What's included
4 live meetings
4 in-class hoursClass Experience
US Grade 5 - 8
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!
Other Details
Parental Guidance
Considering widespread disasters and global crises can be frightening for some young writers. While all work produced for this class will be appropriate for the indicated age range in terms of content, parents should feel free to inform me of any particular phobias or other fears their children need to avoid over the course of this class.
Supply List
Students will be provided with prompts and guidelines for creating and ending the fictional world, and should have access to a word processing program. I encourage the use of Google Docs, so students can access their work anywhere, and so that parents can also check on their students' progress if desired, but can also accept work from students submitted in .doc, .docx, and .rtf format.
External Resources
Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.
Teacher expertise and credentials
Master's Degree from Kennesaw State University
Outside of writing, editing, and teaching, I collect apocalypses. I have explored the various ends of the world as a writer through fiction and nonfiction, and am a regular scifi & fantasy convention panelist on the topic of apocalyptic media. As a lifelong consumer of apocalyptic media – books, comics, television, movies, music, even recipes – I believe the genre is uniquely well suited to motivating young writers and offers an infinite number of possible worlds to create (and destroy) with words. Apocalypse and dystopian media resonates with tween and young teen readers and holds a prominent position on the Young Adult shelves in libraries and book stores, providing a great motivator for students to improve their own writing through exploring the end of the world.
Reviews
Live Group Class
$60
for 4 classes1x per week, 4 weeks
60 min
Completed by 94 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 10-14
2-9 learners per class
Financial Assistance
Tutoring
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