Writing Skills & Creative Writing
Learn the writing process, traits, & skills and create your own magic with words
Our writing classes provide the tools to facilitate an open dialogue between a child and his writing craft in a positive, nonjudgmental, & welcoming environment. Your budding writers will be surprised to see their own authentic voice, and imaginations so beautifully expressed in words, and discover their innate love for writing. Beginning with basic writing skills to creating your own masterpiece writing craft, our classes emphasize daily writing habit, positive feedback, freedom of expression, and a lot of reading. We collect the learning materials, devise the tools, and create the scaffolds for your children’s creativity to blossom along with their writing.
Most importantly, we respond to your children’s writing in a way that only strengthens their writing mettle. Students are asked to read aloud their writing in each class, no matter whether it is raw or edited, a line, a paragraph, or a complete writeup. We model positive response to writing and encourage students to respond similarly. We believe it is incredibly motivating and the best reward for a writer, to receive instant, positive, and authentic feedback from peers & teachers. Be it lack of writing skills training, reluctance, fear, writer’s block, lack of inspiration or motivation to write better, our engaging courses address it all that stands between the writer in your child and his craft.
Writing is very essential for a child to succeed in school as well as in life. It is also an undeniably powerful tool that we humans have at our disposition, to communicate our ideas, thoughts and feelings, to tell our stories, to express our voice, and to bring our imaginations to life. The Mindful Learning Space believes it is incredibly beneficial to start early, and build good writing foundation. It is critical to bring all school children into the writing grove, before their writing fear and reluctance become stronger. Our writing classes are ideal, to develop age appropriate writing skills, and to instill love of writing in students of all ages.
Writing Classes for Ages 5-8/Grades K-2
Our beginner courses, use research driven & evidence based approaches, techniques, and writing exercises that entice them into the magic of words seamlessly, through practice and process. We gently nudge them to create their own writing craft by addressing their fear, reluctance, and struggle with patience, innovation, and creativity. Each session draws children closer to writing, by engaging in step by step writing process learning, stretching and flexing their creative muscles, while motivating and inspiring them by reading and role playing their favorites.
45 minutes per class – 8 classes per session
once a week for 8 weeks or twice a week for 4 weeks
Live Session Format: Here is a representative flow of the live class:
- Interactive, teacher driven lesson introducing/explaining process & methods – 10-15 minutes
- Hands on writing practice exercises, & related activites & games – 15-25 minutes
- Reading, review, discussion, and wrap up – 10 -15 minutes
Beginner Writers Program
This foundational program builds writing skills and creativity in an incremental manner with great emphasis on practice. With a lot of thought and innovation, we decompose the techniques to the appropriate level, create engaging exercises, and activities to draw little writers’ attention, sustain their interest, and progress their skills.
We bring highly relevant, interesting, & funny writing prompts with pictures and examples to gently nudge our little writers. Our teachers are experts in working with children to make them try more, by giving encouraging feedback, and warmly guiding their efforts to improvise.
This 20 week program is offered as five 4 week sessions. Each session, builds on previous sessions, while providing many opportunities to review previous skills, and bring all learning together in writing practice. See below for the detailed session breakdown:
Weeks 1-4: Writing basics – simple & correct sentences, punctuation, plurals & types of sentences. Narrative & explanatory writing – explore ideas, better your idea, add details to your idea, read aloud in class and listen to what readers say.
Weeks 5-8: Writing basics – writing more sentences, writing/editing paragraphs, who, what where descriptions. Personal & narrative writing – write about me, my favorites, write to a friend, read aloud in class and answer your reader’s questions.
Weeks 9-12: Writing basics – organizing with beginning, middle,& end, describing words & feeling words. Creative & narrative writing – write about a book, modify beginning, middle or end of a story, create my own story, read aloud in class and ask for feedback.
Weeks 13-16: Writing basics – longer sentences, connecting ideas and reviewing. Report & Letter writing – email a friend with 3 details, book or recreation trip report, read aloud in class and improvise based on feedback.
Weeks 17-20: Writing basics – sentence fluency, mood/voice & free expression . Creative & narrative writing – putting it all together and write stories or poems, story board or comics, read aloud in class and feel the pride!
Beginner Readers & Writers Program
This program is a combination of the beginner reading and writing program. As reading and writing are highly complimentary, little literates engage in both simultaneously, learning, applying, and mastering skills. Apart from reading their own writings, and finding inspiration to write more and better, from that reading, our little learners engage in a lot of fun learning exercises flexing their reading and writing muscles in rhythm.
This 20 week combo program is offered as five 4 week sessions. Each session is a combination of the respective beginner reader and writer sessions. See below for detailed session breakdown
Weeks 1-4: Writing basics – simple & correct sentences, punctuation, plurals & types of sentences.
Narrative & explanatory writing – explore ideas, better your idea, add details to your idea, read aloud in class and listen to what readers say.
Reading: one page personal narratives, fables, & non fiction explanatory text
Weeks 5-8: Writing basics – writing more sentences, writing/editing paragraphs, who, what where descriptions.
Personal & narrative writing – write about me, my favorites, write to a friend, read aloud in class and answer your reader’s questions.
Reading: kids journals, comics and picture books
Weeks 9-12: Writing basics – organizing with beginning, middle,& end, describing words & feeling words.
Creative & narrative writing – write about a book, modify beginning, middle or end of a story, create my own story, read aloud in class and ask for feedback.
Reading: I can read chapter books (Henry & Mudge, Frog &Toad & similar) series levels 1,&2.
Weeks 13-16:Writing basics – longer sentences, connecting ideas and reviewing.
Report & Letter writing – email a friend with 3 details, book or recreation trip report, read aloud in class and improvise based on feedback.
Reading: I can read chapter books (Henry & Mudge, Frog &Toad & similar) series levels 2 & 3.
Weeks 17-20: Writing basics – sentence fluency, mood/voice & free expression.
Creative & narrative writing – putting it all together and write stories or poems, story board or comics, read aloud in class and feel the pride!
Reading: I can read chapter books (Henry & Mudge, Frog &Toad & similar) series levels 3 & 4 & more
Intermediate Writing Classes for Ages 8-11/Grades 3-5
In this level our budding writers explore various forms of writing, delving deeper into the methods, strategies, and skills that writers use to connect with the reader. To inspire & motivate our budding writers, we will be looking closely into many model writing samples written by our alumni, and other budding writers of their age, thus bringing the writing craft closer to their realm of possibility. Young children amuse themselves writing about their favorite topics, penning their imaginations as stories, poems, & comics, giving and receiving positive feedback to peers, drawing inspiration from each other and engaging in fun & interactive reading & writing activities, and games. Be it writing for school, or journaling their personal experiences and memories, or bringing their wonderful imaginations to life, as stories, or expressing the beauty they see as poems, or to persuade someone to act or to coming up with a compelling explanation, our budding writers will be amazed to discover the magic they create with words!
55 minutes per class – 8 classes per session
once a week for 8 weeks or twice a week for 4 weeks
Live Session Format: Here is a representative flow of the live class:
- Interactive, teacher driven lesson introducing/explaining process & methods – 10-15 minutes
- Hands on writing practice exercises, & related activites & games – 15-25 minutes
- Reading out writes, feedback, discussion, and wrap up – 15-20 minutes
Intermediate Writers Program Level1
In this level1 program for budding writers in grade 3 & 4, learn basic writing skills & strategies, and read, write, analyze and improvise a varierty of paragraphs, and put it altogether to write a five paragraph narrative essay ultimately. Students learn grammar elements, relevant vocabulary, (amazing, alluring adjectives & adverbs), writing meaningful & impactful sentences, adding details and supporting details and organizing the details into a paragraph, and developing an essay with multiple paragraphs.
We follow a highly iterative process, where children are continuously putting their learning into practice by creating writes, sharing (reading aloud) their writes with the class and improvising it using the feedback. We bring a variety of writing prompts, models, organization tools, tips & tricks to make writing fun.
The 16 week program is offered as four 4 week sessions. Each session, builds upon previous sessions, while providing many opportunities to review previous skills, and bring all learning together in writing practice. See here for the detailed session
Weeks 1-4: Students learn and review grammar elements, vocabulary words, sentence structure & fluency, and write narrative & persuasive paragraphs
Weeks 5-8: Children learn and review adverbs, verb tenses, setting, plot & character and write excellent expository and opinion paragraphs, and build up to write a 3 paragraph narrative essay.
Weeks 9-12: Children learn compare and contrast, voice elements, sentence combining & transitions and improvise personal & creative writing.
Weeks 13-16: Students generate research, explanatory, persuasive, personal & opinion writings putting together all the learning. Finally they wrap up by writing and editing a five paragraph narrative essay
Intermediate Writers Program Level2
Having mastered the basics, and developed a writing habit in level1, our budding writers will engage in a variety of writing forms, practice the 6 traits of writing and learn additional skills in level2. We create a highly positive and safe writing space for children to wing their imaginations & creativity
Each class consists of instruction time, discussions & brainstorming, writing activities, fun games, and reading aloud our writes, and receiving & giving feedback & assessing using a rubric. Children are well versed with the assessment rubric, each child’s writing is assessed against the rubric by himself, by his writing partner/ peer & the instructor regularly.
We emphasize group discussions, reading, and active listening, and giving positive, & meaningful feedback to peers during read aloud sessions.
This 20 week program is offered as five 4 week sessions. Each session, builds upon previous sessions, while providing many opportunities to review previous skills, and bring all learning together in writing practice. See here for the detailed session
Weeks 1-4: Writing traits – Ideas & Organization.
Writing forms: Descriptive/ narrative writing, personal letter, informative writing & fables.
Weeks 5-8: Writing traits – word choice & sentence fluency.
Writing forms: persuasive, opinion, tall tales, notice, & short comic skit
Weeks 9-12: Writing traits – Ideas & voice Writing forms: realistic fiction, poetry, report, & formal letter writing
Weeks 13-16: Writing traits – organization & sentence fluency
Writing forms: research writing (an amazing animal or historic event), science fiction, family story & biography
Weeks 17-20: Writing traits – word choice & voice
Writing forms: expository essay, personal narrative writing, & persuasion & poetry
Creative Writing with Process
Young writers develop their own beautiful stories by weaving together their ideas, imaginations, dialogues, expressions, experiences, perceptions, voice & more, while engaging & interacting with peers. In this class we take writers through the formal writing process of prewriting, planning, drafting, revising and editing.
In this 8 week session (details below), the entire class works on creating their own stories and story extensions beginning with a common fictional situation that they are all placed in. Our writers rinse and repeat as they improvise their work under teacher guidance & feedback from teacher, peers & self (rubric based) assessments
Free Flow Creative Writing
This class emphasizes raw content and creativity, with little attention to the traditional process and skill training. This class best suits young writing lovers & gifted writers who need a safe, positively inspiring writing space with like minded peers and gently guiding adults to get their creativity flowing.
In this 8 week program, budding writers are busy thinking & imagining, and expressing all that rawness creatively as stories, songs, poems and more. In each class, we bring a variety of writing prompts to inspire thinking & imagination and encourage young writers to roll with the flow, without worrying much about the output.
We engage writers in fun & interactive activities & discussions and give them space to write, with/ without the help of prompt. We encourage them to write poems, stories, story extensions, write as their favorite animal, cartoon character, or anything, to write a motivational speech and more. We give children plenty of feedback along the way and encourage children to actively read and give feedback to their peers.
Advanced Writing Classes for Ages 11-14/Grades 6-8
Youngsters enhance their writing skills, and learn to express their ideas and imaginations compellingly, inviting the reader to engage with their craft with enthusiasm. They fall in love with words as they bond with their craft by applying their newly learnt skills, and engage in repeated practice. Our writing programs are incredibly helpful for middle schoolers to excel in school writing, and give power and strength to their voice, ideas, opinions, imaginations, and creativity. Young writers feel inspired and energized to write, to write more, to write with intent, originality, and freshness as they begin to realize their power to influence with stories, narratives, speeches, essays, and more.
55 minutes per class – 8 classes per session
once a week for 8 weeks or twice a week for 4 weeks
Live Session Format: Here is a representative flow of the live class:
- Interactive, teacher driven lesson introducing/explaining process & methods – 10-15 minutes
- Hands on writing practice exercises, & related activites & games – 15-25 minutes
- Reading out writes, feedback, discussion, and wrap up – 15-20 minutes
Advance Writing Program
In this program, middle schoolers learn, and enhance skills and techniques to succeed in school/academic writing. In addition they develop the habit of writing, editing, and responding positively, while forming lasting relationships with their classmates & the act of writing itself.
Students learn how to write better by learning new techniques & enhancing skills with practice exercises, reading, fun activities and games in each class. Youngsters engage in critical and creative thinking, discussions, and group writing assignments in this program.
This 20 week writing program is offered as five 4 week sessions. Middle schoolers enhance their skills and write longer, better, and polished stories and essays in this level. Each session builds on the previous sessions, while teaching new methods and mechanics, and engaging in various writing forms. Youngsters have the flexibility to join a session or two that best suits their needs and interests, or enroll for the entire program, thus developing holistic writing expertise. See below for a brief description of each session.
Writing traits: Ideas and Organisation
Writing Forms: short story, personal writing, fantasy, & report
Writing traits: Word choice and sentence fluency
Writing Forms: comic strip, poetry, expository writing & biography
Writing traits: Ideas & voice.
Writing Forms: Animation story, science fiction, persuasive writing, speech, & formal letters
Writing traits: Organization and sentence fluency
Writing Forms: short story with dialogues, personal memoir & informal letters
Writing traits: Word choice & ideas
Writing Forms: short play/skit with dialogues, poetry, speech & research writing
Advanced Creative Writing with Process
The middle school program builds upon the beginner “creative writing with process” program(for grades 3 to 5). In this program, we invite amateur writers to delve deeper into their creative world, and write richer, longer, and diverse stories, essays, reports and more, employing their language and thinking proficiency
Students receive feedback verbally and in assessment as they write, and read out every class. Live and meaningful feedback, group discussions & guided expedition into the world of imagination, and our innovative writing exercises and methods, are few things that bring middle schoolers to this program for multiple sessions. See below for a brief overview of the writing process & program flow:
In the pre-writing week, students discuss, and analyze the situation, the common story elements, assessment rubric, and engage in warm-up reading & writing activities.
In the following weeks. we plan & organize our stories, seeking inspiration & helpful feedback from each other, while engaging in fun vocabulary, and ideating exercises.
We write, assess, and revise our, rough, first and second draft stories in the next 3-4 weeks.
In the last but one week, we prepare and present our final stories and illustrations. In the final week, students reflect on the process, their original stories, collective performance and identify strengths and areas of improvement.
Free Flow Writing For Youth
This class emphasizes raw content and creativity, with little attention to the traditional writing process and training methods. The idea is to provide a safe and supportive space for your gifted and talented young writers, to bring their imaginations, thoughts & experiences to life, in words.
In each class, we bring a variety of highly relevant writing prompts to inspire thinking & imagination, and encourage young writers to roll with the flow, without worrying much about the output.We support young writers with tools, templates, resources and guidance, while providing plenty of feedback along the way. Students cherish the creative freedom, and positive support of their peers and teacher, the most in this class.
Young writers return to this space for multiple sessions as they venture into creating a variety of writing such as poems, short stories, motivational speeches, persuasive arguments, editorials for school magazines, blogs & social media posts, video game scripts, manuals, science fiction and more. Further we encourage young writers to stretch their imagination to create compelling stories, characters, dialogue & more.
Writing Classes for Ages 14 Plus/Grades 9-12
Writing becomes even more essential, and critical in high school and college, for youth to succeed academically and to express their voice. It is imperative for youngsters to practice regularly, and better their craft so they can communicate effectively in words, and claim their rightful. Besides the act of writing is in itself, empowering, creative, liberating, and stress relieving, and it gets even better when we write with, and share our writings with peers.
Our classes focus on both the technical skills & process, and the art of engaging, & channeling youthful creativity to write authentic & compelling writes. We mainly provide a safe space, a positive environment, a set of tools & techniques, listening ears, and thoughtful feedback for our youth to bring their imaginations, half baked stories, technical papers, research proposals, visionary ideas, opinions, and more, and transform them into page turner novels & short stories, enlightening research papers, engrossing science fiction, a glimpse of life & future, an account of the compelling beauty, wonder, & possibilities around us.
55 minutes per class – 8 classes per session
Once a week for 8 weeks or twice a week for 4 weeks
Live Session Format: Here is a representative flow of the live class:
- Interactive, teacher driven lesson introducing/explaining process & methods – 10-15 minutes
- Hands on writing practice exercises, & related activites & games – 15-25 minutes
- Reading out writes, feedback, discussion, and wrap up – 15-20 minutes
High School Writing Program
In this program, we work on practicing various writing forms that young learners typically write in high school. We begin with personal writing and progress through all academic writing forms and wrap up with research paper writing. We review grammar, vocabulary & other skills, the 6 traits of writing while emphasizing writing practice, reading, and responding to peers work with positive and authentic feedback.
This 20 week program is offered as five 4 week sessions, giving learners the flexibility to opt in for a session(or sessions) or the full program. Each session covers a subset of writing forms, while learning & applying relevant skills & strategies.
We assess students’ work each session, using the 6 traits based rubric and additional parameters – such as novelty, risk taking, relevance & so on. Learners are well versed with the assessment rubric, and grade themselves & peers regularly.
The chart below presents a possible sequence of assignments, progressing from personal to academic, and cross-curricular forms.
Personal Writing: Journals/Learning Logs, emails & blog prompt
Narrative Writing: Personal narratives, phase autobiographies & biographical essays & response to narrative prompts
Explanatory Writing: Explanatory essays, process essays, definition essays, comparison-contrast essays, cause-effect essays, response to explanatory
Persuasive (Argument) Writing: Argument essays, problem-solution essays, public service announcements, response to persuasive prompts & editorials.
Creative Writing: Stories & poetry
Writing about literature: Fiction reviews, nonfiction reviews, literary analyses, response to literature prompts
Research Writing: Summaries & research reports Cross-Curricular Writing: project plans & presentations, social media posts, meeting minutes, emails, & letters
Creative Writing Video Game Script
Wouldn’t it be great to write our own game scripts, where our own ideas & thoughts take the form of levels and victory. We define the actors, the powers of heroes and villains, and what it takes to win! In this 8 week course students come up with their own video game script collectively, see details section for more information.
Each class we dig into the theme, plot, setting, actors, interactions, and other elements of popular video games and develop our own, step by step using a template. Students develop a part of the script each class, using a template, they begin with discussion and brainstorming, draft their individual short scripts, and mix and match selected parts from each of the individual drafts to weave the final draft. We develop the parts in the first 6 weeks, integrate all the parts and edit the final script in the final two weeks. Youngsters will love this creative writing adventure, which engages their creative writing, design thinking, and collaboration skills.
Creative Writing Fiction
This program engages young writers in fiction writing such as – flash fiction, science fiction, comic strips, short stories, skits, & story extensions and modifications. We ensure that young writers feel safe & inspired to ideate and create their many firsts here, by creating a highly positive, and collaborative learning space.
In this 8 week program, we use a variety of writing prompts, close reading, exercises and discussions, sketching, games, and so on. Drawing from there, we come up with a story line, develop our characters, settings, plot, story maps & organization, additional details, voice, pacing, dialogues, language, supporting characters, sub plots, story extensions and so on.
We provide the tools & templates and guide the process while letting young writers choose a genre of their liking to write. We encourage students to bring their half baked or completed ideas and stories, and present it to the group, so they benefit from early feedback and possible ideas for extensions and improvements.
Creative Writing Non Fiction
Non fiction creative writing focuses on effective communication, presentation, and influence. Young writers find renewed energy and flow of ideas, as they are able to effectively channelize their thoughts, feelings, opinions, perspectives, facts & voice in writing, using the skills and strategies they learn here & support and guidance of their teachers and peers. We ensure that young people feel welcomed, inspired, & motivated to express themselves freely
In this 8 week program, young writers employ their persuasion, communication, debate, critical thinking & creativity to write essays, articles, papers, blog posts, editorials, project plans, and so on.
We provide the tools & templates, resources & references, and guide the process, while letting young writers choose what form, and how they want to write. We encourage students to bring their half baked or completed ideas and work, and present it to the group, so they benefit from early feedback, ensure alignment to their writing goals, and possible ideas for extensions, and improvements.
Creative Writing Poetry
Poetry is a magical alchemy of rhythm, beauty, and wonder and thats exactly what we inspire in class. We read poems, poems of different kinds, read again, read more getting into the depths of its beauty (presentation & organization), rhythm (the choice & art of wordplay) & wonder (thoughts, feelings, sensations & expression). Young poets learn the skills and mechanics, and various forms of poetry with examples.
We delve into a collection of selected poems each class. With prompts, examples, & conversations, we invite young poets to write a line or two or 10 or 100 in what ever form their inner voice renders itself.
In this 8 weeks program, budding poets will find many opportunities to channelize their inner voice, creativity, wisdom, & wonder as poets, and beautify their craft even more, drawing inspiration and support from the group. Most importantly youngsters realize their potential to express and engross in poetry, find connection they have been longing for, form relationships, & feed their creative self in our thoughtful & non judgmental poets’ place.
