Karen Alaine Hunt

What is WORDPOWER?
WORDPOWER focuses on the power of spoken and written words to enhance students’ literacy and overall educational performance through the development of communication and critical thinking skills. With over twelve years of experience working with students in public and private schools and with at-risk and incarcerated youth, Karen Hunt’s WORDPOWER program is based on solid research and has been developed in consultation with principals, teachers and academics. We call the members of the WORDPOWER team Wordmasters.

How is WORDPOWER structured?
Our Wordmasters value and find relevance in teaching the whole student. Our approach is designed to provide an environment conducive to learning that builds confidence in youth who may have been unsuccessful in the past. Classes are tailored to fit the individual needs of schools and organizations and can be conducted during regular class time or as part of an after-school program. Intensive three-day workshops or semester-long literacy intervention programs are available. Staff development prepares teachers to apply WORDPOWER to their own classroom experiences.

WORDPOWER Lesson Plans:
Without the ability to understand language and communicate with it, students cannot succeed in life. Our Wordmasters open young minds to the wonder and the power of words. We discuss how words have been used down through history to bring people together and to tear them apart. Inter-active exercises show how words are used every day to influence individuals and nations. Age-appropriate readings are given to help youth fall in love with the sound of words. Artwork is used to inspire students to create their own worlds through writing and story-telling. Students are engaged in debates utilizing high and low level abstractions, helping youth to relate “big” philosophical and historical ideas to their own personal experiences.

Lesson Format: Each lesson is mindful of Personal, Group, and Global Responsibility. Discussions are centered on stories from History, Philosophy, Art, Music, Theater, Science, Math, and Political Science. Each story is presented in an easily digested booklet.

Karen Hunt, author of over 18 children's books and an experienced public seaker, has put together a creative thinking and writing workshop for students.

Opening Pep Talk: Ms. Hunt gives a brief talk on the power of words and how good communication can help shape a student's life.

From Ideas to Paper: Students are shown how to take an intangible idea and turn it into a finished product that they can be proud of.

How to Get from the Beginning ... to the Bitter END: It's easy to be enthusiastic at the start of a project. Students are shown how to maintain their energy and enthusiasm from the beginning , through the middle, and all the way to the thrilling conclusion of a story.

Motivating and Exciting: Ms. Hunt's unique method motivates students and opens their eyes to the xciting possibilities of their imaginations.

Pictures for Inspiration: Ms. Hunt gives each student a copy of one of her own original drawings to inspire their work.

Positive Reinforcement: It doesn't matter what a student's past performance has been. Ms. Hunt encourages every child to reach their highest potential ... and they do!

A. Stories from History: Conflict and Resolution in the Tradition of the Samurai, the Crusades and World War I. A “noble” story of a samurai, why the Crusaders and Muslims both felt God was “on their side,” the “little misunderstandings” that caused a world war. How all of this relates to the students in the class and their own conflicts and resolutions.
B. Stories from Math and Science: A discussion of the era in which Einstein was raised and how pure mathematical ideas, thought up by an inquiring mind with no motivation other than to find answers, became the basis for the atomic bomb. Discussion of the choices that individuals made to either become a part of the team working on the bomb or not. How that affects us today, an example being what is going on in North Korea. A discussion about the group of scientists who created the “atomic clock,” which counts down how close we are to destruction. How does this relate to our own choices—sometimes we cannot see the impact until years and years later.
C. Stories from Theater & Television: A discussion of Kabuki and Okuni, the woman who founded it, Shakespeare, and Television. The social times of the Edo period in Japan, the Elizabethan period in England and our modern times and how television is similar to the theater of these times. How this affects our lives on a daily basis.

Endorsements From Schools:

"Ms. Hunt has enhanced the Reading class program at East Los Angeles Skills Center by not only helping students to conquer their fear of writing, but also by allowing them to express themselves freely. [Over the course of the semester], their knowledge of different topics that they can write about has expanded. It is evident how writing is now becoming an enjoyment to them and not just a difficult task. I have noticed definite progress in the quantity and quality of the students' writing abilities."

--Dalia Alvarado, Instructor

"Hi Karen,

Thanks so much for coming. The students found your presentation engrossing. They thought you were a great story teller and particularly enjoyed your stories of living abroad, the experiences you had in school, living in a castle and sneaking bibles into the country. The original drawing were beneficial showing them the use of different media and how a drawing starts on paper or canvas and ends up in a book. They were impressed with your use of basic materials and having them come to life in the pictures. A memorable pictures: the people looking into the mouse's house at Christmas; the drawing of the family in colored pencils which looked like a painting. I have received comments from students and teachers and they found your visit to be enriching, entertaining and educational to the students. We'd be interested in a writing workshop in the future, maybe next year sometime. It is always exciting to see the person who has actually written and illustrated a book one is familiar with and hear about her journey and the process of writing, drawing and getting a book published. You were definitely an inspiration to the students at Village School. Your discussion of your work with juveniles was particularly interesting to the sixth graders.