Embracing Curiosity: Tips for Writing Nonfiction with Elementary Students

Young writers are naturally curious. Why not harness that curiosity and use it to teach young writers how to brainstorm, research, and revise nonfiction of their own? Using new nonfiction mentor texts and real-world experience as a nonfiction author, classroom teacher, and school librarian, this presentation gives practical tips for embracing nonfiction writing in the classroom.

 

Hands-On Poetry: How to Get Students Off the Blank Page and Into Writing Poetry

Do you have students who stare at a blank page and get “stuck” when trying to write poetry? This presentation will give you practical activities to get students writing poetry without using a blank page. We’ll explore found poetry, hands-on haiku, photo-inspired poetry, and much more.

 

The Art and Science of Poetry: Using Science Concepts to Inspire Poetry

Science content is full of fun concepts to push into poetry. If you are a science teacher interested in bringing poetry into your classroom, or an ELA teacher looking to weave nonfiction into poetry, this presentation will help you inspire your young scientists to become poets and inspire your young poets to explore nonfiction poetry writing. You will walk away with practical ideas for how to merge science and poetry into your classroom.

 

Nonfiction Nitty-Gritty

Are you overwhelmed with teaching nonfiction writing? Need some practical ways to help students research and write nonfiction? This presentation will help you work with students in K-5 on researching and writing nonfiction and making it manageable for the teacher.

 

Writing Visionaries: Empowering Students to See Themselves as Writers

We all teach students who view writing in various ways. From the writing loathers to the writing lovers, this presentation will help you find ways to empower ALL students to see themselves as writers. A mix of inspirational and practical information, writing teachers will walk away with ways to bring a boost to their writing instruction.

 

Write On! Practical Tips to Use with Writers in Grades K-2

If you want a jumpstart of new ideas to use in the writing classroom, then this session gives simple but effective ways to inject new life into your writing lessons. This session presents writing strategies to use in the classroom. Customizable to include between 1 and 3 hours of professional development.

 

Write On! Practical Tips to Use with Writers in Grades 3-5

Similar to Write On session above, but the tips are catered to the needs of 3rd-5th grade writers.

 

Mentor Me: Using Mentor Texts to Teach Writing

One of the best ways to learn how to be a good writer is by studying stellar texts. Mentor Me is a session that gives teachers ideas of how to utilize mentor texts in the classroom to improve student writing. This will not be a session with prescribed lessons to use with specific texts but a way to dig into the texts you already have on hand to improve your writing instruction game.

 

Teachers as Readers: Creating a Culture of Reading at Your School

If the staff at your school would like to read more, one way to do that is through a Teachers as Readers Book Club. Teachers as Readers Book Clubs can even be a way to increase cultural competency and add diverse books to your collection. This session will present ways to begin a book club, decide on a theme, keep a book club thriving, and how to operate on a budget.

 

** Need a different professional development for teachers that’s not listed above? Contact Marcie (marcie [at] marcieatkins [dot] com) for a customized presentation.**