SCHOOLS
Arlyn had great presence with the students and made wonderful connections.
- Adrienne Eisenmann, middle school language arts and social studies teacher
In school settings, multiple session workshops are most effective, optimally six or more, with a minimum of three sessions. Single-session workshops are suitable for holiday programming (i.e., MLK Day, Earth Day) or for assemblies (i.e., the professional life of a writer).
In addition to writing workshops in language arts classrooms, expressive writing may be incorporated into social studies, science, math, foreign language, and art curricula. Workshops can culminate in written student anthologies, student work combining their art and writing, student readings, performances, or recordings.
Examples of past workshops include those listed below. I tailor all workshop for the needs of each particular classroom.
Why Poetry?
Jump Starting and Trouble Shooting a Poetry Unit
Visual/Digital Art and the Written Word
Theme and Holiday Related Expressive Writing
MLK Day, Earth Day, religious holidays
Writing Through the Five Senses
Poetic Autobiographies
Incorporating Poetry in Research Projects
Performance Poetry
Poetry in Motion (combining movement with creative writing)
Multi-grade Level Workshops
Expressive Writing in the Social Studies Classroom
Pioneer Poetry, Poetry of the Prairie, American History Poetry, World History Poetry, Holocaust Poetry, the Poetry of War, D.C. Trip Workshop, Creating Poems from World History Textbooks
Expressive Writing in the Science Classroom
Solids, Liquids and Gasses; Poetry through Nature’s Perspective; Seasonal Expressive Writing; Planetary Poetry; The Wonder-ful Science, Art and Poetry of Nature
Foreign Language Poetry
Neruda’s Odes to Common Things; Hebrew Poets; Spanglish Poems about Families