I love visiting schools, libraries, and homeschool groups to talk with students about writing, research, and revision! Custom presentations are available to fan the flames of your students’ interests and to meet your curriculum goals. Let’s brainstorm together to come up with a unique, age-appropriate program to engage and educate your students.
Drawing on my experience as a children’s writer and a journalist, I’ll help students discover the superpowers of a curious mind and learn how stories are all around us, ready to be written.
Past presentations include:
“History Detective” – Using packets of primary sources, students transform into history detectives. They zero in on historic maps, centuries old newspaper articles, census records, and other records. Searching for clues, unearthing heroic moments, digging for a story’s heart and emotion, these detectives will follow the evidence to discover an amazing true story! (Appropriate for students from middle to high school)
“I loved working with my friends to figure out stuff. I felt like a real investigator.” Sam, 5th Grade
“Vivid Verb Swap Shop” – We’ll dive into the world of a verb trade-in. Just like the feeling of a trading in a broken down car for a brand new model, students will experience the delight of upgrading their verbs. Young writers will learn how to elevate both sentence and story in an instant. We’ll have fun acting out stories, learning how to create action, observe action, and capture the action with the perfect verb! WARNING: We’ll probably laugh a lot in the process.
“Book Journey” – What happens when you have an idea for a book? From idea, to writing, critique, revision, rejection, sale, illustration, publication, reviews, and new ideas . . . we’ll uncover the true story of book publishing (and maybe, just maybe, students won’t feel so bad about re-writing and re-writing and re-writing.) We’ll talk about great habits and great attitudes that are sure to keep young writers excited about their own craft for years to come. (Appropriate for elementary, middle, and high school students)
“My favorite part of your presentation was when you came around and talked to each group. It showed you were devoted to helping us learn more.” Olivia, 5th Grade
“Story Time” – For our youngest readers, a read-a-loud complete with props and fun activities that bring reading to life. From puppets to silly outfits, crafts, and other activities, this presentation will ignite a passion for books in your youngest scholars.
“Fact from Fiction” – We’ll break down ‘Fake News’ and discover clear cut tools to knowing fact from fiction. Unleashing our powers of critical thinking, we’ll analyze exactly what makes up ‘trusted’ news sources, learn how news is gathered and reported, and how to spot errors, opinion and deception. (Appropriate for middle and high school students)
“My favorite part of your presentation was when we got to figure out if the story was real and how.” Caroline, 5th Grade
For more information on rates and availability or to begin the process of customizing a presentation for your students, send me an e-mail.