I am eagerly seeking a few more students for my Creative Writing class this year. This English elective class is for 8th-12 graders and will be offered in two different sections on Wednesdays at Shanan Tutorials, which meets at Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church in the Matthews/Wesley Chapel area. There is a morning section from 9:15-10:30 and an afternoon section from 1:30-2:45. (Each section needs to have a minimum of 5 students.) We will be using The Creative Writer: Level 3 by Boris Fishman. You can download a PDF of this text for $13.50 or buy a new print copy for $16.95. It is fine to buy a used copy of this book if you can find one. Here is a sample from the textbook we will be using, where you can see some examples of the types of exercises we will be doing.
In this video, Susan Wise Bauer of the Well-Trained Mind discusses why she likes this curriculum for teaching Creative Writing.
I am working on the syllabus for this class, which is linked here. You can already see some of our topics for discussion and the pace for our lessons. Second semester WILL include some work with poetry, but I am waiting to finalize the details of that semester until I meet with students and gauge their feelings for poetry. We will also be working on writing creative non-fiction like blogposts and personal essays. Students can expect a minimum of 500-1000 words of writing per week.
Our Creative Writing sections will be small, which means that when weather permits, we can easily move outside and thereby remove our masks for sharing our writing. (Masks are required by our venue, Spirit of Joy, so we will be wearing them in compliance with church policy as long as they ask us to do so.)
For those who love writing, this class will be a wonderful experience. At $400 for a 32 weeks, this class is truly a bargain. Students will not only learn to expand their creativity and facility with words, they will learn to share their writing, and engage in positive feedback with their peers.
Please reach out if you have any questions about this Creative Writing class. My email is katrina@katrinaryder.com. I also have a FEW spots remaining in Introduction to Grammar and Composition (Wed –10:30-11:45/ $400) and Literary Genres (Mon & Wed–12:15-1:30/ $580). Registration costs to enroll at Shanan** increase after July 25th, so don’t wait.
To read about my other classes, check out this post.
To read about why I chose Shanan Tutorials for my family, click here.
**Shanan has a standing policy that students need to have been homeschooled for one year prior to attending Shanan. This is not reactionary to the fact that there are many new homeschoolers due to CoVid; it has been a policy for many years. Shanan is primarily for 8th-12th graders, but 7th graders can be accepted with tutor approval. There are many excellent courses still open for enrollment with Shanan