•  Talking Up the Novel in Verse (High Schools)
Through a series of book talks, Dawes uses the session to introduce students to the novel-in-verse as a new and intriguing genre that is at once accessible and still of literary merit. Dawes selects from his significant library of such texts to get the students interested in reading the novel in verse.

•  Essay Writing: Some Challenges (High Schools)
This session offers students some important guidelines about how to write an effective essay begin with the construction of a successful thesis statement. The workshop is a hand-on session, taking students through a few examples of theses, showing what works and why it works.

•  How to Read and Write Critically about Poetry (High Schools)
In this session, Dawes uses some of the more challenging poems that the students have to study, to teach them strategies of reading a poem, understanding it and then finding ways to write critically about these poems.

•  Intensive Poetry Workshop (High Schools)
The poetry writing workshops are geared for students who may have an interesting in writing. Dawes uses a series of writing exercises that the students will do in class to spur them into writing pieces. The sessions will help students to look for various qualities that will enhance their experience of reading and writing poems.

•  The Reggae Aesthetic (High Schools)
Kwame Dawes uses songs, the recitation of song lyrics and the reading of poetry and fiction along with readings from his book, Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius , to talk about reggae music and its impact on the world.

•  Poetry reading with Music (High Schools)
Kwame Dawes reads from his poetry pieces that are appropriate for high school aged students and uses live music in an engaging session that is often the first poetry reading experience for many students. The session is followed by a question and answer session.

•  Reading and Understanding Shakespeare (High Schools)
In this session Kwame Dawes gives a lecture discussion about a play that the students are studying in class. The talk focuses on language and the function of language in Shakespeare's work. He engages the students in discussion aout the text and gives time and attention to ways to read the work and to write about the work.

•  Guest lecture on African American Literature (High Schools)
In these sessions, Dawes begins with the essay, “The Negro Artist and The Racial mountain” by Langston Hughes, to begin to talk about the history and development of African American literature and some of the key themes and ideas that are central to that literature. If the students are studying a text by an African American author, he will incoporate discussions of that text in his presentation.

•  Guest Lecture on August Wilson 's Fences (High Schools)
Dawes gives a close reading of August Wilson 's Fences, using writing exercises, in class debates, and general class discussion to explore some of the themes that emerge in the work. Beginning with an overview of African American literature and drama, he then talks about Wilson 's ten cycle project and then focuses on the text in question.