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Programs
Following are a few of the programs I present
to civic, educator, and student groups. Most program sessions
are approximately one hour long but most can be tailored for
audiences and schedules.
Ready to Book an Event? E-mail Marilyn >>
- On the Other Side of a Book – Youth
or Adult Focus – Join Marilyn through the highs
and lows of writing and publishing then promoting a book
- three very different operations. Learn how a personal
network and more than thirty years as a teacher inspired
and marked her work. As Alice stepped through the looking
glass, join Shaw's adventures into The Other Side of the
Book. You might want to launch your own such voyage.
- When Florida was the Wild West – Youth
or Adult Focus -- Many people don’t know Florida as a primitive
and unsettled place that lured pioneers despite its inhospitable
qualities. Enjoy new glimpses into Florida’s colorful history
and some of the lessons learned through Solomon’s research
and writing process. Truth as wild as any fiction, historical
maps, and tales of pioneer ways inform and entertain listeners.
- Kernels of Truth Make Great Stories
– Youth
or Adult Focus (interactive writer’s workshop) Keynote Focus
(entertaining insight into story building). Enjoy
an intimate look at how bits of real events, people, objects,
and images are molded into fiction and how small events or
details can grow into major story elements. Discuss how research
can enhance creative writing. Apply these principles to creative
writing and writing instruction. Especially when working
with creative writing, prospective writers - children and
adults - often feel that there is nothing significant enough
in their lives about which to write. What they don't understand
is that some of the most poignant, humorous, or dramatic
moments in fiction are taken from the truth of reality. In
addition, research plays an important part in writing - even
fiction. Explore the roles both purposeful and accidental
research can play in creative writing. With a little prompting,
students can begin to see that they can turn almost anything
into a story.
- Hook Into History – Teacher
Focus - "We don't have time for frills!" Learn
how historical fiction efficiently and effectively engages
students in the study of history. Distinguish the differences
between historical fiction and non-fiction; investigate practical
cross curricular models, reading lists, and instructional
methods that will help hook students into history. Explore
the importance of literacy in content area instruction. Despite
excellent instruction history seems distant, dry, and irrelevant
to many students. Texts, primary sources, and other materials
are the core of history study. However, beginning units with
a well chosen historical novel gives students characters
with whom they identify. This sets the stage and fuels curiosity
about the times, places, people, and events encountered in
traditional content. The connection between the content area
and literacy underlies this kind of teaching.
- Fiction Across the Curriculum - Teacher
Focus - "We have a text, but students don't respond
to it; give me something kids can relate to. I need something
to add a little spark to our studies." Investigate how
subject area teachers can include novels in their instruction
without losing the integrity of their subject and why they
should. Learn how to identify appropriate novels, connect
them to your subject, and approach novel study. Review sample
reading lists and participate in high frequency strategies
that will help teachers become comfortable with fiction and
students better able to make connections between fiction
and their content area subjects.
- Bringing Literacy
to the Content Areas - Teacher
Focus - "I teach history (or science, math,
or art), not language arts and reading!" Investigate
practical and highly effective teaching and learning strategies
for the content areas. Participate in informal discussions
about the literacy needs of students and ways that all subject
area teachers can help them meet those needs without sacrificing
their content. Literacy is clearly the priority for schools
and teachers across the country. Content area teachers are
rarely trained with focus on reading skills, yet their students
struggle to read text written well above grade level. Because
text is at the core of many subjects, teachers need to accept
some responsibility for student literacy and develop a toolbox
of effective strategies. Who better to help students get
meaning from content text than the content area teacher?
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