Fast Facts
8 weekly classes on Zoom (1 hour each)
Mondays 6 pm Eastern/ 3 pm Pacific
Starts November 9th
Boys and Girls Grades 3-6
What Can You Expect?
Students will spend four weeks doing a novel study on Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms by Katherine Rundell. Four weeks will be spent learning the classical technique of writing by imitation.
4 Weeks of Novel Study, 4 Weeks of Writing
Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms is a novel about a young girl living in Zimbabwe. Family tragedy forces her to exchange her free life roaming the plains of Africa for a girls’ boarding school in the cold and wet of England.
What is Imitation Writing?
In this method, we take a model sentence or passage that is well written from a syntactical and stylistic point of view. Good writers learn by studying good literature.
We become text detectives: What makes this passage well-written? How do the grammar structures, word choices, and rhetorical devices make this writing work?
Then, we use the author’s style and sentence structure to craft our own sentences in imitation of the model. This is where the hard work and magic happens.
Students learn that it can be difficult to wrangle with the words and ideas and fit them together just right. However, with the model sentence in front of them, it provides a framework for their own writing. At the end, students are typically amazed at how polished their final sentences turn out!
Is it plagiarism?
We stress to students that this is a technique to practice their writing, not for publishing or final submissions.
Your Instructor,
Merium Khan
I have been teaching Islamic studies, Quran, Arabic, and Language Arts for over 20 years.
I use Socratic-style dialogue with my students to draw out their ideas and thoughts about the subject matter. I believe in stretching and challenging students in their thinking and writing. Reading great literature leads to great writing, which is why I incorporate literature and writing together to help students learn techniques from the authors we study.
I am somewhat of a “Shakespeare Whisperer.” Kids leave my classes loving the Bard. I infuse my classes with my passion for Shakespeare’s work and I bring his words to life with color, sound, and video so that kids can see that Shakespeare is fun and accessible.
I have two children who are homeschool graduates now in college, and a high schooler. I currently teach 9th grade language arts and history at a local Islamic School.