Helping Your Unmotivated and Underperforming WRITERS Succeed (Grades 6-12)

Presented by Darryl Johnson
Outstanding Educator and Presenter

Specifically Designed for Educators Serving Grades 6-12: English/ Language Arts Teachers, Classroom Teachers, Title I Staff, Special Education Staff, and Administrators

Practical strategies to decrease disengaged behavior and help your underperforming writers become more productive and successful
Dozens of ideas designed to help your underachieving writers develop a growth mindset and a more positive attitude about writing
Increase your students’ internal motivation and personal accountability generating greater student interest in the writing process
Help your underperforming students achieve higher productivity and catch up on their writing skills

Practical Ideas and Strategies

In this NEW idea-packed seminar, you will discover a multitude of practical ways to help your unmotivated and underachieving writing students experience greater success and catch up in their learning. You will gain specific methods for increasing your students’ initiative to revise their work, explore helpful guidelines that offer more structure for reluctant writers, and realistic ways to make the connection between your students’ social, emotional well-being and the vulnerability required to risk putting their ideas into writing. Darryl Johnson, outstanding teacher and writing expert, will demonstrate what he has found to be successful with unmotivated and underachieving students in grades 6-12. He will share student routines and lessons designed to increase student interest, relevance, and contagious positive energy. Leave this seminar with the keys to unlock student motivation and performance, and watch your underperforming students finally take off with their writing! Join Darryl for a day filled with dozens of practical and doable strategies you can use immediately in your classroom!

Ten Key Benefits of Attending

Help Your Unmotivated and Underperforming Writers Catch Up and Experience Greater Success in Your Classroom
Increase your students’ motivation and engagement and help them finally catch up on those writing projects they tend to ignore
Take Away Dozens of Assignment Ideas That Make Learning More Relevant to Your Unmotivated Students
Establish a link between what is being taught in the classroom and students’ real lives … Teacher-tested ways to make writing more meaningful and relevant
Help Your Students Take More Initiative in Writing
Ideas that motivate your students to apply writing skills and strategies more consistently … Discover unique ways to help your students approach assignments with ownership and motivation
Break the Cycle of Discouragement and Learned Helplessness in Writing
Increase your students’ focus and engagement in writing with lesson ideas that deepen intrinsic motivation and independent writing habits
Practical Strategies to Increase Your Students’ Time-on-Task in Your Writing Class
Learn ways to develop your students’ writing endurance and capacity … Be amazed at how long your students can and WILL write with these powerful strategies
Learn New Ways to Transfer Your Positive Energy, Enthusiasm, and Passion to Your Students
Students who have fallen behind in school can feel discouraged and give up … Gain numerous strategies to show students that you are genuinely proud of their work and encourage them to do even more in the classroom or on their own
Make Learning More Relevant to the Lives of Your Students
Receive numerous ready-to-use activities that will make each day’s lessons better fit the needs of your students and get their sustained attention and focus on the assignment at hand
Discover Proven Methods and Techniques that Strengthen Students’ Motivation and Increase Their Productivity
Cultivate your students’ collaboration skills and experience fewer behavior issues during writing time … They will be more on task and more successful!
Help Students Catch Up Who Have Fallen Behind
Unleash the productivity of your underperforming students with specific guidelines, models and check points to discuss progress, set goals and increase student success so they can catch up and experience greater success
Receive an Extensive Digital Resource Handbook Designed to Help Your Unmotivated and Underachieving Students Catch Up and Experience Greater Success in Writing
Each participant will receive an extensive digital resource handbook filled with practical strategies, methods, activities, and much more to help your unmotivated and underperforming writers catch up and succeed in writing

Outstanding Strategies You Can Use Immediately

Unite students for greater success – Underperforming students often feel alone and embarrassed, but with these specifically designed games they will soon feel comfortable with partners and in groups
Exercises that will instill confidence in your unmotivated students – Unmotivated students will suddenly find themselves interested in assignments that address their individuality and uniqueness
Strategies that break down the basics – Even highly motivated students will find a challenge in vivid word choices, sentences enhanced by elaboration, and writing “snippets” of essays
Dozens of student models – Proven strategies for reading and analyzing the works of their peers will give them an I-can-do-that-too attitude
Creative ways to approach all modes of writing – Teach students how to use figurative language and sensory images, essays in progress, and “take-over” paragraphs where the author has left of
Ways to generate a plan for their essays – Too often students say, “I don’t have anything to write about!” Learn how to help students create simple plan of action with major points and elaboration resulting in a higher grade
Easy-to-follow guidelines for marking structure in their papers – Often students don’t understand what went wrong with their essays. When they are taught how to mark their papers for structure, they can easily ascertain what they need to include
Voice techniques help make “dull” papers more interesting – Many underperforming students do not like to write because they believe that their essays are boring compared with their peers. With voice “tricks” in their toolbox, they are armed with strategies to overcome this barrier
Specific methods to revise papers – Students will feel that they can indeed “fix” their papers when they use various revision techniques designed to light up their desire to write
Countless ways to present their work – When students are given an array of options for making their products unique to them, their creative juices start to flow and writing production is unleashed

A Message From Your Seminar Leader

Dear Colleague:

ELA practitioners love the writing process and have a clear understanding that most of their students want to experience success. In my nearly 30-year career as a secondary teacher, I have learned which aspects of the writing process cause students to feel anxiety, and I have also learned what makes them feel more successful; moreover, I have experimented with an abundance of strategies that help students boost their confidence, ignite their creativity, and celebrate their voice when writing. Whether unmotivated or underperforming students struggle as a result of their past experiences or are frustrated because of recent gaps resulting from our nation’s challenges, they cope with these feelings in various ways—and it shows in their final products. For some, the cursor on the computer screen simply taunts them.

In this seminar, my key objective is to provide you with an immense amount of practical and engaging resources that can help your unmotivated and underperforming students experience more success in their writing and finally get caught up. They will learn from these techniques that writing is not just pragmatic – it’s personal. We understand the mindset of knowing their imagination leads to exploration, and exploration allows for innovation. All students can find success in writing if we can get them to think of it as more than just a task. Joseph Heller once said, “Every writer I know has trouble writing.” If we can accept that idea, we can push our students to understand what Victor Hugo meant when he said, “A writer is a world trapped in a person.” Please join me for a day of strategies that will not only help boost your underachieving students’ attitude and outlook on writing but will also set them up for more successful outcomes. I can’t wait to share all of my classroom-tested ideas with you at this strategy-packed seminar!

Sincerely,
Darryl Johnson

P.S. If you are looking for practical ideas to help your unmotivated and underperforming writers reach their greatest potential, this seminar is for you!

Who Should Attend

Educators Serving Grades 6-12: English/ Language Arts Teachers, Classroom Teachers, Title I Staff, Special Education Staff, and Administrators

Special Benefits of Attending

Extensive Resource Handbook
Each participant will receive an extensive digital resource handbook giving you access to countless strategies. The handbook includes:

Ready-to-use strategies that increase student motivation in the classroom and help your unmotivated students experience greater success in their writing
Practical ideas you can use immediately to make learning more relevant to your learners’ current realities
Ready to use lessons that strengthen students’ writing quality and productivity
How to increase your students’ writing performance with tips and ideas for developing internal motivation

For in-person seminars, registrants will also receive a printed copy of the resource handbook as long as their registration is received in the BER office at least 15 calendar days before the event.

Share Ideas with Other Educators
This seminar provides a wonderful opportunity for participants to meet and share ideas with other educators interested in helping their grades 6-12 underperforming writers succeed.

Consultation Available
Darryl Johnson will be available at the seminar for consultation regarding your questions and the unique needs of your own program.

Semester Credit Option
UMASS Logo Up to four graduate level professional development credits are available with an additional fee and completion of follow-up practicum activities. Details for direct enrollment with University of Massachusetts Global, a nonprofit affiliate, will be available at this program.

Meet Inservice Requirements
At the end of the program, each attendee will receive a certificate of participation that may be used to verify hours of participation in meeting continuing education requirements.

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