Every fall brings the excitement of a new academic year, along with new challenges. This year, we are all facing the unprecedented challenge of returning to the classroom after a year of making compromises and adjusting techniques to keep students’ education and growth our top priority. And even though the pandemic is not entirely behind us, we are all eager to get back into the classroom with a renewed sense of our collective mission, equipped with new strategies and best practices to create a stimulating environment for all students to learn and succeed.
This past year at the Great Books Foundation, we expanded our flagship K–8 Junior Great Books® program to include an exciting new series for grades 6–8. We also launched our new Junior Great Books Digital Classroom, an online platform that will fully enable teaching and learning regardless of any in-person, online, or hybrid classroom configuration.
This academic year, we are celebrating 75 years of advancing our Shared Inquiry™ method of teaching and learning, in which teachers and students actively collaborate to search for answers to questions of meaning in authentic and engaging literature. Our research-supported methodology promotes deeper thinking through reading, discussion, and writing.
We are honored to continue to build on the decades of success we’ve had with our Shared Inquiry method and our Junior Great Books programs, which have been widely used to increase student engagement, promote civil discourse, and improve critical and analytical thinking skills. As one teacher put it:
The fact that my students are able to come up with multiple answers to the same question and defend them is one . . . area where I have seen the habits of Shared Inquiry carry over into other things that we do. Students can cite text evidence to support their responses on a much greater and deeper level than they had been before, and I attribute that to what we are doing with them with the Junior Great Books conversations.
Together, we are building a brighter future. Our goal is to ensure that our programs meet the needs of today’s classrooms while benefiting students at all levels and from all backgrounds. We look forward to partnering with you this year and in the years to come—let’s make teaching and learning more successful for the next 75 years.
Valentina Texera-Parissi
President & CEO
Valentina Texera-Parissi has dedicated her career to advocating for educational programming that empowers students of all backgrounds to become engaged citizens of the world.
Valentina was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and lived in South America, France, and Puerto Rico before landing in the United States when she was 13. Valentina credits her positive attitude and open-minded approach to her experience of being immersed in several different cultures growing up. She is a multilingual professional and collaborative leader with 22 years of experience in international and US markets.
As president and chief executive officer of the Great Books Foundation, Valentina leads the Foundation’s efforts to expand inquiry-based learning, develop relevant and thought-provoking content, and create engaging learning environments where everyone can learn the essential skills they need to thrive. Believing that a collaborative, inquiry-based approach is the basis for critical thinking, civil discourse, and effective communication, Valentina is committed to fostering inquiry-based learning, advocacy, and leadership in communities around the world.
Every fall brings the excitement of a new academic year, along with new challenges. This year, we are all facing the unprecedented challenge of returning to the classroom after a year of making compromises and adjusting techniques to keep students’ education and growth our top priority. And even though the pandemic is not entirely behind us, we are all eager to get back into the classroom with a renewed sense of our collective mission, equipped with new strategies and best practices to create a stimulating environment for all students to learn and succeed.
This past year at the Great Books Foundation, we expanded our flagship K–8 Junior Great Books® program to include an exciting new series for grades 6–8. We also launched our new Junior Great Books Digital Classroom, an online platform that will fully enable teaching and learning regardless of any in-person, online, or hybrid classroom configuration.
This academic year, we are celebrating 75 years of advancing our Shared Inquiry™ method of teaching and learning, in which teachers and students actively collaborate to search for answers to questions of meaning in authentic and engaging literature. Our research-supported methodology promotes deeper thinking through reading, discussion, and writing.
We are honored to continue to build on the decades of success we’ve had with our Shared Inquiry method and our Junior Great Books programs, which have been widely used to increase student engagement, promote civil discourse, and improve critical and analytical thinking skills. As one teacher put it:
“The fact that my students are able to come up with multiple answers to the same question and defend them is one . . . area where I have seen the habits of Shared Inquiry carry over into other things that we do. Students can cite text evidence to support their responses on a much greater and deeper level than they had been before, and I attribute that to what we are doing with them with the Junior Great Books conversations.”
Together, we are building a brighter future. Our goal is to ensure that our programs meet the needs of today’s classrooms while benefiting students at all levels and from all backgrounds. We look forward to partnering with you this year and in the years to come—let’s make teaching and learning more successful for the next 75 years.
Valentina Parissi
President & CEO
Valentina Texera-Parissi has committed her career to promoting literacy, developing professional education for teachers, and fostering lifelong learning. As president and chief executive officer of the Great Books Foundation, Valentina leads the Foundation’s efforts to expand and strengthen inquiry-based learning, advocacy, and leadership. Building upon the Foundation’s 70-year history of helping people of all ages think critically, listen closely, and consider contrasting ideas with civility, Valentina believes that an inquiry-based approach is essential not only for learning but also for leadership.