Winter 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 January 7th.
- A daytime phone number for us to reach you.
Either Writing Coach Shu-Hsien Ho or Royd Hatta will respond as soon as possible.
- 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
(Includes detailed feedback on written assignments & 1:1 coaching.)
As a beginning Media Studies class, we will analyze and write current event articles focused on issues about the environment, culture, and community. Students will learn to adopt the objectivity of journalistic writing as well as discuss the potential challenges we face as readers and writers when it comes to balanced reporting.
With a foundation in Story, students will be able to tell the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How of a piece, and build towards news reporting of their own through local interviews, research, personal experiences, and community connections.
If possible, we may interview some local journalists to provide insight into the current world of journalism and news writing.
For those students who have just taken the Teen Entrepreneurship Workshop, this is an opportunity to talk to neighbors and local businesses to build networking opportunities while learning about the community’s needs, goals, and aspirations.
To register, please contact:
[email protected]
Becoming Story Detectives:
Introduction to Literary Analysis & Essay Writing
For ages 10-12
Taught by Coaches Shu-Hsien Ho & Royd Hatta
Readings:
- “Thank You, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes (short story set during the Harlem Renaissance period)
- The Giver by Lois Lowry (futuristic novel)
Writing assignments will include:
- Short journal entries
- Response-to-literature paragraphs
- First draft essays & revisions
This course will show students the inner workings of a story through the eyes of a reader-detective. At the same time, we will gradually move towards a more academic writing style.
We will enter a “deep dive” process to digest, question, and understand the layers of meaning in the stories. What is the author’s main message? How did he or she intentionally plant clues or symbols to foreshadow upcoming plot twists? How does the author surprise us? We will also discuss the core elements of Story: character development, plot/conflict, resolution, setting, themes, and key literary devices.
Students will develop their critical thinking skills while learning concrete tools for writing persuasive essays in general, and literary analysis essays in particular.
As always, we'll provide a structure and break down the thinking and writing into small steps.
To register, please contact:
[email protected]
Becoming Story Detectives: Part II
Introduction to Literary Analysis & Essay Writing
For ages 12-13 (7th & 8th Graders)
Taught by Coaches Shu-Hsien Ho & Royd Hatta
Readings:
- "The Rules of the Game" by Amy Tan (short story)
- The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis (novel)
This course will dive into the cultural issues behind place and identity. We will explore how people navigate family obligations and the challenges that their community imposes upon them. We’ll further discuss the concept of the middle ground or “third space” where one can find their own place, and ultimately take ownership of their lives.
“The Rules of the Game,” the inspiration for a main character in Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club, is a masterful short story about a young chess prodigy who hopes to escape the watchful eye of her doting mother.
Deborah Ellis’s The Breadwinner is one of the first novels for young teens about life in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.
To register, please contact:
[email protected]
Hybrid: In-person & Online 2021-22
- 2-3 students: $575 per student per course
- 4-8 students: $475 per student per course
Each course in Fall 2021, Winter 2021-22, and Spring 2021 is paid separately.
Please see the course descriptions below.
Photo by mari lezhava on Unsplash
- Nov. 24, Thanksgiving;
- Dec. 16 - Jan. 4, Holiday Break;
- Feb. 23, February Break
- James Hurst: “The Scarlet Ibis”
- Ted Chiang: "Tower of Babel" from Stories of Your Life
- Helena Maria Viramontes: Under the Feet of Jesus (excerpt)
- Flannery O'Connor: "A Good Man is Hard to Find"
- Shirley Jackson: “The Lottery”
- Rutger Bregner: Humankind: A Hopeful History (excerpt)
To register, please contact:
[email protected]
Spring 2021 – Mirrors of Humanity III
Politics and Technology
Spring 2021 Readings:
- 1984 by George Orwell - A Dystopian Classic
- The People’s Platform by Astra Taylor - Excerpt. An examination of the power of our hyper-connectivity and our relationship with the major internet platforms of the world.
To register, please contact:
[email protected]
Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash
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