Readings and Workshops
by Peter Cumming
Peter Cumming has done readings and workshops for students and teachers in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Ontario, North Dakota, and the Northwest Territories. He has done workshops in drama, student writing and publishing, and the use of computers and telecommunications in writing and publishing.
Readings
Out on the Ice in the Middle of the Bay: A Visit to the Arctic
·JK-2
·the story of a little girl's encounter with a polar bear cub—and her reunion with her worried mother and father
·especially of interest to students studying Inuit and the Arctic
·video, artifacts, reading, and questions
A Horse Called Farmer: A Visit to the Magdalen Islands
·Grades 2-4
·the true story of a horse who, in the 1920s, fought formidable obstacles to return to his island home
·French version, Cheval des îles
·slides, reading, and questions
Mogul and Me: A Visit to an 1830s Circus, Ship, Elephant, and a New Brunswick Farm Boy
·Grades 4-6
·historical fiction novel based on an incident involving an early circus, sidewheeler steamship, fire, treachery, and heroism
·demonstrate process of writing, rewriting, researching, and editing
·reading, questions, and follow-up (students write and illustrate their own "sequel," Chapter 26 to answer the questions at the end of the book
Ti-Jean: A Visit to Seventeenth Century Quebec
·Grades 7-8
·bilingual English-French play based on the folk hero, Ti-Jean
·students participate in "reading" and performing scenes (in English and French) with minimal costumes
·video, reading, play-acting, and questions
Writing Workshops
Making Sense Through Your Senses: Writing as Sketching
·Grades 4-OAC
·participants practise using their senses combined with memory and imagination to write quickly as a painter might "sketch" in the field
·participants compare their differences in shared readings
Making Picture Books
·Grades 4-8
·"Getting Ideas" exercises
·"Speed Writing" (brainstorming and sharing)
·"The Shape of Story"
·participants, in pairs, create a picture book (both words and illustrations)
So You Want to Make a Literary Journal!
·Grades 4-OAC
·students come to workshop already having written short poems, stories, essays, etc.
·participants play individual roles in a simulation activity of the production of a literary magazine: they become writers, editors, illustrators, layout and design artists, typesetters, advertisers, printers
Drama Workshops
Creative Drama: The Play's the Thing
·all ages, including drama clubs and theatre arts classes
·an actor's tools: drama exercises (process, not performance) and theatre games including relaxation; voice; body; concentration; imagination and senses; trust and cooperation; improvisation—all in various sized groups
Playwrighting / Playmaking
·Junior and Senior High School
·participants improvise, write scenes in groups, and share scenes in a performance, linking the "play" of acting and the writing of a "play"
For more information or to book a reading or workshop, send an e-mail message to . . .
peter.cumming@sympatico.ca
