With her master’s degree in education, Rebecca has had over twenty-five years of experience teaching (in both Christian school and homeschool settings), speaking, writing, and telling stories. Her workshop and group speaking has covered topics such as methods for teaching writing, reading, literature, and other facets of language arts; Bible history; and various aspects of living the Christian life.
For schools, Rebecca offers workshops for teachers as well as students, and will charge according to the amount of time you would like each class to take. A sampling of her workshops are listed below.
Students: Writing with Metaphors Did you know that people remember pictures better than words? That’s why the Bible is chock full of similes and metaphors—to help the readers and listeners form pictures in their minds, so they can “get it” when God is teaching them something new. We can use similes and metaphors too, to help our writing be more exciting and vivid and clear to our readers. In this workshop we’ll explore the similes and metaphors in the Bible and then try writing our own, in the form of poetry. Students: David and Goliath as a Model Story Did you ever look at the true story of David and the giant as a model for really great story writing? It perfectly develops every point on the “iceberg” plot structure. Together we’ll analyze this story and see how it can help improve our own writing—as it increases our wonder at the works of God. Teachers: Teaching Writing by Teaching Re-Writing Rewriting other people’s material can be a lot more fun than rewriting your own, but it can teach the same concepts. Even though this is only one tool you can use to help teach writing, for many students it gives just the jumpstart they need to learn some otherwise theoretical concepts. It can also solve the problem of “What should I write about?” In this workshop we’ll try our hand at both fiction and nonfiction, in order to focus on the skills particular to each kind of writing. Get ready to tackle rewrites of REAL (not manufactured) passages that vary from Not That Exciting to Just Plain Awful. Compare your work with the real work of real students. Teachers: Giving Our Students a Passion for the Gospel (no charge for this workshop) Is it enough for our schools to have a reputation of achievers in academics and sports? Or do we produce students who want to give their lives in joyful sacrifice for the proclamation of the good news of our great Savior? Our schools can prayerfully seek to be encouragers of gospel passion.