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In our
small, innovative classes, students
learn the best ways to put the
different elements of writing
together so that what they write
means what they want it to mean.
When you develop writing skills, you
also develop reading. Our students
learn proven strategies to develop
their reading comprehension and
connect reading skills and writing
skills.
The results are clear: stronger,
more engaging essays and stories and
the confidence to take on a wider
range of writing assignments,
reading that is more absorbing with
stronger comprehension, and a higher
level of enjoyment in the process
for both of these activities.
Goals
We have two primary goals for every
student who participates in a Story
Workshop program:
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1.
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To teach students skills
and strategies that
improve their writing
and reading right now,
and continue to improve
these skills after the
program's conclusion.
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2.
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To demystify the process
of writing and make it
more pleasurable,
motivating students to
write more than ever
before and inspiring
them to make writing and
reading habits.
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Together, these goals combine to
create the confidence and
flexibility students of all ages
need for success in school, on
assessment tests, and in the world
beyond the classroom. The power to
write and read effectively is the
clearest advantage you can have.
Fundamentals
Learning
to write well means building an
active writing process. Our
workshops are very active—students
learn and practice proven skills and
strategies in class while receiving
immediate feedback and encouragement
from a certified Story Workshop
instructor.
The
workshop structure integrates
reading, writing, speaking, and
listening to develop thinking and
problem-solving skills, drawing upon
the essential connections between
reading and writing and oral and
written communication.
The
process our students learn develops
the four core fundamentals of all
effective communication:
Seeing-in-the-Mind, Voice, Audience
Awareness, and
Movement/Organization. Every
activity in a Story Workshop class
connects these four fundamentals so
that our students receive consistent
practice integrating and mastering
them.
Story Workshop classes develop a
process that works for any writing
and reading—school assignments and
work written or read for personal
pleasure—and that continues to work
for the rest of your life.
Structure of Class & Activities
These are
active workshops. Students
participate in class by reading and
recalling aloud, by telling and
writing the stories and essays that
matter to them. The broad repertoire
of classroom activities—including
oral reading and storytelling,
student reaction and discussion, and
writing with guidance and feedback
from our highly-skilled
instructors—makes these sessions
lively and fun.
Story
Workshop students learn how to
create clearer, better-organized
writing that is more vivid and
engaging. They learn a variety of
basic expository and creative
organizational structures. They
learn the best ways to rewrite,
improve usage and grammar, create
better-formed sentences, build
vocabulary, and strengthen reading
comprehension and recall. They
develop oral communication,
listening, team-building, creative
problem-solving and critical
thinking skills.
All
together, students learn to identify
their personal strengths as a writer
and student while building a
complete writing and reading
process.
Our
popular classes work for students
who already love to write and want
to learn more as well as students
who find writing a challenge.
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"The way class was structured helped my daughter to conceptualize her thoughts on paper, which is something she was really struggling with..."
—Parent of a 6th grader, Chicago
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