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Day-long emphasis on stories: how to make vivid characters, do effective descriptions, choose gripping problems, concoct creative solutions, and develop inventive plot devices that resolve the story in surprising ways.
The workshop begins with one or two assemblies (see “The Great Liberary Ant”) and then proceeds through the following typical schedule.
TYPICAL SCHEDULE
First Assembly – K-2
Second Assembly – 3-5*
(*If it is possible to do one assembly for the whole school, more time is available for the workshops.)
Workshop – First grade
Workshop – Second grade
Workshop – Third grade (Workshops do not need to be in order of grades.)
Workshop – Fourth grade
Workshop – Fifth grade
I do not usually do a grade-level workshop for kindergartners, but because the afternoon class misses the morning assembly, I do a mini-assembly in their classroom.
Sometimes in a K-6 building, we group 1-2, 3-4, and 5-6 so each workshop has more time.
CONTENT OF GRADE-LEVEL WORKSHOPS
These grade-level workshops are 30-40 minutes in length, depending on how much time is left in the school day after the assemblies. Each workshop has two elements:
- A time for questions—about writing, publishing and anything that was said in the assembly.
- A workshop on writing stories.
With the first-graders and second-graders, I use a five-sentence approach to start a story. Then I invite the students to brainstorm ideas for the story, using a process that shows them how they can add to each part of the story to make it better and more interesting. At the end I weave these ideas we have brainstormed (which have been written on the chalkboard) into story form.
With the older students, I ask questions, ask for ideas, and engage in an active give-and-take. We discuss four tools for characterization, the use of verbs as well as adjectives in descriptions, and the use of plot devices (plot boosters) to strengthen the causality behind the stories and help these young writers give structure and forward motion to their plots. I use the books they are reading and sometimes the current popular movies to illustrate plot development. I ask students to brainstorm an idea for each story element as we discuss them. By the end of the workshop, they have the skeleton for a new story.
FLEXIBILITY
Though my one-day workshop
normally focuses on writing stories, I enjoy doing workshops on other kinds of writing, or adapting my workshop in some way to fit the needs or emphasis of the school or of the individual teachers at each grade level.
Fee: $800
Autographed books are available on the day of the workshop or for order either before or after the workshop.
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