Workshops for Educators: Three-hour mini-courses, One day workshops
Practical. Comfortable. Doable.
Comments from Wyoming workshop:
“Great job on tailoring the presentation to fit our needs.”
“A must for today’s teachers.”
“Great thoughts and ideas.”
Teaching Speaking
Giving All Students an Effective Voice
We have shortchanged the most important language art, speaking. Listen closely and you’ll notice that students need help with informal and formal speaking; with one-to_one, small group, and large group speaking; with in-person and digital speaking. This workshop gives teachers the tools needed to effectively teach oral communication. A framework is introduced to enable teachers to break oral expression into manageable, teachable parts. Participants will come away with an understanding of the elements of successful oral communication. Strategies for teaching those key elements as well as lesson plans and engaging activities will be presented. Effective rubrics will be created. PVLEGS© and Six Trait Speaking© will change how participants think about speaking and will enable teachers to be effective teachers of speaking.Class discussions, formal speeches, informal talks, podcasts, read-alouds, and more will benefit. Meet the speaking standards and improve student speaking in the classroom and beyond.
Good Thinking: Teaching Argument, Persuasion, and Reasoning
Argument. Persuasion. Evidence.
These are familiar terms yet no two teachers have the same definitions of them. We “sorta kinda” know, but students don’t do well with sorta kinda.
Learn how to effectively teach students to create an argument. The workshop begins with sharing a practical, understandable definition of what an argument is. The shifting language currently being used is confusing to students: premise, warrant, thesis, reason, claim, and the jumble of other words thrown at students do not help students understand the job of creating an argument. Clear, concise language is needed. More than that, specific instruction is needed. Lessons and practice activities are presented to guide students along the path of argument construction. Arguments require evidence. Students don’t exactly know what we mean when we say. “Provide evidence.” This workshop clearly defines the five types of evidence and shares lessons and activities that lead to understanding how to support an argument. Finally, lessons and activities about persuasive techniques are presented, allowing students to heat up their cold, logical arguments.