Course Catalog

In honor of America’s 250th birthday, invite your students to tell your own utopian and dystopian stories. This is how they can make civic impact even before they’re old enough to vote. By harnessing the power of fiction, they can share their ideas about the kind of America they aspire to build in the next 250+ years of our country.

A similar unit, this time with some more Ray Bradbury.

A similar unit, this time with some more George Orwell.

Music, hip-hop, and poetry are all part of the same family. Students will play with rhythm in their writing, and write a collection of performable poems.

In this multi-genre workshop, students will play with writing and drawing from both their lives and their imaginations. They’ll dip an age-appropriate toe into the differences between fiction and nonfiction — the intersections between pretend storytelling, real storytelling, and imagination — and the ways in which they can be mixed.

Over the course of this workshop, students will create their own fables, and use a combination of writing and drawing to bring them to life. This one is for the budding graphic novelists.

From Little Red Riding Hood to Koschei the Deathless, there is much to be learned about the inner workings of fairy and folk tales. But how can we take these stories one step further? In this workshop, students will learn how to retell a tale with their own unique spins on it!

Crossing nature and writing has the unique power to help us understand both in a different, exciting light. Students will observe the presence of nature in unexpected places all around them, and write fiction and poetry that engages with the natural universe.

Music, hip-hop, and poetry are all part of the same family. Students will play with rhythm in their writing, and write a collection of performable poems.

Roses are red, violets are blue, “Big Feelings” is the workshop for you! This survey of poetic genres will introduce young writers to a whole toolbox of language to express their emotions and their worlds through poetry.

"Wakanda Forever!" The famous phrase from Marvel's "Black Panther" franchise points to the enduring impact of the film and its message of Black empowerment. In this workshop, students will think about how and why artists create technological and futuristic worlds, and how those Afrofuturist themes can help them envision their own hopes for the future.

In this multi-genre workshop, students will play with writing and drawing from both their lives and their imaginations. They’ll dip an age-appropriate toe into the differences between fiction and nonfiction — the intersections between pretend storytelling, real storytelling, and imagination — and the ways in which they can be mixed.

In this workshop, students will explore the world of interactive fiction and write our own 'choose your own adventure' short stories! This genre is often underappreciated, but tremendous fun to both write and read — and a fabulous opportunity for student choice and agency.

Do your students love magical creatures and exciting adventures? Are the “Percy Jackson” books always checked out of your classroom library? This workshop will provide your students with an opportunity to read about myths from around the world and writing their own.

In this course, students will use their creativity to pull stories from everyday objects and occurrences. Music, places, and common phrases can all hold the key to their next great story ideas. They’ll never say “I don’t know what to write” again!

Yes... and?! Combining the fundamentals of poetic writing and improvisational acting, students will learn how to write and perform spoken word poetry. Each session includes improvisational acting games, mini-lessons on elements of spoken word, and exercises for kids to hone their craft.

Have your students ever wanted to create their own worlds? Go on quests with their friends? Fly through the sky, or cast spells? In this workshop, students will go on their own adventures through the boundlessness of writing, learning how to make their own lives feel like fantasy stories.

Whether your students’ favorite superhero is Batman or Captain Underpants, they’ll love their opportunity to create their own super stories. Combining writing with illustration in a comic strip format, they’ll create original superhero characters and take them on adventures.

Students often want to write fantasy stories, but struggle to know where to begin. Enter: worldbuilding. In this workshop, students will learn about how to develop the elaborate worlds in which fantasies are set. Each participant will have the chance to create their own fantasy world survival guide and write several short scenes set in their original universe.

A cool story idea is nothing without characters to tell it! In this workshop, students will practice creating deep, realistic characters: writing their memories, thoughts, motivations, and more. Students will end this workshop with multiple vivid character sketches, with the option to write all-new stories or refresh their old ones.

There are monsters lurking inside us all, begging for us to tell their stories. In this workshop, students will use writing and illustration to create their own unique monster characters.

In this workshop, your students will imagine time-traveling through their city or town. What would they see? Who would they meet? Young writers will choose a time period, decide how they traveled through time, and record their discoveries in an official Time Traveler Mission Log.

From baseball to bowling, sports have the power to create special moments that we can all connect with. Students will explore the power of sport in this workshop for young athletes and writers.

Calling all secret agents back to base! If you’re someone with a knack for disguises, a thirst for adventure, or the creativity to solve any problem thrown at you, we’ll need you for our newest mission — the toughest one yet. Throughout the workshop, we will work on our spy-identities, craft characters primed for perilous action, and take on our very own top-secret missions.

Can a playlist be a poem? What about a TikTok? Students will experiment with multiple types of visual media to redefine how poetry can look. This workshop is an opportunity to explore poetry by thinking outside the box.

Do your students love to dissect the movies or plays they watch? In this workshop, they’ll learn about dialogue, scene-building, stage directions, and all the other components that work together to tell the stories in their minds. Each student will write an original short play — and maybe even get to see their words come to life with the help of their peers.

From Little Red Riding Hood to Koschei the Deathless, there is much to be learned about the inner workings of fairy and folk tales. But how can we take these stories one step further? In this workshop, students will learn how to retell a tale with their own unique spins on it!

Lots of stories are told by people, but what about all the not-people that have stories? Animals, plants, toys, rocks, computers, cities, planets! In this workshop, students will read stories and write about what nonhumans do, see, don't see, and think about. Each writer will develop multiple story ideas and write one finished story over the course of the workshop.

Crossing nature and writing has the unique power to help us understand both in a different, exciting light. Students will observe the presence of nature in unexpected places all around them, and write fiction and poetry that engages with the natural universe.

Have your students ever wanted to get inside the mind of a villain? Or wondered what it would be like to do bad things? In this workshop, students will create their own villain characters and drop them into various villainous situations. By the end of the course, each writer will choose one specific circumstance they'd like to explore in-depth and write a piece — in any genre! — about their character in that situation.

"Wakanda Forever!" The famous phrase from Marvel's "Black Panther" franchise points to the enduring impact of the film and its message of Black empowerment. In this workshop, students will think about how and why artists create technological and futuristic worlds, and how those Afrofuturist themes can help them envision their own hopes for the future.

In this workshop, students will explore the world of interactive fiction and write our own 'choose your own adventure' short stories! This genre is often underappreciated, but tremendous fun to both write and read — and a fabulous opportunity for student choice and agency.

Do your students love magical creatures and exciting adventures? Are the “Percy Jackson” books always checked out of your classroom library? This workshop will provide your students with an opportunity to read about myths from around the world and writing their own.

Do your students have what it takes to be secret agents? In this workshop, students will learn how to create suspense in their writing by taking inspiration from famous spies — real and fictional. Their mission, should they choose to accept it, is to invent their own spies and craft suspenseful scenes.

In this course, students will learn how to use a single moment to reveal something broader about themselves. Instead of writing full-length memoirs, they will focus on developing a particular scene or memory, learning how to bring it to life.

In this workshop, students will learn about the human side of storytelling. They will conduct interviews write their own feature stories, either on someone in their lives or a fictional character of their choice. The goal of this workshop is to celebrate how writing allows us to not only express our own voices but also give a voice to others.

We encounter informational forms of writing every day: recipes, quizzes, instruction manuals, encyclopedia entries, and more. In this workshop, students will take a closer look to figure out how they can utilize these forms for emotional, memorial, and political purposes. Like hermit crabs adopt new homes, students will adopt these structures as vehicles for exploring lyrical vulnerability, merging the practical and the poetic.

This workshop is a journey through various suspenseful and speculative genres of storytelling: horror, thriller, mystery, and paranormal fantasy. Your students should be sure to hold onto their daggers, because this workshop is not for the faint of heart.

Students often want to write fantasy stories, but struggle to know where to begin. Enter: worldbuilding. In this workshop, students will learn about how to develop the elaborate worlds in which fantasies are set. Each participant will have the chance to create their own fantasy world survival guide and write several short scenes set in their original universe.

Explore possibility; create worlds ruled by joy, community, magic, and revolution. In this workshop, students will explore some of the basics of speculative fiction and magical realism, drawing from their individual imaginations to create a world like our own but different, and unapologetically so.

What makes dystopian fiction so appealing? In this workshop, students will work together to learn about the worldbuilding, plot elements, and character tropes that define in the dystopian genre. Each writer will develop their own dystopian story throughout the workshop.

When your students walk around museums, what do they imagine about the art around them? In this workshop, students will use visual art to inspire written stories — a form of writing known as “ekphrasis”. Through close looking, they will think about how sight can inspire them to listen to, taste, smell, and touch different parts of a story.

In this workshop, your students will imagine time-traveling through their city or town. What would they see? Who would they meet? Young writers will choose a time period, decide how they traveled through time, and record their discoveries in an official Time Traveler Mission Log.

From baseball to bowling, sports have the power to create special moments that we can all connect with. Students will explore the power of sport in this workshop for young athletes and writers.

Can a playlist be a poem? What about a TikTok? Students will experiment with multiple types of visual media to redefine how poetry can look. This workshop is an opportunity to explore poetry by thinking outside the box.

You never know what’s lurking inside a dumpster or hovering inside a construction site. In this workshop, students will learn how to craft urban fantasy stories with brilliant characters and vivid settings. Over the course of the end of the workshop, each participant will write a short fiction piece set in a city of their own creation.

Who says that writing is just for English class? In this approach to sci-fi worldbuilding, students will draw upon their knowledge of science, technology, engineering, and maybe even math to create original futuristic universes.

Do your students love to dissect the movies or plays they watch? In this workshop, they’ll learn about dialogue, scene-building, stage directions, and all the other components that work together to tell the stories in their minds. Each student will write an original short play — and maybe even get to see their words come to life with the help of their peers.

This workshop is all about having fun with the short story! Students will learn the core elements that make short stories work, and then take those elements and make them their own through creative exercises. By the end of the course, each writer will create a full-length piece of short fiction.

In order to create a business, you need to be able to tell a story. This workshop guides budding entrepreneurs through the process of identifying the issues that are most important to them, and then developing bold, unexpected, and speculative solutions. Students will conclude the workshop with a series of stories that comprise a successful business plan: a product story, a marketing story, and, of course, an airtight pitch.

Have your students ever wanted to create their own worlds? Go on quests with their friends? Fly through the sky, or cast spells? In this workshop, students will go on their own adventures through the boundlessness of writing, learning how to make their own lives feel like fantasy stories.

​​What makes your students who they are? How have their memories, experiences, and social and cultural backgrounds shaped their identities? In this workshop, students will explore "the self" through poetry. They will dive into their perceptions of themselves and others, learn how to use poetic techniques to enhance their words, and deepen their connections with the writing they produce.

Lots of stories are told by people, but what about all the not-people that have stories? Animals, plants, toys, rocks, computers, cities, planets! In this workshop, students will read stories and write about what nonhumans do, see, don't see, and think about. Each writer will develop multiple story ideas and write one finished story over the course of the workshop.

Whether running from masked killers or busting pesky ghosts, students will creep down all the avenues of the mystery genre. They’ll learn how to build suspense, craft clues, and conjure up convincing suspects. And who knows — they may even come face-to-face with some genre-bending twists!

Crossing nature and writing has the unique power to help us understand both in a different, exciting light. Students will observe the presence of nature in unexpected places all around them, and write fiction and poetry that engages with the natural universe.

"Wakanda Forever!" The famous phrase from Marvel's "Black Panther" franchise points to the enduring impact of the film and its message of Black empowerment. In this workshop, students will think about how and why artists create technological and futuristic worlds, and how those Afrofuturist themes can help them envision their own hopes for the future.

Young Adult fiction is a genre that continues to evolve with new generations of readers and writers. In this workshop, students will explore the coming-of-age narrative and write realistic fiction inspired by their lives. Ultimately, participants will work together to write timeless stories that are relatable to the world at large.

We encounter informational forms of writing every day: recipes, quizzes, instruction manuals, encyclopedia entries, and more. In this workshop, students will take a closer look to figure out how they can utilize these forms for emotional, memorial, and political purposes. Like hermit crabs adopt new homes, students will adopt these structures as vehicles for exploring lyrical vulnerability, merging the practical and the poetic.

Calling all dungeoneers and dragon tamers! In this writing campaign, students will break down practical techniques for creating compelling characters, believable cities, and much more. Over the course of five sessions, students will explore the creative roles of both players and game masters. Participants will leave with playable characters and the beginnings of a world and game-worthy scenario.

This workshop is a journey through various suspenseful and speculative genres of storytelling: horror, thriller, mystery, and paranormal fantasy. Your students should be sure to hold onto their daggers, because this workshop is not for the faint of heart.

In this workshop, students will learn how to write about true personal narratives in different creative ways. This is a comprehensive creative writing workshop, with an emphasis on personal growth through writing. By the end of the workshop, students will have developed foundations for their college essays.

In this workshop, students will take a deep dive into both the history and the craft of humor and satire writing. They’ll work closely with peers to create a short piece in any style (and medium) of their choosing. Ultimately, participants will delve into what’s most important about satire and humor writing: finding their own unique writer's voices and shedding light on the issues that matter to them.

Can a playlist be a poem? What about a TikTok? Students will experiment with multiple types of visual media to redefine how poetry can look. This workshop is an opportunity to explore poetry by thinking outside the box.

Spires of concrete entwined with vines like blue fairy lights in an alien sunset, carved runes pulsing with the heartbeat of a planet desperate for its story to unfold... Science fiction and fantasy allow us as writers to externalize the wildest parts of our storytelling imagination into worlds that reflect and challenge the reality we live in. In this workshop, students will dive into worldbuilding as research, escapism, and narrative, all culminating in a pseudo-nonfictional piece of writing that embeds the reader into a rich environment of their creation.

In order to create a business, you need to be able to tell a story. This workshop guides budding entrepreneurs through the process of identifying the issues that are most important to them, and then developing bold, unexpected, and speculative solutions. Students will conclude the workshop with a series of stories that comprise a successful business plan: a product story, a marketing story, and, of course, an airtight pitch.

How can music, sound effects, and the human voice make stories come alive? In this workshop, students will listen to podcasts, learn introductory audio editing techniques, and create audio stories about their lives for the final project. No previous editing experience needed!

Writing doesn’t have to be solitary, and it definitely doesn’t have to be boring. During the Writing Bowl, students participate in three (or more!) timed, prompt-based rounds of writing across multiple genres. In the final round of the event, students will work in small groups to write and perform an original one-act play. The event concludes with a celebratory awards ceremony recognizing winners from each round.