Available for virtual visits in : Manitoba, Ontario & the Yukon
Home Province: British Columbia
Craft: Author Genre: Non-Fiction
Target Audience: Ages 10 – 14
Cost for School and Public Virtual Presentation with CCBC subsidy: $200.00
Website : rowenarae.com
Virtual Workshop Information:
Workshop #1: How to Be a Nonfiction Writer
Target Age: Grades 5 through 8
Length: 60 mins.
Summary:
In this 60-minute interactive presentation, I talk about true stuff—that is, nonfiction! I discuss with students where I get my book ideas and give them tips on coming up with their own writing ideas. I talk about primary and secondary sources for gathering information, and also how to evaluate sources. I then talk about ways to organize nonfiction ideas and how to get beyond the scary blank page by making a structured plan. I talk only briefly about the actual writing—but I do mention writing paragraphs like sandwiches and how important it is to keep going to get to the end of a complete first draft. Next comes the most important part of all: revising! I talk about the different types of things students could look for and revise in their writing or could suggest in their peers’ writing. Throughout, I invite the students to participate in activities (on paper, at their desk) and I also share real examples of my book writing projects at the different stages I talk about.
Curriculum tie-ins: Generating ideas, evaluating sources, synthesizing ideas, planning a structured piece of writing, writing and revising text
Materials:
- One 2-page worksheet for students to use during the presentation. If teachers/librarians are able to print off the sheet in advance, that would be great. Or, I can mail them ahead of time.
- One tipsheet with writing and revising checklists geared for students (for teacher/librarian to give to students or post in their room).
Workshop #2: We’re All Connected
Target Age: Grades 5 through 8
Length: 60 mins.
Summary:
In this 60-minute interactive presentation, I talk about the common theme among all the books I write: connections in nature and in life. Using a series of examples from my books, I introduce what “connections” means and talk about different types of connections and how to visualize them. I also discuss with students what happens when one thing changes in some way. The examples I use are:
- A food web (from my book Rachel Carson and Ecology for Kids)
- An engineering solution that went wrong (from Chemical World: Science in Our Daily Lives)
- The water cycle (from Upstream, Downstream: Exploring Watershed Connections)
- Migrating salmon (from Salmon: Swimming for Survival)
For each example, I read a short passage from one of my books to describe the situation and then ask questions of the students to identify the connections. Each example also includes an activity on a worksheet that I provide. The activities focus on identifying consequences or the ripple effect from a change that happens. Throughout the workshop, I emphasize that nothing in the natural world exists all by itself.
Curriculum tie-ins: Ecology, Cycles in nature, Graph reading, Making connections
Materials:
- One 2-page worksheet for students to use during the presentation. If teachers/librarians are able to print off the sheet in advance, that would be great. Or, I can mail them ahead of time.
Book List
A Selection of Published Titles:
Rae, R. Rachel Carson and Ecology for Kids: Her Life and Ideas with 21 Activities and Experiments. Chicago Review Press, 2020
Rae, R. Chemical World: Science in Our Daily Lives. Orca Book Publishers, 2020
Rae, R. Upstream, Downstream: Exploring Watershed Connections. Orca Book Publishers, 2021
Upcoming:
Rae, R. Salmon: Swimming for Survival. Orca Book Publishers, March 15, 2022
Biography
ROWENA RAE has always loved reading and writing, right from when she was in elementary school. She has also always loved science, especially nature and biology. When she finished high school, she studied at university to become a biologist. As both a biology student and then working as a biologist, Rowena spent a lot of time near, on, and even in lakes and rivers. She also got to work in some really awesome places: northern Quebec, southern Ontario, northern and southern British Columbia, New Zealand, and Antarctica. After more than a decade of biology, her continued love of words pulled her into the world of writing, editing, and publishing. Now, Rowena works as a freelance writer, editor, and trainer for adult materials and as a children’s author writing both nonfiction for middle grade readers and fiction for children with dyslexia or other challenges as new readers. Her fiction books are in the Meg and Greg series, which she coauthors with her sister, Elspeth Rae, a literacy teacher.