We dipped into the world of drama with a fun lesson on screenplays! We learned about the different parts of screenplays and how to properly format a script with an example from Little Women. We looked at how to develop scenes through dialogue and tried adapting a scene from our favorite series, Harry Potter. We applied these skills in a group writing where we used a wheel spinner to create a setting for a script.

We learned all about connotation and how to create emotions using it. We practiced coming up with different connotations of generic words and using those skills to rewrite a passage from Harry Potter into a different tone.

We dived deeper into the process of creating a story with a lesson on symbolism! We learned how to identify symbols in writing and ways to establish symbols within a story. We analyzed some examples of symbols from popular works and created stories using emojis as symbols.

For our fourth class of the session, we began working on world-building skills using familiar examples from Coraline and Harry Potter! We explored how to establish the plot of a story through a setting and how to keep just the right balance of description to plot.

Music and writing are actually a lot more similar than we think – and we explored that. We did a lesson about writing through music and what that looks like and how students can get inspiration about writing through music! Students listened to different songs and wrote about the images they envisioned after they listened to these songs. Take a look at the playlist we curated here and here.  

Another session of classes started! We were super excited to see everyone and meet everyone for the newest session – and began with a bunch of prompts to inspire everyone! Welcome back!

We recently had Stella Lei, a National YoungArts Finalist, author speak with our students! See the talk here: https://youtu.be/PMvectcd48Q

And see the resources from Stella here.

Our last class was centered around mythology writing prompts – we introduced different culture’s myths (from Greek, to Egyptian, to Chinese and Japanese myths), gave a summary of each myth and what makes myths, well, myths. Students then tried to write their own myths! See everyone in September (although we did have a couple of events with Ethan Wang and Stella Lei).  

Writing endings is hard – so we broke it down! We identified the elements of writing an ending – from resolutions, transformations, suspense, surprise, we also gave our thoughts on cliff hangers (sometimes they rock!) and identified how change is important to a story!   

We began introducing late March/early April competitions and wrote an outline for what a story would look like. We wrote this outline live so we got lots of feedback from students and made sure to emphasize how this outline is very flexible and individual!  

A new month means new competitions for our students! We introduced some new competitions, gave students a warm up prompt and asked them to brainstorm.  

Today, we gave a “show and not tell” mini lesson. The lesson centered around first discussing the different passages that used show vs tell. We then illustrated why showing and not telling is important and when to use this technique. Likewise, we supplied a chance to practice this skill, gave students some final tips and prompted them to write them into their competition piece.  

Happy one year anniversary! We added more competitions to the line up that students could find and be interested in, conferences with students and addressed and answered everyone’s questions! 

We began our new semester oriented around competition writing by introducing various writing competitions such as the Dandelion Press Competition and the New York Times Writing Contest. We will be giving feedback to each and every student and aimed to get students brainstorming in regards to which competition they chose to write and asked them to generate a few ideas. We also utilized a spreadsheet to keep things organized and to ensure that everyone signed up. Likewise, this new semester marks the time where we will have 2 classes per week – one on Wednesday and one on Thursday with identical content but different instructors – Wednesdays will be Karen and Amber, Thursdays Karen, Eliana, Sidd!

The last class in our fall/winter semester! We discussed song lyrics and wrote song lyrics into stories and noticed how songs can tell stories too. See everyone on February 9th!

What is an argumentative essay? Why are argumentative essays important? We discussed the structure of argumentative essays, how to write a thesis (and parts of a thesis!), rhetorical modes and asked students to write their own argumentative essays!  Students found this essay to be really prevalent (after, we argue with our siblings and others!). These essays may seem a little boring but it’s also really nice to incorporate rhetorical devices and choices to spice up these essays!

We continued our lessons about journalism and gave students a chance to draft our their own articles! Students conducted interviews with peers and wrote articles based on facts and based on their own imagination! Journalism is so interesting — we did this lesson right after the satire lesson, so students were interested in journalism (thanks to the Onion!). Journalism has many rules and we only truly gave the students a small taste of that! However, encouraging more people to read more of newspapers and news articles will be helpful!

This week we discussed the basics of journalism and what constitutes a newspaper. Students then got a basic introduction to what writing was determined “news worthy” and what that means for reporters and the stories they seek. Students were then invited to brainstorm some newspaper story ideas (whether they be fiction or nonfiction). We will be writing these stories next week. 

Today we learned about satire and what that means! We talked about Horatian, Juvenalian and Menippean satire and how satire can be written and demonstrated with irony, wit etc. We also did writing in the style of The Onion, a satire magazine and students got to share it with others. 

We talked about our writing competition today, encouraging students to join our writing competition! We also gave students the option of creating their own warm up: students chose to write a chain reaction warm up. Afterwards, they wrote according to the prompts and teachers discussed advertising strategies about the competition and also had one on one conferences with others. We’ll see everyone next week!

We talked about setting today, discussing how setting can play a role in characterizing a place, an emotion/a mood and how to develop the setting as a character or with a deeper meaning. We gave students writing prompts about setting, looking to have them write different moods about the same setting. We’ll see everyone next week! 

Today we started teaching editing to kids, breaking down the editing process, the idea of editing vs. revising and how to edit (look out for organization, grammar etc.). Kids also did a warm up prompt about Halloween since Halloween is fast approaching! They had to write a story using onomatopoeia and many worked on this assignment as we did one on one conferences. Kids also practiced the editing strategies aforementioned.  

Today was our fifth writers’ workshop! First, we began with a warm up about a song and having to construct a narrative from it. We then guessed if it was a true story or not. We then did a few one on one conferences and then tried out a group writing prompt (after splitting students up into two groups) that loosely followed the recent hit, “Squid Games.” We want to develop this more and we’ll see everyone next week!

Today was our fourth writers’ workshop! First, we talked about upcoming announcements with a lot more details about the upcoming writing competition revolving around green energy and usage (submit here https://wwwritersworkshop.com/?page_id=14 if you are interested). We then kept everyone in the main room to free write or write according to memoirs. I also conducted one on one conferencing with a few students and published their work on our website. We’ll see everyone next week!

Today was our third writers’ workshop! First, Kevin made a video recapping what we did last week with memoirs and discussions. Then we talked about upcoming announcements (including a political advocacy workshop I’m hosting and a writing competition in the works!). We then did a warm up with a piece of music, the arrival of the birds with the London Symphony Orchestra and students wrote about their feelings, what they heard/imagined/experienced. Then we split into breakout rooms, one for free writing/revising past writing, one for a lesson on memoirs. 

Today we launched our new 2021-2022 writers’ workshop! First, we introduced ourselves and the workshop outline. We made sure to highlight the publishing process and what we were about, including when we met and where. We then went into break out rooms and interacted with the students as they wrote a memoir. We then discussed the art of the memoir, including when and where to start, what a memoir is and what makes a good memoir. Over 40 students from around the country showed up and it was great interacting with them! Lastly, we gave students a writing prompt.

We gave students a fun last class by allowing them to write according to various prompts and chat with us and one another. Hope to see you here on Sept 15th, our fall session launch date!

We learned about the basics of poetry, types of poetry (haiku, limerick, etc.) Students also gathered their favorite poems and rewrote them into a “mosaic” poem, piecing lines from their poems together to make a new poem.

Students first wrote down a conversation they had that day or a conversation that stood out to them. Then we learned about dialogue; what constitutes as good dialogue, what dialogue can reveal about the characters, setting etc. Then, we gave students a chance to write their own dialogue within their stories. 

We had a free writing session where students could write anything and everything they wanted. Students worked on poems, science fiction stories, short stories, mysteries and so much more! We provided feedback throughout the session.  

Time to discuss metaphors! We learned about common place metaphors, metaphors vs. similes and writing stylistic choices. We also did a group metaphor writing activity where students split up into groups and then took turns writing a sentence until it formed a story! We suggested that students incorporate three metaphors into the story.  

We explored setting today; how do writers use setting to create back stories, give characters life and have fun? Students also wrote their own pieces about setting!

What makes a world within a story come alive? What are the factors of a world? We strove to answer these questions with students. Along the way, we noticed the different worlds within the stories we love and talked about ways to make the worlds within our stories stand out.

We played around with syntax today, including rearranging sentences and noticing which words fit where best! We also discussed punctuation fundamentals (fanboys, independent clauses) and practiced with these punctuation rules. We also talked about parallel structure and allowed students to play around with rearranging the words in their favorite sentence.  

We explored setting today; how do writers use setting to create back stories, give characters life and have fun? Students also wrote their own pieces about setting!

Our first ever author talk was with Karen Bao, author of Dove Arising, a science trilogy. Students asked about her book, writing process and her current work in the science lab.
You can find her website here.

This was our first meeting where over thirty students came to listen to an intro to the workshop! We also worked on free writing and had a blast!