Presentations & workshops for students grades 3-12
Workshops and presentations are available in-person or online.
writing workshop
Small Groups, 3rd-12th Grades
This can be offered in a single lesson or a 5-day extended workshop.
Emma teaches workshops around a particular genre such as poetry, memoir, and short fiction. She also offers lessons on specific elements of craft such as theme, setting, character, plot, show don’t tell, figurative language, beginnings, endings, revision, and more.
Groups up to 40, 7th-12th grades
This workshop is for every writer, reader, and film-lover who wants to peel back the layers of story to study the bones beneath. Plot is the dynamic structure that writers use to help characters become their best selves—and help themselves finally reach The End. In this interactive workshop, we will literally walk the plot. You will leave the workshop with a greater understanding of what makes your favorite movies and books so compelling. You’ll never read a book or watch a movie the same way again.
Walk the plot
Large or Small Group Presentation, 3rd-12th Grades
Ever wonder where ideas come from? Emma leads a fun and engaging workshop filled with information and activities designed to explore this question in depth—and generate a whole lot of ideas for future writing projects. Can be done anytime of the year but particularly useful prior to a fiction-writing unit.
This workshop works particularly well online.
Idea Engine
Large or Small Group Presentation, 5th-12th Grades
Emma loves revision—both on the page and in life. Yet, it’s hard to fit in teaching revision amidst the demands of the school schedule and grading deadlines. Through this presentation, she’ll help your students see that RE-VISION is a much different and more rewarding exercise than simply tweaking a word here or there. Instead, it’s about re-seeing your work and life, and embracing the ultimate gift: the do-over.
the power of revision
holding onto hope, even when you get hit by lightning
Large or Small Group Presentation, 3rd-12th Grades
Emma’s journey to becoming a published author was long and complex. In this engaging talk, she’ll share the power of perseverance and offer students concrete skills for developing their own hopeful thinking based on psychological research, literature, and her own experiences.
In our current reality, we all need to practice and understand hope more than ever before.
Story Day retreat
Group of 10-30, 8th-12th grades
This interactive, generative, and lively all-day writing retreat takes teen writers through crafting a full story from The Beginning to The End, all while building a writing community in the process. This can be done during the school day as a kind of in-school field trip, or, we can go off-campus for a full retreat experience.
#Squadgoals, or, friendships that win
Large or Small Group Presentation, 7th-12th Grades
When Emma began to write Dangerous Play, there weren’t really any books about the power of girls’ sports—especially that unique bond that can happen on a team. Emma will inspire athletes to form connections that will serve them on and off the field as they help each other to become not just great athletes, but great people. This program is well-suited to pre-season training, end-of-season sports banquets, and/or athletic camps or events.
“I have yet to meet or have a teacher who has inspired me, encouraged me, or who has taught me not only about a subject, but about myself as much as Ms. Kress.”