Lecturer to Present Innovative Teaching Styles

Artist and educator Wendy Halperin will present “Drawing Children into Reading” at 7 p.m. April 10 in the Student Union Building Georgian Room B.

Halperin’s educational outreach program trains teachers how to teach children the correct hand positioning used in writing and drawing in order to foster creativity, cognitive development, hand-eye coordination and fine motor skill development.

As a children’s book illustrator, Halperin has received numerous awards, including the Boston Globe Best Book of the Year, School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and the New York Public Libraries 100 Best Books of the Year twice. Halperin received a 2010 Excellence in Education Award from the Michigan Association of School Boards for her work. She also is completing a three-year field study in Chicago with 161 children.

In addition to these awards, Halperin studied anatomy, cadaver work, commercial art, illustration, painting, pastel, oil painting and figure drawing. She has worked for Simon & Schuster, Penguin—Dutton and Dial, Candlewick Press, Scholastic—Orchard Book and Edco Publishing.

The lecture is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Child Studies Minor Committee. Future educators, artists and sociology and psychology majors are especially encouraged to attend.