Adolescents today are starving: they’re aesthetically and culturally undernourished. Among the many culprits: Our poor use of literature throughout secondary education. Great works on high school reading lists are treated as mere boxes to checked off, and do students really learn to love Dickens in AP lit? — Our STEM students, moreover, will have few electives in college; the high school years may represent their real taste of literature. This homeschooling dad shows how we can use literature to nourish our teens, expand their emotional intelligence, and sharpen their insight into human relationships.

Most students today are asked to write essays before they’ve actually read any. Worse, they’re taught writing in highly artificial forms, like the five-paragraph essay — a kind of writing no one in the real world ever has to produce. This homeschooling dad has worked for thirty years as a writing consultant, and here he shares his practical perspective both on our students’ real needs and on the classroom methods traditionally used to teach writing. He also shows parents five writing practices that our students need to master but are seldom taught.

This homeschooling dad has been teaching Shakespeare to homeschooled students for more than a decade; his online Shakespeare courses have transformed reluctant students all over the country into ardent Shakespeare fans. In this workshop, he will show you six things no one ever told you about our greatest writer. In the process, you will discover why no other writer in English is in the same league as Shakespeare—and why knowing and understanding Shakespeare is indispensable for all our students.

Most students are taught writing in highly artificial forms, like the five-paragraph essay — a kind of writing no one in the real world ever produces. Roy Speed is a homeschooling dad who for nearly thirty years has taught writing to professionals in corporations. In the homeschooling world, his online writing courses and innovative methods have met with acclaim from students and parents alike. In this workshop, he shares a fresh perspective both on our students’ needs and on traditional methods for teaching writing. He shows parents five critical writing tools most students never learn, but that are nonetheless vital.

Traditional approaches to English grammar have neglected and obscured the subject’s greatest benefit: effective writing. For nearly thirty years Roy Speed has been teaching grammar to writers of all stripes — from professional researchers to corporate managers and, most recently, homeschooling parents and students. He is the author of the forthcoming Writer’s Guide to Grammar, and in this session, he gives an eye-opening look at grammar principles that lead directly to important writing tools. In the process, he shows parents how grammar should be taught but seldom is.