 Most of our workshops can be presented
in a multi-day, full-day and half-day format. We also
offer follow up sessions where your teachers can refresh
and fine tune what they've learned. Browse our on-site
workshop offerings and let us know which ones interest
you.
Workshop Leaders
Our workshops are led by dynamic, award winning teachers and
writers. Get to know our
presenters.
Workshop Descriptions
Getting Them to Write
Learn strategies to motivate reluctant writers while stimulating
advanced students to stretch their abilities to reach a new
level. You will practice anxiety-reducing exercises such as un
graded journal writing that kids want to do, writing for
different audiences (historical, literary & mythological figures
as well as those from pop culture), imaginative interviewing,
quirky book reactions, creative writing (memoir, flash fiction
and poetry), etc.
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Teaching Writing for Test Takers
Teachers will learn to create and customize their own
picture prompt and persuasive writing topics. This skill-based
workshop will also share useful techniques to help students
generate multiple ideas for writing essays and other
standardized test preparation, revision strategies, points for
editing and polishing essays and a pain-free grammar blitz.
Well, almost pain-free.
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Writing Teachers, Writing Students
(Grades K-12)
Cross-listed workshop: English, Elementary & Across the Curriculum
This workshop will encourage teachers to become practicing
writers for their own professional development so they
become better teachers of writing. In addition, it will offer
approaches for evaluating student writing, paper management
strategies and will conclude with a plan to build a writing
friendly school by creating a community of teachers who write.
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Evaluating Student Writing
This workshop will present an overview of how to read and
respond to students' writing. Topics include creating
incrementally structured assignments, alternatives to numerical
and letter grades, group editing and peer critiquing, making
writing fun and handling the paper load. Teachers will leave
with handouts, ideas and enthusiasm for having their students
write more and better.
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Getting Them to Revise
"Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what one is
saying." John Updike
This workshop uses writing samples from high school students and
insights from well-known writers which will give you the
ammunition you need to have your students understand that
revision (literally "re-seeing") is essential to good writing.
The full day workshop offers more writing opportunities to
practice the revision strategies introduced.
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Breaking Through the Abstract
Like photo sensitive paper, writing becomes vibrant when
illuminated by the radiance of the five senses: sight, sound,
smell, touch, taste. Teachers will practice applying concrete
language to reveal the mysteries of the intangible world.
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Getting Them to Think
Critical and creative thinking are valuable skills that do not
always find a place in the standard curriculum. Teachers in this
workshop will sample a variety of visual and text based
exercises they can use to help students think imaginatively and
evaluate information in a systematic and logical manner both in
and out of the classroom. Topics will include analyzing media
and advertising, interpreting metaphor and figurative language
and learning to interpret the world they live in.
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Writing Strategies for Poor Achieving and Special Needs Students
This is a workshop for teaching literacy, critical thinking,
composition and creative writing to students who have low
academic self-esteem, limited vocabulary, emotional trouble, or
learning disabilities. Teachers will practice a battery of
proven techniques, exercises and models to get these kids
excited about writing.
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Creative Writing for Special Needs Students
This is a workshop for teaching creative writing to students who
have low academic self-esteem, limited vocabulary, emotional
trouble, or learning disabilities such as ADHD. Educators will
be shown a battery of proven techniques, exercises and models to
get these kids excited about writing. These are not formulas for
cookie cutter responses, but rather smart ways for teachers to
structure, sequence and modify assignments to foster authentic
creativity in special needs students.
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The Poetry of War
Cross-listed workshop: English & History
The American poet Wallace Stevens wrote, "In the presence of the
violent reality of war, consciousness takes the place of the
imagination." This workshop will examine war poetry from Homer's
Iliad to the present day, with a special eye on changes in the
way war affects "consciousness"–personally and nationally. The
session is
suitable for teachers of literature, creative
writing and social studies. In a full-day version we will consider Stevens's idea
about the poetry of war as it applies to contemporary American
poetry, much of which seems to involve personal trauma. Nearly
all writers have a war–an overwhelming subject that is as hard
to enter as it is to escape.
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Overcoming Writer's Block
This workshop demonstrates four foolproof techniques that
empower students at any level to excel as writers. Students will
begin writing in "clear, concise, organized language that varies
in content and form for different audiences and purposes."
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Reading and Writing Across the Content Areas
Cross-listed workshop: English, Elementary & Across the
Curriculum
New Jersey is one of many states that has adopted the National
Common Core Curriculum Standards that require literacy be taught
in all content areas. This workshop will emphasize activities
that address the type of reading and writing skills required in
the new standards. During this workshop teachers will have the
opportunity to create new literacy lesson plans to engage all
levels of students and prepare them for reading and writing on
state and standardized tests.
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Browse our other workshops
Ready to reserve your next inservice?
Call 609-626-3594 to request a quote or
click here.
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