with Children’s Literature” at the annual National Science Teachers Association conference in Los Angeles on March 31, 2017. The presentation was based on their new book, Sharing Books, Talking Science, which was featured at the publishers’ booth during the conference. Also, their educational book-publisher Heinemann (“dedicated to teachers”) has been publicizing that book widely, with it rending on Amazon in recent months.
(posted June 2017)

Valerie Bang-Jensen and Mark Lubkowitz, professors of education and biology, respectively, presented a workshop in July titled “Reading a Garden: Discovering Plant Biology in Great Children’s Literature” at the National Children and Youth Garden Symposium sponsored by the American Horticultural Society in Austin, TX.
(posted September 2015)

Valerie Bang-Jensen, associate professor of education, is author of the article, “Books in Bloom: Flowers as cultural, historical and aesthetic themes in picture books: The Dragon Lode,” appearing in the peer-reviewed journal International Reading Association, Spring/Summer 2014 issue. Valerie also co-presented with her Saint Michael’s colleague Mark Lubkowitz, associate professor of biology, at two conferences in the spring: The first, on March 28, 2014 at the Vermont State Department of Education Kindergarten Conference in Burlington, was “Stories and Seeds: How great children’s literature invites scientific understanding.” The second, on May 20, 2014 at the Vermont Library Association Conference on the Saint Michael’s campus, was “Books in Bloom: Read your way to a summer garden,” in the session titled “STEM programming at your local library.” Mark and Valerie also were interviewed by Jane Lindholm on the Vermont Public Radio program Vermont Edition in May about their book Books in Bloom: Discovering the Plant Biology in Great Children’s Literature, published in 2014 by the National Gardening Association. http://digital.vpr.net/post/books-bloom-shares-botany-childrens-literature
(posted August 2014)

Valerie Bang-Jensen, associate professor of education, and Mark Lubkowitz, associate professor of biology, report that the National Gardening Association recently published their new curriculum book, Books in Bloom: Discovering the Science in Great Children’s Literature.” This illustrated book, written for educators, parents, and anyone involved with environmental education, explores the literary and biological themes in 17 excellent books for children.

Valerie Bang-Jensen, associate professor of education, and Mark Lubkowitz, associate professor of biology, were co-presenters at several academic events this past semester. On October 19, 2013, they were plenary speakers at the Captain Planet Learning Gardens Conference in suburban Atlanta, presenting “Books in Bloom: Inviting children to develop biological and literary lenses to create rich understandings of their world.” They also spoke at the 2013 Annual Convention National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) in Boston on November 23, 2013, presenting as members of the panel, “Books in Bloom: Integrating Children’s Literature and Plant Biology.” Here’s how the NCTE Convention Web site described the session: “Imagine Miss Rumphius without lupines, or Winnie-the-Pooh without thistles for Eeyore. Explore the relationship between children’s literature, botany, and gardens. Participants will choose a book from our collection and construct a literary desktop garden followed by discussion and guidelines for creating similar projects in their own learning and gardening communities.” On December 11, 2013 they presented “Embracing Complexity: Creating a Richer Picture Through Merging Biological and Literary,” as part of the Science Speaker Series at Johnson State College. Each fall that college’s Department of Environmental and Health Sciences hosts a speaker series on Wednesday afternoons featuring experts on topics in science, and Valerie and Mark made the final presentation of this year’s series. (November 2013)

Valerie Bang-Jensen, associate professor of education, has written an article, “How to read a garden: Creating signage grows critical readers and audience-savvy writers” to be published in the Fall volume of the New England Reading Association Journal. (September 2013)

Valerie Bang-Jensen, associate professor of education, was author or co-author of three recent print or online-published articles: “Give us a sign! Third graders interpret their school garden,” in Legacy (July/August 2012), the professional journal of the National Association of Interpretation; and “Reading a garden,” In “Strong Readers All,” Educational Leadership (June, 2012). And, with colleague Mark Lubkowitz, professor of biology, “Books in Bloom,” a monthly column for the National Gardening Association. Valerie and Mark also were part of two recent presentations: “Books and Gardens: Digging Deep,” Vermont State Department of Libraries Dorothy Canfield Fisher Conference, Stowe, VT. May 4, 2012; and “Books in Bloom: Connecting Literature and Botany,” Vermont State Department of Education Kindergarten Conference, Burlington, VT. March 30, 2012. Valerie also received the Governor’s Award for Service Learning. She and Mark hosted 35 members of the Burlington Garden Club for a tour on August 22.

Valerie Bang-Jensen, professor of education, presented at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Convention in Chicago (November 17-22, 2011) on the topic, “How to Read A Garden: A Framework for Garden-Literacy Connections.” The convention theme was “Reading the Past, Writing the Future” She also presented during the panel session, “Supporting Students to Transfer Reading skills Cross Contexts.” This combined session invited participants to think about how to get students to connect and apply reading skills in various context areas.

Valerie Bang-Jensen Professor of Education, Emerita

Programs

Bio

Awards & Recognition

Interview

Recent News