Fables, Myths and Fairy Tales: Writing About Literature

The following is a description of a class I'll be offering to homeschoolers this spring at the Huckleberry Center for Creative Learning in Valencia, California.  All classes for the spring semester begin the week of  February 7, 2011 and end June 2, 2011.  If you have questions regarding registration, please visit:  www.hucklc.org.  Huck is a vendor for several area charter schools.  

This class will be on Mondays from 2-3:30pm.

Fables, Myths and Fairy Tales:  Writing About Literature

(Ages: 8-11)

This is an IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) – style class, so along with learning about classic literature, students will be practicing a number of important skills to help them become stronger writers.  As we look at classic fables, students will learn strategies for “Note Taking,” and even more importantly, “Writing from Notes.”  We’ll use some of the masterpieces of Greek mythology to learn summarizing skills.  “Story Sequence Outlines” will help students break these narratives into categories (Characters, Setting, Conflict, Climax and Resolution), making them easier to write about.  We’ll then combine those note taking and narrative summary skills to help us summarize references.  This is an excellent way for students to prepare for the research skills they’ll need for more advanced writing.  We’ll use fairy tales to give students practice with an IEW technique called “Writing from Pictures.”  This technique trains students to isolate the main ideas and develop their own analysis of them in a fun and creative way.  As we use fables, myths and fairy tales to sharpen our analytical, expository and summarizing skills, we’ll also be stretching our creative writing muscles by writing our own fables, myths and fairy tales.  This class will create its very own book, which will include a fable, myth and fairy tale from each student.  Students will undoubtedly have a lot of fun with this project and we’ll proudly display our book at the end of semester show!  Everyone will need access to a word processing program to aid with the revision process, so students who don’t have strong typing skills may also wish to participate in the Keyboarding Class this semester.

Homework:  Writing (approx.) 1 hour/week

Materials Fees:  $20

Tuition:  $210 (For details see www.hucklc.org)