Time Travelers' Tales: Creative Writing Through Historical Eras
In this creative writing club, students explore a new historical era each week—like Ancient Egypt or the Roaring Twenties—and write stories set in that time. Each session includes key facts, vivid details, and a guided creative writing.
Dr. Brooke Nelson
Average rating:
5.0
Number of reviews:(14)
What's included
1 live meeting
55 mins in-class hours per weekHomework
1 hour per week. Students may spend time polishing their story for feedback or illustrating it between classes. Sharing is optional but encouraged.Assessment
includedClass Experience
US Grade 6 - 9
Time Travelers' Tales is a creative, cross-curricular club designed to help students explore history through storytelling. Each week features a new era—such as Ancient Egypt, the Middle Ages, or the Roaring Twenties—highlighting key facts about daily life, culture, and historical context. Students will use these details to write their own original stories set in the past. This is a highly interactive club where students grow as writers, thinkers, and storytellers. Each session includes a short historical mini-lesson, guided brainstorming, and a creative writing prompt to bring the time period to life through narrative. Students can enroll at any time. Each session stands alone and introduces new historical content and writing challenges. Class Structure: • Warm-Up (5–10 min): Quick intro and “What do you know?” activity • Mini-Lesson (15–20 min): Historical background + sensory details (custom slides or visuals) • Guided Writing Prompt (15–20 min): Students write an original scene or story • Optional Sharing (5–10 min): Peer feedback or read-aloud Sample Weekly Eras and Prompts: • Ancient Egypt: A secret message hidden in a tomb • Medieval Europe: A young apprentice’s day in a bustling castle • Renaissance Italy: A letter from an artist’s apprentice in Florence • Age of Exploration: Journal entries from a sailor on a dangerous voyage • American Revolution: A spy delivers a coded message • Victorian England: A mystery in foggy London • 1920s Harlem: A story set during the Harlem Renaissance • The Great Depression: Life through the eyes of a traveling family • World War II: A teen's letter from the homefront • The 1980s: A walkman, a protest, and a strange new invention (Eras rotate seasonally to support returning students.)
Learning Goals
• Practice narrative writing, dialogue, and historical imagination• Learn key facts and themes from major world history eras
Other Details
Parental Guidance
All materials are age-appropriate and selected for middle school learners. Students may share original stories in class during optional read-alouds. Some historical topics may include war, inequality, or cultural beliefs from the past, but all content is presented in a thoughtful, respectful, and developmentally appropriate way.
Pre-Requisites
Students should be able to write complete sentences and enjoy creative writing. No prior history knowledge is needed—curiosity is the only requirement.
External Resources
In addition to the Outschool classroom, this class uses:
Sources
This class uses a variety of age-appropriate, publicly available texts, images, and historical references selected to support cross-curricular learning and creative writing. All materials are curated to introduce key historical details while inspiring narrative imagination for middle school students.
Example sources include:
• Primary source excerpts (e.g., letters, journal entries, inscriptions) from ancient and early modern history
• Adapted historical texts such as The Code of Hammurabi, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, and Pericles’ Funeral Oration
• Historical visuals and artifacts from museums (e.g., British Museum, Library of Congress, Smithsonian Learning Lab)
• Instructor-created materials and writing prompts grounded in factual historical content
Joined January, 2021
5.0
14reviews
Teacher expertise and credentials
3 Degrees
Doctoral Degree in Religious Studies from Claremont Graduate University
Master's Degree in History from University of California, Irvine
Bachelor's Degree in History from University of California, Riverside
I have 14+ years of experience teaching writing, literature, and history to middle and high school learners. I specialize in combining creativity with academic enrichment, and I’ve developed history-themed writing curricula used by schools across the U.S. My classes are welcoming, interactive, and designed to help students grow both skills and confidence.Reviews
Live Group Class
$35
weekly1x per week
55 min
Completed by 1 learner
Live video meetings
Ages: 11-14
3-12 learners per class
