Description of Workshops given by Mr Levitt at Conferences of International Schools Educators


Writing from the Roots: 90-150 minutes
In this workshop participants cover the various chapters in Marc Levitt’s book by the same name. There is also an emphasis on helping ‘Third Culture’ students articulate and write about their experiences. The following topics are covered:

• Beginnings: We look at story beginnings and discuss their similarity to other devices used to get audiences to ‘pay attention’
• Sequential Thinking: Teaching students to think logically and to include the story’s details so that it ‘makes sense’
  3. Observation and Description: Encouraging student’s sensitivity to detail while enhancing their descriptive ability
• Finding and Using Characters: Describing a character’s physical attributes, internal monologues, relationship to inanimate objects and their styles of conversation
• Finding and Using Place: Discussing the role of ‘place’ in writing
• Conventions: Teaching a basic understanding of some of the principals of grammar, including paragraphs, sentences and commas
• Genres: Looking at how mystery, horror, fantasy and historical fiction derive from stories found in everyday life
• Encouraging a Culture of Writing in the Classroom: Encouraging a writer’s culture in your classroom, one where curiosity and critical thinking is encouraged and a supportive and cooperative atmosphere exist
• Writing for a Purpose and not as a Chore: Ideas for ‘real world’ writing in various genres
• Endings: Participants will come out of this workshop with specific exercises and ideas to use when teaching the above elements of the writer’s craft
  

Finding, Using and Telling Your Story; Storytelling in the Classroom and Beyond: 90 minutes
In this session teachers learn techniques for telling stories and teaching storytelling as a way to enhance oral literacy, stimulate character development and make lessons more exciting and fun. Mr. Levitt demonstrates the art and craft of storytelling with his own memoirs and original autobiographic stories. We cover the following areas:

• Types of stories to tell and when to utilize storytelling in the classroom
• Elements of the storytelling craft including; pacing, characters, movement, props
• Teaching students to tell stories
• Collecting ‘Real Life’ Stories; including interviewing techniques

Site Specific Education and the Charles Fortes Museum Project: 90 minutes
In this workshop we look at finding ways to create grade level or school wide projects that are multi-disciplinary, inquiry driven, community based and that have ‘real world’ presentational possibilities and models. The Charles Fortes Museum Project is used as an example.
The Charles Fortes Museum Project is a ‘museum in a school’ project located in an inner city Providence, Rhode Island neighborhood where students create exhibits based on their curiosity about our former factory building and our multicultural neighborhood. The following areas are covered:
What is site ‘Specific Education’? We discuss and demonstrate various aspects of Mr. Levitt’s philosophy, including:

• Learning from place: Understanding how any site provides an opportunity for studying multiple layers of history and culture
• Showing how ‘Site Specific Education’ Projects can help provide opportunities for multiple learning styles
• Finding a project: How to choose a project by assessing a school’s needs, interests and surroundings
• Creating Curiosity Building Opportunities: How to encourage curiosity through trips, readings, discussions, visitors
• Developing a Research Strategy: Finding a way to prioritize questions and to plan a strategy for finding answers
• Presentation: Finding models for presentation
• Integrating technology: Looking at how web sites can mirror and encourage deep investigation the type of thinking available in Site Specific Education projects

Diversity Celebration, Bullying and Violence Prevention: 90 minutes
In this workshop we form the discussion of diversity less around tolerance and more around celebration. We look at various kinds of diversity, ways in which diversity is important to us all and how a culture of non-violence and diversity celebration can be built into your school and/or classroom. The workshop covers:

• What is diversity? (Nationality, gender, sexual preferences, learning styles, strengths etc.)
• Why diversity is important to celebrate
• Encouraging diversity in the classroom
• Creating a cooperative and democratic classroom
• Strategies for non-violence

List of Conferences

List of International Schools where Mr Levitt worked

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