It's the end of the world as we know it, but we feel fine!

In this writing class, students collaborate to develop a fictional world, full of people, cultures, animals, and landscapes. After they lovingly pour their attention into the details of this world, your young writers will work independently to destroy their perfect little creation with an apocalypse of their choosing, told through a short story. 

Students do not need any prior formal writing instruction, though familiarity with literary terms and vocabulary is helpful. Weekly homework includes completing assigned writing and reading classmates' posted works. Classwork includes both collaborative and independent work. 

Working from prompts and with specific guidelines, students will write about their world as it approaches its untimely end, as the apocalypse unfolds, and in the aftermath of their fictional doomsday. Students may choose any apocalypse they can imagine, from meteors hurtling from space to a zombie plague to collapses of technology that doesn't yet exist. Their short stories may be as scary, funny, or action-packed as they choose. 

Class 1: Creation – Students work together during class time to create their world, focusing on establishing setting and perspective. 

Class 2: Crisis – Every end has a beginning, and students prepare their world for its end. Class time focuses on writing techniques such as foreshadowing and tone that foretell the coming apocalypse. 

Class 3: Climax – The end isn't near; it's here! Class time focuses on the mechanics of ending a world through narrative structure and pacing. 

Class 4: Aftermath – Is there an "after" for your student's world? Class time focuses on the denouement of our apocalyptic narratives. 

When our four weeks come to their end, students will each have a complete apocalyptic short story to share with family and friends!