8:00am - 3:00pm (PT)

Hybrid Workshop

(In person workshop will beheld at 2497 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94118)

1st session:   Inspiring Neurodiverse Learners to Love Writing: Practical, Trauma-Informed, Evidence-Aligned Approaches from 20 Years in the Field

Amy Henderson

For many neurodiverse learners, writing has become tangled with anxiety, shame, perfectionism, or shutdown. In this interactive workshop, writer and facilitator Amy Henderson shares practical, trauma-informed approaches that help students reconnect to writing through low-stakes community-based practices developed over 20 years of leading writing groups with teens, adults, and vulnerable populations.

Participants will explore how short, structured writing experiences can support executive functioning, emotional regulation, self-expression, and intrinsic motivation for learners with ADHD, dyslexia, autism, anxiety, or histories of academic struggle. Through case studies, discussion, and a live mini Writing Jam, attendees will experience firsthand how simple shifts in structure, pacing, and facilitation can reduce resistance and unlock authentic voice.

Participants will leave with concrete tools they can immediately apply in therapeutic, educational, and classroom settings to help students feel safer, more engaged, and more confident as writers.

2nd Session: Using Hands-On Activities to Teach Writing

Michal Reznizki

In this interactive workshop, participants will engage with specific active learning lessons from the book Dynamic Activities for First-Year Composition: 96 Ways to Immerse, Inspire, and Captivate Students (2023). The research-backed, hands-on activities will address student challenges and model interactive and developmentally appropriate methods.

For more information, visit: https://aetonline.org/events/workshops