This past Friday and Saturday, we hosted a writing workshop here at the farm.
Although we put together a tenth-anniversary Well-Trained Mind conference in Williamsburg when the third edition of The Well-Trained Mind came out, this is the first time we’ve done something here at home. Space was limited, as you can see…
so we limited registration to 100 people.
We planned the weekend workshop to coincide with the release of Writing With Skill, Level One, which is the first book in our four-book middle grade series. Writing With Skill is the next step after our elementary series, Writing With Ease. (If you want a brief overview of my writing philosophy, you can read it here.)
Of course, the problem with planning a February workshop is that it happens in, you know, February. And after one of the warmest winters we’ve had here in Virginia for quite a while, this is what happened during the last workshop.
(Our attendees, fortunately, took it in stride.)
I presented four workshops: an overview of the writing process, plus one session each for elementary, middle grade, and high school writing. I also did three hands-on demonstrations: narration and dictation with elementary students, outlining with middle-grade writers, and topic brainstorming with the high school students.
All of the sessions will be available shortly on DVD and as audio files. So stay tuned, if you’re interested, and I’ll let you know when they’re ready. In the meantime, if you’d like a preview (or if you were there), you can have a look at my workshop slides below.
Thanks for hosting such a great weekend of professional development!
The workshop was well organized, fun, informative, and comfortable. Sign us up for the next one!
Looking forward to the DVDs!!!
Thank you for a fun, informative weekend! I sat down with my 9th grader on Monday, and after he read a chapter from History of the Ancient World, we used your method to come up with a thesis statement. He then wrote a paper on the topic, and I think he did a pretty good job. The demonstrations from the workshop really helped us understand and implement the process.
I also think that my son will remember this part of history well, since we discussed and wrote about it. But what about the part of the chapter or other chapters he didn’t write about? How do you have the student process the information he did not write about? I realize that student will not remember everything in history or science. So you simply discuss other chapters, give short quizzes, outline other parts of the chapter, write facts…? When choosing paper topics do you find yourself guiding the student to focus on what you believe is the most important event or to certain overarching themes?
Thanks again for giving the workshop. I really appreciate the time you put into that and the many other resources you provide homeschoolers. If you have any thoughts on the questions I have been mulling over, they would be appreciated as well.
Kristine in VA
Thank you for providing your workshop slides! They are very helpful.