Professional Development Workshops

Troubadour's Professional Development Workshops address the specific needs and interests of each school while helping teachers expand their repertoire of strategies for engaging diverse student populations in the writing process. We support teachers in the use of poetry, song lyrics and prose to engage their students in reading, singing, discussion, writing and revision.

Teachers gain new skills for guiding students to become better readers and more expressive writers. Each lesson we model can be integrated easily into individual teaching styles.

Troubadour's experienced Teaching Artists have deep knowledge of current literature, writing and curriculum frameworks. Demonstrated lessons support efforts to improve student performance on state assessments.

Our Professional Development Workshops for educators of students in the suggested grades include:

Songwriting for Literacy (Grades K-2)
Learn songs that help young children build vocabulary and improve reading fluency. Acquire techniques to create songs with your students related to curriculum or classroom interests using content, form and rhyme.
Singing/Songwriting in the English Language Learners' Classroom (Grades K-5)
Explore songs and songwriting techniques that help students new to English expand their vocabulary, use sense details, convey ideas sequentially and make personal connections to the classroom curriculum.
Songwriting, Fables and Fairy Tales (Grades 1-3)
Engage in techniques for retelling fables and fairytales through songs that emphasize sequence and vivid description, and include a moral by the end.
Poetry Reading and Writing (Grades K-2)
Interpret a range of poems appropriate for young children through reading, movement, acting and art. Explore a range of poetry writing lessons that emphasize close observation, sense detail and simile related to classroom themes.
Poetry Reading and Writing (Grades 3-6)
Read, discuss and interpret a range of poems from many cultures using strategies that help students comprehend poems more easily. Explore a wide range of poetry writing exercises that emphasize sense image, figurative language, point of view, voice and feeling related to curriculum or personal themes.
Langston Hughes, an author study (Grades 4-6)
Introduce your students to the life, poems and prose of Langston Hughes with readings and dramatic interpretation. Discuss his themes and techniques and take away lessons to help students write original poems and letters to Langston. Investigate connections between Blues music and Hughes' Blues poems.
Poetry and the Oral Tradition (Grades 2-8)
Delight in the spoken word through individual and group interpretations of published and original poems and songs. Build confidence in helping students convey the author's intention and feeling through their own voices and bodies.
Poetry Across Cultures (Grades 7-12)
Expand your poetry curriculum to ensure a range of voices from many cultures, including American classics (Frost, Dickinson, Hughes and Whitman) along with Gwendolyn Brooks, Li Young Lee, Kevin Young, Marilyn Chin, Linda Hogan, Nikki Giovanni, Naomi Shihab Nye and Martin Espada among others. Learn exercises for students that include reading, discussion, open response and original poetry writing based on themes and techniques studied. (2-3 sessions)
MCAS Poetry Preparation (Grades 3-8)
Provide your students with additional strategies for unlocking the story, images, ideas, inferred meaning, voice, feelings and form of a poem in the course of their readings and on the ELA MCAS, and for organizing a written response to a focus question about a poem.
MCAS Prose Preparation (Grades 3-6)
Support your students' prose writing in the genres of "the small moment" and personal narrative with additional strategies that prepare them for MCAS writing assessments and increase their confidence in conveying ideas and opinions in their best prose style.
Where I Come From! Songs and Poems from Many Cultures (Grades 1-5)
Learn songs, poems and writing/singing exercises that celebrate the diversity of your students using this audio CD and curriculum by Victor Cockburn and Judith Steinbergh. Take away songs and poems in many languages grouped around broad themes such as nature, inspiration and family. Create your own school writing/singing festival.
Get Ready for Boston! Exploring Boston and Its Neighborhoods in Songs, Poems and Stories (Grades 1-5)
Take a tour through the rich resources of this audio CD and curriculum by Victor Cockburn and Judith Steinbergh. Explore poems, stories and songs created and performed by Boston's writers, storytellers and musicians. Prepare your students for field trips to Boston's cultural, historic and natural attractions. We provide activities in writing, singing, movement and creating art specific to each Boston attraction and to many neighborhoods.
Poetry Workshop for Teachers
Nurture the writer within. Read, discuss and write poems on the broad themes of adult life: our environment, home, community, family, inspiration, relationships, teaching, passing generations, memory and feelings. No previous experience required.
Guitar Lessons for Classroom Teachers
Learn how to play folk guitar and use song and songwriting in the classroom to support your literacy curriculum. Take away basic chords, simple song forms, and a range of songs and techniques for engaging your students in singing and songwriting. A guitar is required. (10 sessions)

To learn more or to schedule a Professional Development Workshop, please Contact Us.

Writers� Residencies | Professional Development | Assembly Presentation | Teaching Artists