
Short Summary
Class Information
Availability
Please look on the listing for current availability
Description
This is a guided-writing experience, for teen learners to develop their creative writing skills. This means that we will all be writing our story at roughly the same pace as each other, following the same action/plot points.
We will be using the class text 'The Arrival' by Shaun Tan, which ideally your learner will have a copy of. It is a wordless book published in 2006, that delves into the experience of being an immigrant. Through its evocative illustrations, it captures the journey and challenges faced when one arrives alone in an unfamiliar land.We will use the images to inspire our writing, as we create our own individual interpretations of the story.
The story will be divided into 'plot points' which guide our own stories on their own paths. I will guide their writing, by exploring different literary devices, punctuation or grammar that we can include in our writing.
Learners will use https://whiteboard.fi/ which allows them to type onto a digital whiteboard, which I can also see. This is a great way of having teacher feedback and support, whilst typing. No log in is required, and whiteboard.fi is a Kahoot company. Work created on whiteboard.fi won't save, so your learner may want to copy and paste it into a document of their own at the end of class. Whiteboard.fi is FERPA certified, a COPPA safe harbor and California Student Privacy Certified. No account is required.
Learners will be encouraged to stay at the same pace as the class, adding more details to plot points, rather than moving forward. This is to help learners not to rush into action and to slow their pace through a story.Learners will be buidling a story week-on-week, and they should submit their paragraph completed in class after each lesson. This allows me to give more personalized feedback where needed.
The pace of the lessons will vary with each cohort, and we will not finish writing the whole of the text's narrative. This means that learners can continue developing their story after the 8 weeks should they wish.
Neurodivergency Specializations and Accommodations
I focus on building confidence and foundational skills in a nurturing and empowering environment. I help teens master core concepts, overcome academic challenges, and develop a love for learning that extends beyond the classroom.
At the heart of my teaching philosophy lies a belief that learning should be an adventure, sprinkled with curiosity. We can be serious about learning without it always being too serious.
I am a teacher who welcomes all students exactly as they are. I have a lot of experience with neurodivergent children and am a neurodivergent adult myself. Cameras can be turned off if preferred (after a quick hello with the camera on).
When appropriate, I create 'low-demand' classroom experiences, which can work especially well with learners experiencing anxiety or those with PDA. I encourage and welcome participation, but am very quick to adapt to learners who are unable or unwilling to partake in an obvious and active manner. This can mean only using the chat, or even only listening.