Andrew Pudewa
Institute for Excellence in Writing
Andrew Pudewa is the founder and director of the Institute for Excellence in Writing and a father of seven. Traveling and speaking around the world, he addresses issues related to teaching, writing, thinking, spelling, and music with clarity, insight, practical experience, and humor. His seminars for parents, students, and teachers have helped transform many a reluctant writer and have equipped educators with powerful tools to dramatically improve students’ skills.
Although he is a graduate of the Talent Education Institute in Japan and holds a Certificate of Child Brain Development from the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, his best endorsement is from a young Alaskan boy who called him “the funny man with the wonderful words.” He and his heroic wife, Robin, have homeschooled their seven children and are now proud grandparents of sixteen, making their home in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Session Titles
1. Reading Strategies for the Struggling Reader or Nonreader - As schools have made reading their new god, they believe that producing good readers will solve all their academic problems. As a result, many children—the dyslexic, the easily distracted, the auditorily challenged—are left behind in the rush to improve test scores. What schools do not know (but what many parents and teachers discover) is that reading is not simply being able to rapidly decode symbols with the eyes. With humor and insight, Andrew Pudewa shares stories and strategies for helping students who need to engage the cognitive processes of reading but who are more likely to excel through a wider variety of practical, creative, and imaginative approaches.
2. Spelling and the Brain - Many children have difficulty learning to spell, but the difficulty may not be with the student. Often parents and teachers feel ill-equipped to help students who are not natural spellers. Join Andrew Pudewa to learn how spelling information is most efficiently stored in the brain, to gain greater insight into the nature of spelling and neurological function, and to be better equipped to teach students how to spell.
3. Paper and Pen – What the Research Says - Recent years have seen an enormous increase in the use of technology in education for even the youngest students. But is technology really the cure-all that many believe it to be? While traditional skills such as cursive penmanship are seen as unnecessary in the modern world, the actual research tells a different story. Join Andrew Pudewa to learn the compelling reasons to read paper books instead of electronic devices, handwrite instead of type, teach cursive instead of printing, and grab a pen instead of a pencil. Discover how to unleash creativity that goes beyond technology.
4. Cultivating Language Arts – Preschool through High School - Listening and reading well, speaking and writing clearly, and thinking and debating effectively are abilities that most parents hope to cultivate in their children. With that goal in mind, Andrew Pudewa explores various environments and activities that accelerate the development of these language skills, beginning with the youngest students and continuing into the high school years.
