Writing Workshops for Educators
“I have heard so many people who attended your sessions – both junior high and high school teachers – comment on how
wonderful and how practical your ideas were! Thank you so much for joining us for the conference.”
Kay Haas, Language Arts Curriculum Coordinator, Olathe, Kansas District Schools
1. “A Good Way To Tell a Story” -- Based on Aristotle’s Poetics, this discussion of narrative form in fiction, personal essays and nonfiction includes character, conflict and change (for fiction and personal essays) and beginnings, middles, endings (for nonfiction, essay tests, school reports).
2. “Lights! Camera! Action!” -- Action is an important element of storytelling, and this session will help you teach your students to put verbs in their sentences by showing characters doing something. This presentation also includes the importance of concrete nouns, the case against adverbs and adjectives, and a “show, don’t tell” exercise.
3. “Look Who’s Talking” -- Few young writers (or adults) know what to do when their fictional characters talk to each other. This session covers use of dialog, what printed dialogue looks like, punctuating dialogue, and ways to show who is speaking -- including nonverbal communication.
4. “The Writing Process” -- This session discusses the writing process from idea to finished product. You’ll learn how to help your students come up with ideas for writing and how to encourage them to revise their work. Also includes a discussion of publishing opportunities for young writers.
5. “Careers in Writing” -- This presentation includes discussion of what being a writer is like, careers in writing and non-writing careers that require writing skills.
6. “Rewrite, Rewrite, Rewrite” -- Many young writers think that once the first draft is done, their work is done, too. This discussion will help you convince them that the first draft is only a first draft. Ten tips for good writing act as a starting point for self-editing. The session will also cover tips for critique (peer review).
7. “Fun With Poetry” -- Should poems rhyme? What’s free verse? Let’s talk about modern haiku and forget the 5-7-5 rule. This session also includes how to write list poems and apology poems that young writers find fun and easy to write. The workshop also covers finding ideas for poems, so your teen-age students can think of something to write about besides suicide, car accidents and my boyfriend “done me wrong.”