Essay Writing Workshops
› Issues in Fiction (Ages 12-14)
While fictional texts are often written to engage and entertain readers, many also raise important questions and issues facing our society today. Reading fiction then offers an opportunity to begin discussions with students about important issues and relate the stories to what they know or can learn about in the real world. In this workshop, students will read and discuss excerpts from works of fiction as a springboard to explore various contemporary issues. As they discuss and analyse, they will learn how to write about these issues, explaining what they know, asking questions they'd like answered, and sharing experiences and opinions of their own.
During the summer, different texts will be studied each week, so students can sign up for multiple weeks without repeating material.› Fiction Analysis Plus (Ages 11-13)
Learning to read fiction texts carefully is an important skill as students read more complex texts across all subjects. In this introduction to textual analysis, students learn to identify a writer’s purpose and tone and analysing the techniques and strategies that a writer employs to achieve his or her purpose. In this "Intro to Fiction Analysis Plus " workshop, students will consider these techniques as both readers and writers. They will explain their analysis in structured paragraphs responses and essays and try their hand at applying some of these techniques and strategies to writing pieces of their own.
Skill-Building Workshops
› Independent Creative Writing Workshop (Ages 14+)
Writers worldwide meet and provide feedback to each other about how to improve their individual projects. In this independent creative writing workshop, students should come with an idea or partially-written story that they want to revise and further develop with support from their teacher and classmates. Since much of class time will be devoted to workshopping each other's drafts and providing feedback, students will also be expected to work on their stories outside of class.Creative Writing and Publishing Workshops
› Independent Writing or Self-Publishing Project
We have had the pleasure of working with a number of dedicated young authors on their independent writing projects and even supporting some to self-publish their books with
Green Elephant Books. These writers work one-on-one with an ECP teacher who serves as their first reader and editor to guide them through the process of revising and editing their manuscripts. While the focus may be on refining and completing a particular project, the primary objective is to support aspiring authors to develop the skills, perspective and mindset for a lifelong writing journey.
