Effective classrooms create opportunities for children to be motivated to generate new ideas and gather information in a rewarding manner.  Classroom environments that support children’s natural interests by encouraging them to write nonfiction can inspire positive attitudes and promote skills to help them be successful in school.

During this workshop, ideas and strategies for teaching the process of writing nonfiction will be presented with the aim of creating writing programs for young children that will improve understanding and appreciation of the worlds they inhabit.

Improvement in writing skills is correlated to improvement in reading skills, and is therefore doubly beneficial.

Objectives
This workshop will:

• provide research-based understandings that support teaching nonfiction writing to beginning readers and writers
• present instructional methods that encourage discovery and exploration
• offer age-appropriate approaches to teaching instructional writing, descriptive writing, scientific explanations, persuasive writing and nonfiction narrative
• suggest ways of integrating exceptional learners into the program

Outline
Day 1:
what is nonfiction writing ?

• when should students begin to engage in nonfiction writing?
• what are the pedagogical purposes/advantages of nonfiction writing?
• what are the types of nonfiction writing?
• what research tools /resources are to be considered and will be most meaningful for children to utilize?
• how can children be supported in investigating their personal curiosities?
• how long should a particular nonfiction topic be explored ?
• how can nonfiction writing be smoothly integrated into classroom practice?

Day 2:

• a multistep approach to teaching nonfiction writing, including presentation to others through different media
• considerations for assisting young prewriting children
• teaming with the school librarian
• group and/or independent investigation
• ‘kidwatching’ techniques to determine growth in writing skills
• assessment strategies to determine understanding of the specific forms of writing
• displaying and sharing student work with other students and with parents

Trainer’s Profile
Dr. Honey Halpern is a well respected teacher with many years of teaching experience in elementary, secondary and universities. She works as a literacy consultant and a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. Her courses include “Teaching Language Arts in the Elementary School” and “Language Across the Curriculum in Multilingual Secondary Classrooms”. She has worked as a consultant for the International School in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania and most recently as a teacher trainer at StandTall Primary School in Kampala, Uganda.

Her Master’s in Education degree from McGill University and Doctorate from the University of British Columbia are both in Reading Education. Her commitment to good teaching practice is demonstrated through her  participation in professional associations. She is an active member of the editorial board of The Reading Teacher, is on the Executive of the British Columbia Literacy Council of the International Reading Association, and chairs the BC Exemplary Reading Award Program.

She is an enthusiastic promoter of positive reading habits for all ages and has spoken on this topic to many teacher and parent groups with great success.

She continues her literacy interests as an author of several articles published in national and international literacy journals. She has produced a brochure for teacher aides: Manual for Teaching Adolescent Non-Readers; as well as a pamphlet for the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation: Learning to Read and Write: Stages and Suggestions. A Guide for Parents of Young Children.

Methodology
Throughout these two days your specific questions about your classrooms and your students will be encouraged.  Workshops are a unique opportunity to network with other teachers, learn about problems and solutions to your and other classrooms, be inspired in your practice and take new information and ideas back to your home schools.

The key concepts of this workshop will be presented through digital multimedia technology. Each participant will receive a comprehensive information package of the ideas and strategies presented during the workshop. As well, teachers will be invited to participate in partner work, small group and whole group discussions in order to achieve an indepth, nuanced knowledge of the topic and to connect with background experience. Voicing of individual interests and needs will be encouraged.

Real classroom challenges that might happen when you try to implement nonfiction writing with your students will be offered as examples.  Possible solutions will be suggested through class discussion as well as during the presentation of researched best practices. In addition to the opportunity for hands-on participation in many of the strategies that are presented during this workshop, a combination of Power Point presentations, YouTube videos and question and answer format will be a vital part of the workshop.

Target Audience
This workshop is designed for all educators interested in instruction in nonfiction writing of children aged 4 to 10.

This workshop will be of interest to pre-school teachers, classroom teachers, resource teachers, librarians, administrators, curriculum consultants, special education teachers and teaching coaches.

Investment
HKD6000.00/pax
HKD5500.00/pax if register by 1 Jun 15 1 Jul 15

Duration: 2 days, 12 hours
Closing Date: 1 Oct 15