The Story Pirates Curriculum Menu
Welcome to the Story Pirates Curriculum Menu! Using this document, you can browse through our most popular educational residencies, and decide which one might be right for your school. These residencies often include assembly performances, which you can read about on our website:
http://www.storypirates.org/assembly-programs
In addition, most of the curriculum below can be adjusted based on the needs of the students. We routinely tailor programming for ELL classrooms, as well as for students with a variety of special needs. The exact adjustments are made in consultation with teachers and school administrators, in order to be sure that your students get the most out of our workshops.
We can also create a completely customized program for your school. Please contact us to find out more.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
NARRATIVE WRITING RESIDENCIES (5-7 CLASS SESSIONS)
Hero Story Writing, with Heroic Dialogue
Mystery Stories and the Art of Inference
“FACT AND FICTION” RESIDENCIES (5-7 CLASS SESSIONS)
Science Fact Into Science Fiction
NONFICTION RESIDENCIES (NUMBER OF CLASS SESSIONS VARIES)
Informational Essay Writing: The Solar System
SHORT TERM RESIDENCIES (1-2 CLASS SESSIONS)
MIDDLE SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL RESIDENCIES
Story Pirates Academy: Comedy, Adaptation, and Improvisation
Story Pirates Academy: Elementary Mentorship
FAMILY ENGAGEMENT WORKSHOPS (1-2 CLASS SESSIONS)
“Who Said What!?” Dialogue through Puppets
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS FOR TEACHERS (1-2 SESSIONS)
Teaching the Story Pirates Way: Using Drama to Heighten Student Engagement
Vocabulary Instruction and Cognitive Domain
Performing for Children the Story Pirates Way
This section is devoted to writing residencies, designed to be taught in school with a classroom teacher present. These workshops have been developed over the course of many years to complement the writing skills that classroom teachers and administrators regularly tell us they would like their students to improve.
Each residency is taught by a team of two Story Pirates: one is a veteran teaching artist with many years of experience, and the other is a hilarious improv comedian who has been trained to use their comedic skills in a classroom setting. This unique approach to teaching allows us to approach standards-based lessons in an exciting way, put a fresh spin on writing that is engaging even to reluctant writers, and create memorable experiences that classroom teachers can refer to throughout the year.
Each of the Narrative Writing Residencies is tied heavily to Writing Standard #3 of the Common Core Standards. Typically these workshops last 5-7 class sessions, but we sometimes accommodate requests for shorter residencies if schools are able to provide extra writing time for students outside of our workshops.
Grades K-1
The Story Pirates are friends with Funky Feline, the rapping cat. Each day of this residency we will receive a new message from Funky Feline, along with an audio recording of a rap that helps us to explore the building blocks of a story. The class will then work together on creating a group story with a clear beginning, middle and end, which contains a character, a problem, and a solution. This group story becomes the model as students design their own stories, each containing the same set of story building blocks. Along the way, students will participate in a variety of drama games to help them create their own original characters, problems and solutions. Based on consultation with the classroom teachers, we will differentiate for the needs and abilities of students, and the final product from the students may range from 3 thoughtfully labeled pictures (representing the beginning, middle and end of a story), to a few pages of illustrated writing.
Common Core Standards: as outlined in Writing Standard #3, students will use a combination of drawing, dictating and writing to narrate events. We will guide them in making sure the events are appropriately sequenced, and employ temporal words such as “first,” “next” and “finally” to signal event order, when appropriate.
Grades 1-2
Our motto for this workshop is, “If you can draw it, you can write it.” Students will create detailed characters, and develop problems for those characters to solve by drawing them on our specialized graphic organizers. Students will use their pictures as the first step in a scaffolded series of lesson plans that culminate in writing detailed, well-organized stories, with a clear beginning, middle and end. The teaching artists guide this process in part by providing hilarious “non-examples” of how to write a well elaborated story, which they act out for the students in crazy costumes. This becomes a springboard for dramatic games in which students explore creative techniques to better construct a character centered narrative, eventually applying these techniques to their own writing.
Common Core Standards: In keeping with Writing Standard #3, we put a particular focus on making sure students create a “well elaborated” narrative, especially in terms of having a detailed character at the center of the story whose actions, thoughts, and feelings drive the narrative. We also guide students in creating a clear, appropriate sequence of events, supported by temporal words such as “first”, “next” and “finally”.
Grades 2-5
This workshop taps into the deep love for hero stories that so many students have, but then challenges common assumptions about exactly what a “hero” character must be. One of our teaching artists will be a talented comedian, who comes into class each day in full costume, playing a hilarious, non-traditional hero character, who will serve as a model for students to create their own imaginative heroes. Students will then play a series of interactive performance games to help them flesh out their hero, and craft a tightly constructed story in which that hero uses creative, nonviolent solutions to solve a problem in their community.
Hero stories also present a perfect opportunity to focus on dialogue writing techniques, as it can be especially fun for students to come up with snappy dialogue for a hero to speak. We will work with students to carefully choose terminology that goes beyond the word “said” to tell the reader how the hero is speaking.
This workshop can also be used to complement school-wide messages concerning anti-bullying, social responsibility, or environmental consciousness.
Common Core Standards: As described in Writing Standard #3, students will establish detailed characters and situations, and structure the story with a logical sequence of events. Students will also explore how to use dialogue as a tool to move the story forward, and to flesh out the characters and events effectively.
Grades 3-5
This workshop is designed to support a variety of essential narrative writing skills that are studied in upper elementary grades. The first day will begin with an interactive, dramatic exploration of the importance of “showing, not telling”, which is a concept students will come back to again and again throughout the residency. Our approach to “showing, not telling” especially emphasizes narrating character actions, (for example: instead of simply saying the character is good at basketball, it’s better to write a detailed description of their feats on the court) which can be memorably performed in front of the class. Students will apply these ideas as they create characters for their stories.
Each following day will involve additional improvisational performance games, in which students explore concepts such as clear sequencing of events, and adding details to make the story more vivid. Using all of these techniques together, students will plan out a story in which a character makes multiple attempts to solve a problem, leading to an increasingly exciting flow of rising action, followed by a satisfying conclusion.
Common Core Standards: This workshop aligns with most of the major themes in Writing Standard #3, including establishing a situation and characters, organizing an event sequence that unfolds naturally, using transitional words to effectively manage the events of the story, and using concrete vocabulary and details to make those events as rich and compelling as possible.
Grades 4-5
In this unique, signature workshop, we approach comedy as simply another genre which anyone can learn how to write (whether or not they think of themselves as “funny”) if they are provided with the right tools. Having an improv comedian in the classroom allows us to demonstrate the sometimes tricky concepts needed for a comedy story in an extremely clear and precise fashion, which will also keep students engaged, entertained, and help them see the connection between comedy writing and the writing lessons they work on in class every day. Specifically, the students will plot out the misadventures of a “Fish Out of Water” character, who attempts to accomplish a goal in a setting where they are absurdly out of place. In order to do this effectively, students will need to create vivid, detailed settings, use precise vocabulary to flesh out an appropriate character, write effectively structured paragraphs that allow for comedic surprises to unfold, and even begin to explore the concept of “irony,” as they emphasize all the ways in which the character is comically mismatched with their surroundings, and with the task they are trying to accomplish.
Common Core Standards: In alignment with Writing Standard #3, students will use a variety of details to convey events precisely, (as comedy lives and dies by precision and clarity), and explore the nuances of narrative techniques, especially in terms of how dialogue and description can help highlight absurd contrasts between characters, and thus heighten the comedy.
Grades 4-5
There is a mystery afoot at your school. We will send in teaching artists who are not only experts in writing mysteries, but amateur detectives in their spare time, (or at the very least, actors who are good at playing amateur detectives). By examining a series of mysterious clues that pop up in your classroom, and comparing them to short written pieces from the teaching artists’ detective notebooks, the students will not only solve a classroom mystery, but will practice using skills which they’ll need for their own stories. Students will create detectives, explore how to set up a mystery, and learn the subtle art of backward planning, to plant clues in a narrative that point towards a particular culprit. Since a mystery story requires readers to make inferences about the solution to the mystery, students will also need to practice using their own inferencing skills in a variety of warm-up activities and short readings, designed to prepare them to plan out clues effectively in their own stories.
Common Core Standards: Mystery stories are very complex, and require mastery of almost every element of Writing Standard #3 to write effectively. In particular, narrative techniques such as description and pacing, as well as the ability to write highly specific sensory details, are extremely important.
These residencies are designed to help students practice skills essential to nonfiction writing in a fun, creative manner. The curriculum includes both fictional elements and substantial nonfiction lessons clearly linked to writing standards that students engage with throughout the year.
Each “Fact and Fiction” Residency is tied heavily to Writing Standards #1 or #2 of the Common Core Standards, and sometimes to Writing Standard #3.
Grades 2-5
“There’s got to be a better way!...Nowwwwww there is!” Most of us are swimming in a sea of commercials, day in and day out. Students are so used to this that commercials may seem like a natural part of their environment, as opposed to what they really are: carefully constructed pieces of persuasive writing, designed to make you desire something. Through games, multimedia, and in class performances, students will explore different examples of commercials, and study the similarities between commercials and other kinds of persuasive writing, including opening with a strong hook, having an introduction that states your opinion, stating multiple reasons backed up with facts, and even using linking words. Students will then create their own commercials for imaginary products, but in the process will learn and apply important persuasive writing skills that will serve them in more traditional essays down the road.
Common Core Standards: this workshop is most directly tied to Writing Standard #1, on writing opinion pieces. This includes crafting a strong introduction, citing reasons and supporting those reasons with facts, using linking words, and having a strong conclusion.
This curriculum requires an additional materials fee.
Grades 4-5
Science Fiction is a difficult balancing act: it must be rooted in an understanding of scientific fact, while at the same time being an engaging, well structured fictional story. In this residency we help students to pull off such a balancing act, focusing in particular on how to explain a scientific topic clearly, so that the story can proceed logically from there. Students will begin by researching a planet in the solar system (using custom-made research packets which we provide), and in their first paragraph will give the readers an effective introduction to the planet, using definitions and details, just like the first paragraph of an informational essay. From there, students will create an alien species that might live on this planet, using appropriate linking words to help explain clearly how the alien has adaptations allowing it to survive in its specific environment.
After the opening paragraphs, the fictional side of “science fiction” will become the main focus, as students send this alien on a well structured adventure to Earth, imagining the problems that might face an alien so well adapted to life on another planet, but poorly adapted to life on ours.
Along the way, students will work to evaluate tantalizing clues about one of our teaching artists: are they really an improv comedian as they claim, or might they secretly be an alien from far outside our world, come to Earth to educate kids about the solar system?
Common Core Standards: this workshop is strongly aligned to Writing Standard #2. Students will need to develop a topic with facts and definitions, use linking words and phrases, and precise, domain specific vocabulary to explain the topic. In addition, this workshop is aligned with Writing Standard #3, especially establishing a character and situation, and organizing an event sequence that unfolds naturally.
These residencies focus on writing techniques for standard nonfiction essays, while still employing the Story Pirates’ theatrical, game-infused teaching methods.
Because nonfiction writing requires students to do research on a topic, as well as to write very specifically structured and sequenced paragraphs, it typically requires more time than our usual 5-7 class sessions to write a full 5-paragraph essay, as well as requiring special arrangements with classroom teachers for students to put in extra time researching or writing outside of our workshops.
Instead of writing a full essay, what we typically recommend is to focus on specific parts of an essay, chosen in collaboration with classroom teachers. For example, we might focus on writing introductions, or an introduction plus one body paragraph and a short conclusion. This allows us to present the essential skills of essay writing in as engaging a manner as possible, within a manageable time frame, without requiring extra work from classroom teachers to complete the assignment.
Each Nonfiction Residency is tied heavily to Writing Standards #1 or #2 of the Common Core Standards, and, in some cases, to Common Core Speaking and Listening Standards.
Grades 3-5
Before this residency begins, we will collaborate with teachers and administrators to choose an exciting and appropriate persuasive writing topic, based on their knowledge of the students. On the first day, an actor in a suit will be welcomed into the classroom, and the students will be informed that this person is an “expert” on the chosen topic. This expert will proceed to address the class with some comically ill-considered or controversial opinions on this topic, and then leave, with the teaching artists left behind to productively channel the class’s outrage at the expert into writing. Over the course of the residency, the expert will communicate each day by sending messages to the class, including a “radio commercial” endorsing his controversial ideas, which will both serve to inspire the students to continue writing, and serve as models of well constructed (if dubious) arguments, including writing a strong introduction, selecting appropriate arguments, and using transition words help flesh out reasoning. On the final day, the expert will return, and the students will have the opportunity to melt his icy heart by reading him selections from their own writing.
Common Core Standards: this workshop is most directly tied to Writing Standard #1, on writing opinion pieces, but also provides opportunities to develop skills linked to Speaking and Listening Standards, especially standard #2 (summarizing information presented in diverse media and formats) and standard #5 (present an opinion, speaking clearly at an understandable pace, etc).
This curriculum requires an additional materials fee.
Grades 3-5
The solar system is full of strange and wonderful phenomena that will fascinate students, even those students who don’t normally look forward to doing research. We have compiled scientific information from NASA into an entertaining and readable research packet for 3rd-5th graders, which will serve as a primary source for students as they study a planet in the solar system. In order to arm the students for further research online or in a library, we have also included certain pages in this packet that come from ludicrously unreliable sources, or contain opinions instead of facts, leading into a lesson about how to find good sources in general when doing research. From there, the teaching artists will use a variety of media, including model texts, audio skits, songs, and word games to help support students in their research, as well as guiding them to create well crafted nonfiction writing that is not only informative, but will hold the reader’s attention with precise and vivid vocabulary and imagery.
Common Core Standards: this workshop is strongly aligned to Writing Standard #2, and students will work to create an essay that examines a topic and conveys ideas and information clearly. In particular, students will introduce a topic and group related information together, develop the topic with facts, definitions and rich details, use linking words, and provide a strong conclusion. Students will also practice a variety of skills in alignment with Reading Standards for Informational Text, including explaining concepts in a scientific text, based on specific information from the text.
Grades Pre-K-3
Theater, visual arts and writing come together in this lively, fun, interactive workshop. Students will work as a class to create a simple narrative story, which will be dictated to, and guided by, our teaching artists. The primary focus will be on reinforcing the basic building blocks of a story, including creating a detailed original character, introducing a problem, and finding exciting, creative solutions to the problem. To explore these story elements, the class will watch brief performances by an actor in silly costumes, as well as coming together to act out characters and situations as a class. When requested by the school, students will also receive colorful graphic organizers to help them create a character of their own, which they can use to start individual stories once the Story Pirates have left the room.
Common Core Standards: This workshop is directly tied to Writing Standard #3, and based on the grade of the students we will adjust the workshop to best align with the standard: for example, as students get older we will put more emphasis on effectively using temporal words to signal event order.
Grades 3-5
Designed to provide older elementary students with the basic building blocks for writing in a particular genre, this theatrical, interactive workshop will involve the whole class writing a genre story together, and reflecting on the main elements that make the genre unique. The teaching artists will provide memorable theatrical demonstrations of key points, and leave the students with materials to begin working on individual stories after we have left the room.
At the present time, we offer the following group genre story writing workshops.:
Other genre workshops are available upon request, but may require extra time or fees for curriculum development.
Common Core Standards: All Group Genre Story Writing workshops will be closely aligned with Writing Standard #3, and the Commercial Writing workshop also aligns with Writing Standard #1.
Grades 3-4
This workshop offers a mix of strategies to pump students up for taking big tests, help them find ways to calm down when nervous, and provides techniques that will allow students to approach tests logically and--incredible as it sounds--even have fun with them! We believe multiple choice tests CAN be fun if they are approached by students as a game, and that like any other game, you can improve your chances by studying how the game is played. In fact, when we work on test prep, we emphasize the ways in which many of the skills students use when playing a video game, or participating in sports, are exactly the same skills they need to be successful at a test. We bring enthusiasm, mini-games, and even actual excitement into the process of practicing for a test, and find ways to connect with many students for whom the test prep they are required to do in school is a struggle.
After school classes are a place where we can continue to offer our standards-based writing programming, while also stretching well beyond that, giving our multi-talented teaching artists a chance to put their other skills to use. We create compelling, imagination-fueled activities that students love, giving them experience with theater, storytelling, visual arts, and creative writing.
These classes all combine elements of creative drama, visual arts projects, storytelling, and writing to provide a unique after school experience. The themes listed below are some of our most popular classes, but if desired we can offer additional options, and are always open to developing new themes upon request.
These programs are typically customized for the participating students, and will require an extra curriculum development fee.
After a long day of school work, students often need extra motivation to write. With our Academic Adventure after school program, we draw on writing lessons from our in-school residencies, but with more ambitious writing assignments, and an extra dose of theatricality, including more time built in for games and imagination activities, as well as surprise appearances from actors. The descriptions listed below are some of our more popular options, but we are happy to create more customized options upon request:
These workshops are typically taught as either after school classes, in-school elective classes, or camp classes.
Grades 6-12
Students will learn the basics of the Story Pirates rehearsal and performance process, as they work together to adapt stories from elementary school students for the stage. The program usually culminates with the students performing at an elementary school in a Story Pirates-style show. Along the way students will work on a number of topics which may include:
Common Core Standards: students will engage with several Reading Standards, including #1, #2, and #3, closely reading text written by elementary school students to determine the explicit and implicit intent the writer was trying to convey, as well as trying to identify specific central ideas. They will then examine what the writer’s choices tell us about the character and the plot which may be useful during the adaptation. The workshops will also apply to Reading Standard #7, as they work to make choices that will create an effective, yet also faithful adaptation of the story. As they collaborate on the adaptation, and share ideas about how to stage the stories, students will also engage with Speaking and Listening standards, especially standards #1 and #4.
Grades 6-12
Usually in conjunction with the Comedy, Adaptation, and Improvisation Workshops, students are trained in the basic strategies Story Pirates teaching artists use when they are working one-on-one with elementary school students writing stories. The middle and/or high school students are partnered with an elementary school class, and are on hand to help as the younger students work on stories. At the end of the process, the middle and/or high school students will be trained on the Story Pirates process of “Story Love”: writing positive, constructive comments on each completed story.
Common Core Standards: students will be trained on how to ask elementary students basic questions to help them flesh out their stories, in accordance with writing standard #3, and may be called upon to provide rudimentary help editing stories in line with Language Standards #1 and #2. Students will also need to use skills aligned with Speaking and Listening Standard #1 to have productive, positive conversations with elementary school students.
The Story Pirates have developed a series of Family Engagement Workshops, designed to give parents and children fun learning enrichment activities to do together at school, as well as providing follow-up activities to do at home, which further reinforce academic skills in an engaging way. What follows is a description of some of our most popular Family Engagement Workshops. Workshops on other topics can be developed upon request, but will require extra curriculum development fees.
Since there may be large numbers of parents at these events, each workshop functions as one part academic lesson, and one part performance, put on by some of our acclaimed Story Pirate comedic actors. Student volunteers may also have a chance to get in on the performance, and participate in games or skits alongside the Story Pirates.
Most of the Family Engagement Workshops are designed to be a companion piece to a specific Story Pirates in-school residency, and will be most successful if the students have already worked with the Story Pirates in the classroom.
Families will work together to create characters and then practice writing descriptions of the characters that “Show, Don't Tell” a variety of character traits. Student volunteers will also participate in the “Character Trait Game Show,” in which they are coached by Story Pirates on how to bring some of their writing to life, as the audience must guess which character trait is being Shown, not Told. Parents will be given information on how to use this same process to help their children add richness to their writing at home.
Companion residency: this can be a companion to any narrative writing residency, but is especially well suited to being paired up with the Narrative Writing Essentials curriculum.
Common Core Standards addressed: the activities are most closely aligned with Writing Standard 3 (narrative writing), especially in terms of establishing a character, and using description, concrete words and sensory details to convey an experience.
Students will interview parents to find out more about the history of their family, aided by an array of different sequencing and transition words that will help them to ask more specific questions. Volunteer families will be coached by Story Pirates on how to reenact their interview for the entire group as a “TV interview” performance. Parents will be given information on how to keep telling family history stories at home, in a way that reinforces important sequencing word vocabulary.
Companion residency: this particular workshop can be a companion to any writing residency, but is especially well suited to being paired up with the Narrative Writing Essentials or Commercial Writing curricula.
Common Core Standards addressed: the activities in this workshop reinforce ways to use sequencing and transition words, as emphasized across Writing Standards 1-3.
Families will work together to create simple puppets, and learn how to operate them. Story Pirates will demonstrate how to write a short puppet show script, with an emphasis on correct dialogue punctuation, and interesting vocabulary choices for dialogue words. Volunteer families will present their puppet shows for the group. Parents will be given information on how to make more puppets at home, and how to use them as tools to help students remember dialogue punctuation skills, and important dialogue vocabulary words.
Companion residency: Hero writing.
Common Core Standards addressed: the activities are most closely aligned with Writing Standard 3 (narrative writing), especially in terms of using dialogue to develop events, or show the responses of characters to situations.
Families will reflect on some of the persuasive techniques commonly used in commercials to try to sell them products, and Story Pirates will theatrically demonstrate a number of such examples. Families will then be given a framework for creating a commercial for a fake product, and volunteer families, with assistance from Story Pirate actors, will share the fake commercials they come up with. Parents will be given suggestions for how to use TV or radio commercials as opportunities to reinforce persuasive techniques with their children, especially those techniques that are most applicable to persuasive essay writing.
Companion residency: Commercial writing or Persuasive writing.
Common Core Standards addressed: the activities are most closely aligned with Writing Standard 1 (persuasive writing), especially in terms of introducing a topic clearly, and providing reasons that are supported by facts and details.
Teaching comedy writing as a genre provides a unique method for studying how to add rich and effective details to narrative writing: in comedy, it's all about getting the details right, otherwise your comedic piece will fall flat. Fortunately, Story Pirates are experienced at teaching effective comedy writing to elementary school students, and with our guidance, families will study how to create detailed and hilarious comedy sketches. Families will work together to write sketches, and volunteers will present them to the group, with some assistance from the Story Pirates. Parents will be given information on easy and fun comedy activities they can use at home to reinforce how to add effective details to stories.
Companion residency: Comedy writing.
Common Core Standards addressed: the activities are most closely aligned with Writing Standard 3 (narrative writing), especially in terms of establishing a situation and character, organizing an event sequence that unfolds naturally, and using concrete words and sensory details to convey an experience precisely.
Note: while all of these workshops are designed to work in conjunction with a Story Pirates residency, it is possible to run the previously listed workshops as independent, stand-alone workshops in some cases. This is not, however, the case for Trip to Space, which must be done as an add-on to either the “Informational Essay Writing: The Solar System” or “Science Fact into Science Fiction” curricula.
The students have been studying a planet in the solar system, and will teach their parents what they've learned. The Story Pirates will provide a framework for turning the recently completed planet research into a fun and imaginative mission: families must learn as much as possible about a planet in the solar system, with the guidance of the student, and then use their imaginations to figure out how they would take a family trip to space. Families will discuss real world obstacles they might face on another planet, and come up with inventive solutions to overcome those obstacles. With the help of the Story Pirate actors, volunteer families will share their mission plan in a fun and theatrical presentation, and parents will leave with suggestions for games that can be played at home which will encourage good research skills.
Companion residency: Informational Essay Writing: The Solar System, or Science Fact into Science Fiction.
Common Core Standards addressed: students will reflect on the work they did with Story Pirates in the classroom, which very closely aligned with Writing Standard 2 (informative writing). Students will be practicing activities aligned with Speaking and Listening standards, especially standard 4, in terms of reporting on a text, and recounting appropriate facts and relevant details.
The Story Pirates believe that education is most inspiring when teachers and students are fully engaged in the learning process. We have designed several high quality Professional Development programs that bring the excitement of a Story Pirates class to your teachers. Each has been derived from and can be adapted to the grade level, subject area, and needs of the school community. We collaborate with teachers prior to the PD to assess what specific subject areas they would like to explore, and ensure that each PD employs techniques that can be used in class immediately.
All Story Pirates PD workshops are designed to meet New York State Professional Development standards, but can be adapted to fit the curricular needs of any state or district.
All subjects, primarily grades pre‐K through 6th grade
How do the Story Pirates keep students engaged and get them to write so much? By using drama to aid the English Language Arts classroom! In this PD, facilitators demonstrate how and why the Story Pirates use drama techniques to teach writing, and help teachers to understand that most of these techniques are not that different from their own best practices as educators. The similarities and differences between teachers and performers are examined and unpacked, so that teachers can begin to explore how to implement classroom drama in ways that will feel natural and comfortable. By the end of the session, teachers will be able to employ some of the methods we use to make each lesson feel like a live performance tailored specifically for the classroom audience, through heightening student engagement and addressing multiple learning styles in each lesson.
This PD can be tailored to a variety of different instructional topics, and the specific activities we cover will vary according to the subject area the teachers wish to focus on. No matter the topic, teachers will explore warmups, daily routines, and classroom games they can use to reinforce a variety of material. In addition, depending on the specific needs of the group of teachers, one or more make-and-take resources are produced. Options for areas of focus in this PD include, but are not limited to:
● Teaching and reinforcing vocabulary
● Supporting writing mechanics such as punctuation and verb tense
● Supporting good writing technique, including using effective details, transition words, and “showing not telling”
● Using a fictional dramatic character as the exciting center of an entire academic unit
● More topics available upon request, including topics related to any Common Core writing standard
Professional Development Standards:
NY State PD Standards 1b, 1c, 1e, 1f, 2d, 2e, 2f, 3a, 4a, 5a, 5b, 5c, 6a (see NY State PD Standards below)
For general education and ELL teachers, pre‐K‐8th grade
How should we teach vocabulary to students so that they will actually retain and use it? Vocabulary is an essential practice that can become a daily practice, and this PD provides techniques that will enhance your students’ understanding and application of new words through short interactive games. Often teachers struggle with getting their students to employ the words they are being taught, beyond being able to merely identify them. Our vocabulary games are based around the idea that students need to place new vocabulary words within specific cognitive domains, and then practice using the words in practical contexts, in order to fully understand and make use of all the words they are learning. We will look at research on this concept of “cognitive domain,” and then teachers will be trained in games and techniques they can use at different times during a vocabulary unit to build vivid domains within their students’ minds.
Teachers will walk away with routines they can use to introduce vocabulary, reinforce it, and review it at the end of a unit. These techniques require few materials and little time, and are fun and effective for both teachers and students.
Activities include:
● Daily games used to introduce vocabulary
● Review techniques to help link vocabulary thematically
● Writing activities to help kids show mastery of new words
Professional Development Standards:
NY State PD Standards 1b, 1c, 1f, 2d, 2e, 2f, 3a, 3b.1, 4a, 5a, 7b (see NY State PD Standards below)
For Theater Educators, grades pre‐K‐12th grade
Anyone who has seen a Story Pirates show knows that we have a unique way of collaborating with our student authors that steps outside the traditional bounds of “Children’s Theater.” We create a show that is genuinely funny for both children and adults. But how? This PD, primarily for theatre educators, examines our process and aesthetic, including crowd control techniques, improvisation techniques for young audiences, and artistic philosophy. Educators will leave with a framework they can use to approach performing for young audiences with adult or student actors.
Example activities include:
Professional Development Standards:
NY State PD Standards 1b, 1c, 1f, 2d, 2e, 2f, 4a, 5a, 5b, 6a. (see NY State PD Standards below)
New York State PD Standards
Applicable standards are listed with each program.
1b Professional Development design is based on the learning styles of adult learners as well as the diverse cultural, linguistic, and experiential resources that they bring to the professional development activity.
1c. Professional development design is grounded in the New York State Learning Standards and student learning goals.
1e. Professional development design addresses the continuum of an educator’s experience and level of expertise, and is based on an analysis of individual educator needs; current knowledge and skills; and district, building and educator learning goals.
1f. Professional development formats include, but are not limited to, lesson study, demonstrations, observations, analysis of student work and assessment data, collegial circles, feedback, action research, reflection, and opportunities for collaboration and problem solving.
2d. Professional development provides differentiated instructional strategies to meet the needs of diverse learners.
2e. Professional development ensures that educators have the knowledge and skills needed to develop and foster the critical thinking, problem solving, literacy, and technological skills that students need to be successful in the 21st century.
2f. Professional development provides the knowledge, skill, and opportunity for educators to make relevant connections between the subjects they teach and the applications of those subjects.
3a. Professional development is based on current research in teaching, learning, and leadership.
3b.1. Professional development includes ongoing opportunities for educators to read and reflect on current research on topics that are of interest to them and that are consistent with state and local school improvement priorities.
4a. Professional development provides skills that educators need to communicate effectively, to listen to the ideas of others, to exchange and discuss ideas, to work in diverse teams, and to share responsibility for work toward a common goal.
5a. Professional development focuses on developing educators’ knowledge of the learning styles, needs, and abilities of their students, as well as the diverse cultural, linguistic, and experiential resources that their students bring to the classroom.
5b. Professional development provides opportunities for educators to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to design and implement differentiated instructional and assessment strategies that utilize diverse student, family and community resources, and that meet diverse student learning needs.
5c. Professional development provides opportunities for educators to examine their practice in setting and maintaining high expectations for all students to enable them to attain high levels of achievement.
6a. Professional development provides opportunities for educators to create a safe, inclusive, equitable learning community where everyone participates in maintaining a climate of caring, respect, and high achievement.
7b. Professional development enhances educators’ knowledge of varying cultural backgrounds of students, families, and the community, and of how the diversity of these cultural backgrounds can serve as foundations and resources for student learning and success.
8d. Professional development provides opportunities for educators to use results from local, state and national assessments; student work samples and portfolios; school climate, parent, and teacher surveys; and student behavior data to guide their instruction.