Spring 2022 Classes
The following online classes are currently available for enrollment.
Please note that we also teach small private classes that are not listed here.
If the offerings below do not fit your schedule, feel free to email us, and perhaps we can find a class for your young writer.
To register, please send an email to [email protected].
Please provide:
- The title of the course.
- Your child's name.
- Your child's age as of March 21.
- A daytime phone number for us to reach you.
Either Writing Coach Shu-Hsien Ho or Royd Hatta will respond as soon as possible.
Includes detailed feedback on written assignments & 1:1 coaching.
Imagine having the power to attract large crowds and world leaders, and capture their complete attention with an important message.
What if a person could inspire millions to take actionable steps toward reducing global warming, making our world better for all?
In each of these cases, it was a child or teen who persuaded spell-bound audiences to consider their spoken words.
This workshop invites students to learn the tools and techniques of TED Talk speakers and write their own powerful speeches. We'll brainstorm ideas and stories that students see as important and worth sharing.
As always, our workshops will walk through every step of the writing process:
- Understanding the structure and the power of a compelling story
- Generating and organizing ideas
- Writing with momentum
- Revising for clarity and logic
- Editing towards a final draft
Each student will be invited to present a talk on the last day of class.
To register, please contact:
[email protected]
Photo by Wan San Yip on Unsplash
When Truth Is Stranger than Fiction
An Online Workshop on Fact-Driven Articles
For Grades 7-8
Taught by Writing Coach Royd Hatta
(No session on April 13, Spring Break)
This course shows how fact-driven, issue-oriented essays can be just as thrilling and insightful as fast-paced fiction. Even better, it can be life-altering.
When it leans more to the sciences, it’s called science writing. When it leans more to the literary, it’s called literary journalism or creative nonfiction–one of our favorite genres to read. Often, all of the above are grounded in both fact AND personal experience.
In this research-based class, we’ll write fun articles that incorporate facts from several sources and synthesize them to create our own observations just like the pros do.
Readings may include articles from
- Maya Angelou
- Malcolm Gladwell
- David Foster Wallace
- James Baldwin
- The New Yorker
- The Atlantic
- Outside, and other high adventure magazines
- and other articles with a sense of forward drive.
To register, please contact:
[email protected]
Dragons, Danger & Drama
An Online Fantasy Story Workshop For Ages 9-11
Taught by Writing Coach Shu-Hsien Ho
THURSDAYS, 11 AM - 12 PM PST
March 24 – May 26, 2022 (9 lessons)
(No Class April 14, Spring Break)
Minimum 5 students,
Readings will include the following novel:
Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
Imagine facing thousands of flying monkeys as they send bolts of lightning toward you and your towering castle keep. Luckily, your long bearded mentor has a solution. Too weak to call upon the mythical dragon himself, he teaches the ancient, tragic poem of the Fracture, the only words that will raise the dragon from her sleep and defend those who know its song!
This workshop will ask students to develop their own heroes, mentors, and tricksters, as they delve deep into the adventures, struggles, and unexpected solutions of their story worlds. We will guide students through our own cohesive Hero’s Journey Map, the hidden, underlying structure that permeates all stories.
We’ll provide a highly interactive, playful environment to inspire students to create their own tales of fantasy, mystery, historical fiction, or anything in between. This course will walk through all steps of the writing process: generating first ideas, writing new scenes, organizing, researching and integrating details, revising for clarity and logic, and editing toward a final draft. At the end of the course, students will present a reading from one of their stories.
To register, please contact:
[email protected]
Mirrors of Humanity - Politics and Technology
An Online Literature & Literary Analysis Course
- 1984 by George Orwell - A Dystopian Classic
- "Politics & the English Language" by George Orwell
To register, please contact:
[email protected]
Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash