Courses
Creative Writing: Deeper Writing*
Taught by Eliyanah Delicate
Full-Year 32-week Course
NOTE: 1.5 hr. class
Course Description:
Join us as we develop our creative writing skills and support each other in creative writing projects that emerge from each author’s imagination.
To prepare for class each week, every author will share their writing a few days before class, read each other’s work, and come ready to discuss everyone’s work. Some weeks we will be using the “Quick Writes” from Deeper Writing: Quick Writes and Mentor Texts to Illuminate New Possibilities by Robin W. Holland as inspiration, and other weeks will be completely up to the author. Authors are requested to keep their submissions to no more than 2-3 pages per week so that everyone has time to read everything. However, those can always be 2-3 pages of a longer work or parts of an ongoing work!
Some weeks, there will also be a couple of pages to read from Deeper Writing as well as a short mentor text. The mentor texts will be a mix of short stories, picture books, poems, and excerpts from novels. Authors will also be given some questions to consider about the texts in advance. We will start off using these to spark our writing every second week, with free choice on the other week. We will decide as a group as we go along if this pacing seems to work or if we need to adjust it to better meet the needs of the group. For more details about this pacing, see the Pacing to Start the Year example below.
*A typical English course from middle school through to the end of high school requires both a literature component and a writing component. Our courses are designed to enable you to choose the best combination for your learner’s needs.
Schedule and Cost:
***NOTE: This is an 1.5 hour full-year class. Registration capped at 6 authors per class.
TWO COHORT OPTIONS:
SUNDAYS Daytime ET: ages 13-18
Sunday 12:45 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.
SUNDAYS Evening ET: ages 13-18
Sunday 7:15 p.m. – 8:45 p.m. ET
Australia Japan friendly time / Evening class in North America
Course Dates (click to download pdf)
For Tuition Fees, Code of Conduct, and all the details, see THE FINE PRINT
Required Homework:
• Read everyone’s posted pieces.
• Come to class prepared to provide constructive feedback on each other’s pieces.
• Read the assigned Deeper Writing: Quick Writes and Mentor Texts to Illuminate New Possibilities section and the mentor text (every second week to start – to be adjusted as needed)
• Do the weekly writing and post your link in the Google Classroom
Pacing to Start the Year Example:
Our in-class pattern will start out as follows:
Week A In-Class:
1: Discuss the mentor text using the assigned questions.
2: Do a short in-class noting down of thoughts in your private Google Doc in response to the “Writer’s Notebook” suggestion in Deeper Writing.
3: Feedback session on the free choice writing submitted prior to class. Our general feedback pattern of “what makes this piece strong for me as a reader” and “what would make this piece stronger for me as a
reader” will continue to be used.
Homework assigned Week A -> DUE Week B:
Submit your “Quick Write” inspired by your noted thoughts in your private Google Doc and the week’s “Quick Write” explanation.
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Week B In-Class:
1: Feedback session on the “Quick Write” inspired pieces.
NOTE: “You have the right to receive no feedback or specify the type you would like to receive. (For example, I would like to hear only what works, or I would like to know if the character description is clear.)” (Deeper Writing, Introduction)
2: Feedback session on any free choice pieces that we weren’t able to get to the previous week.
Homework assigned Week B -> DUE Week A:
Read the “Background for the Teacher” and the questions to consider from Deeper Writing (this will typically be only a couple of pages), and the assigned mentor text.
Submit your free choice writing piece.
Course Materials:
Deeper Writing: Quick Writes and Mentor Texts to Illuminate New Possibilities by Robin W. Holland (Pages will be provided)
Occasional printouts throughout the year