Description of My School Programs























Going on a Riverboat Ride around the World   (30 minutes)

This program is specially designed for pre-K, K, and 1st graders. After sharing her bedtime story, River Beds; Sleeping in the World’s Rivers, Gail invites her audience to come along on an imaginary expedition through the world’s rivers to discover how river mammals sleep.

From Idea to Published Book  (30 minutes)

Recommended for preschool & primary students. Gail shares the stages that a story undergoes as it becomes a fully illustrated picture book. Using artists’ sketches, proofs, and unsewn pages from Water Beds; Sleeping in the Ocean, she reveals the process behind the finished product.

For Junior Rockhounds  (30-45 minutes)

Perfect for grades 1-4. Everybody loves treasure-hunting, especially when the treasure might be in our own backyards! Gail uses her picture book, Julie the Rockhound, to introduce children to the fascinating hobby of mineral collecting, also known as “rockhounding.” In addition to introducing quartz - one of Earth’s most abundant minerals - Gail shows her audience a real rock dig, extraordinary crystal finds, and how crystals are fashioned into gemstones. This program complements the Earth Science unit in grade 3.
 
Stories of Everyday Folks Living in Extraordinary Times  (45 minutes)
 
Younger audiences enjoy this potpourri of stories from American history. Gail tells the story of Max,
"the kinda dog who thinks he's supposed to do whatever his people do." Max was stationed at Fort Benning,
GA, during WWII, and he became famous as the world's first official dog paratrooper. Then Gail brings her
listeners along the Lewis and Clark trail to  meet "the most important dog in American history," Seaman -
the big black dog  owned by Captain Lewis, who hunted and retrieved for his humans and acted as the  unofficial
night guard for their camp. As time allows, she tells about the War  Woman of Georgia, with her cross-eyed scowl.
..about Mammy Kate, who rescued a Revolutionary War hero from a prison, using only her courage and clever
thinking...about the King of the Swamp, who battled a bear with bare hands...and  more.

Eyewitness to History: The Lewis and Clark Expedition (60 minutes)
 
Gail shows intermediate/middle school students how eyewitness accounts form the basis for her historical fiction
Emphasizing the Lewis and Clark Expedition, she transports students back to the early 1800's to experience the
rigors of life  without motorized travel or modern medicine. Students see real entries from the journals of the
explorers, and Gail shows how she transforms these into an  exciting and easy-to-read story. At the end of the
session, Gail invites her  listeners to come along on an imaginary trip with the explorers to discover why  a dog
named Seaman was critical to the success of the mission.

Eyewitness to History: Surviving Jamestown (60 minutes)
 
Gail takes intermediate/middle school students on an imaginary journey to North America aboard a 17th century
sailing ship to experience the ordeals of the early colonists. Emphasizing the 1607 settlement of Jamestown, Virginia,
Gail  describes starvation, sickness, Indian attacks, and fire - the relentless problems that nearly overwhelmed the
young colony. After sharing eyewitness  accounts of the settlers' struggles, Gail shows her listeners how she crafted 
her story from the facts about a real boy who was John Smith's servant.

Eyewitness to History: Quake! (60 minutes)

For intermediate/middle school students... Gail displays photographs and eyewitness accounts from the Great
Earthquake and Fire that destroyed San Francisco in 1906. (Historians consider this the worst natural disaster
in United States history.) She discusses how she selected true-life details to create her novel, which features the
adventures of two fictional boys (and a stray dog) who were separated from their families during the disaster.
This program complements the science curriculum, with a discussion of the dynamics of plate tectonics. It also fits well into a unit on immigration.





















 

Eyewitness to History: Tsunami (60 minutes)

Recommended for middle school students:  Just as students and teachers were arriving at Laupahoehoe School that Monday morning in 1946, the ocean drew back and revealed undersea plants and fish flopping on the sandy seabed. Curious children and teachers hurried down for a closer look ... before they realized that a giant wall of water was advancing toward shore! This tsunami claimed the lives of students, teachers, and residents of the nearby city of Hilo. Through eyewitness accounts by survivors and photos, as well personal travel experiences, Gail shows how she researched this never-to-be-forgotten day for her nonfiction book, Tsunami; The True Story of an April Fool’s Day Disaster.

But this is not just a disaster story. It's the true story of how scientists apply know-how to improve our lives: The tsunami in the schoolyard inspired American scientists to create the Pacific Tsunami Warning System, which has saved countless lives in the Pacific basin. During this program, students will be encouraged to think about what causes tsunamis, how the warning system works, and where deadly tsunamis have occurred. Gail concludes this riveting program with a tsunami tale from ancient Japan.

Workshop for Students: History as the  Springboard for Story (45-60 minutes)
 
Recommended for smaller groups of students in the intermediate grades, middle and high school. Gail uses eyewitness accounts from history to stimulate writing and make the reading-writing connection. Beginning with a primary source excerpt, your students will write their own short stories. During the workshop, Gail will  conduct a mini-lesson to demonstrate how student-writers can capture the audience's attention in the all-important opening scene. 

- Note: Students must hear one of the programs -above - before participating in a writing workshop. 


Teacher Workshop: Make History Come Alive in Your  Classroom (60 minutes)
 
Author and former teacher Gail Karwoski encourages a hands-on approach to history. She begins with a brief discussion of the problem with teaching history - a subject that keeps growing bigger, year by year, until it bursts the time limits of social studies and can only be effectively taught by integrating history into the whole curriculum! She talks about using historical fiction books as a living history museum.
Gail demonstrates one of her lesson plans: writing a story from a historical prompt (an entry from the Journals of
Lewis and Clark). Before participants try their hands at this lesson, she shares tips on crafting a "hook" to grab the reader's attention. After this brief writing demo, Gail explains how this lesson can be tailored to your classroom. Gail also  shares a potpourri of other lessons and techniques designed to integrate history with language arts, fine arts, and science, such as:
- Making a story wheel - a moving illustration that reinforces reading for sequence.
- Writing  hero/ine poetry, which can be "published" on ‘parchment’ (tea-stained paper)
- Transforming a historical narrative into a dramatic scene, to be performed on a high-tech" puppet stage made
 from an overhead projector. 
Gail illustrates these lessons with examples of student work. Participants take home a copy of each lesson plan
and a firm concept of how the reading-writing connection can be forged by generating creative writing from  history.