Are you looking for English classes that challenge and engage your students, while offering them a creative AND academic approach to reading and writing? You’re in the right spot! Creative ELA’s Reading and Writing Workshops do all that and more!
Held for students in 4th-6th grade, 7th-8th grade, and high school, students read grade-appropriate selections of literature, non-fiction, and poetry to practice comprehension strategies and analysis. Students learn to annotate, understand a variety of literary terms, and participate in class discussions. They also practice the skills they’re learning through creative writing activities.
Reading and Writing Workshops run each week from September to November/December and January to May. Classes meet live each week for an hour.
*November classes often run into the first week of December due to Thanksgiving
| Grade | Day | Time |
| 4th-6th | Tuesdays | 12-1 pm ET |
| 7th-8th | Tuesdays | 1-2 pm ET |
| High School | Wednesdays | 12-1 pm ET |
In each class, time is provided to read, write, and discuss.
Typical Class Agenda
- Warm-up Activity
- Mini-lesson
- Reading or Writing Activity
- Time to read or write
- Time to discuss or share
- Homework given for extra practice (optional)
Below are the units of study and pieces of literature we’ll be reading in 2026.
4th- 6th Grade English Language Arts
| Month & Focus | Reading Workshop | Writing Workshop |
|---|---|---|
| January 2026 Plot, Conflict, Setting | Literary Terms- plot, conflict, setting, foreshadowing, chronological order, author’s purpose, inferences Texts – From Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis – The Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll | – Use commas correctly in dates, addresses, and letters – Pronoun- antecedent agreement – Correct sentence fragments and run-on sentences – Creative Writing Activities |
| February 2026 Character and Point of View | Literary Terms- point of view, characterization, symbol, context clues Texts – The Red Guards from Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li-Jiang – Interview with Ji-li-Jiang | – Verb tenses – Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives and adverbs – Subject and object pronouns – Creative Writing Activities |
| March 2026 Theme | Literary Terms- topic, theme, recurring theme, main idea, sentence combining Texts – Gombi and the Wild Ducks Japanese folk tale retold by Yoshiko Uchida – From Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan | – Compound subjects and predicates – Commas and coordinating conjunctions – Creative Writing Activities |
| April 2026 Poetry | Literary Terms- sound devices, rhyme, repetition, onomatopoeia, metaphor, simile, personification, figurative language, imagery Texts – A Message from a Caterpillar by Lilian Moore – Fog by Carl Sandburg – Windshield Wiper by Eve Merriam – Is the Moon Tired by Christina Rossetti – Mooses by Ted Hughes – Who knows if it’s the moon by ee cummings – Limericks by Edgar Lear Ogden Nash | – Subject-verb agreement – Practice using poetic terms in writing – Creative Writing Activities |
| May 2026 Mood, Tone, Style | Literary Terms- mood, tone, author’s purpose, summarize, elements of style Texts – Good Hotdogs by Sandra Cisneros – Ode to an Artichoke by Pablo Neruda – The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by A Wolf | – Declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences – Use commas correctly with adjectives and items in a series – Creative Writing Activities |
| September 2026 Myths, Legends, and Tales | Literary Terms- myth, legend, folk tale, tall tale, universal themes Texts – Orion by Alice Low – Arachne retold by Olivia E Coolidge – The Chenoo retold by Joseph and James Bruchac – Aunty Misery retold by Judith Ortiz Cofer | – Capitalization – Combine clauses to form compound and complex sentences – Creative Writing Activities |
| October 2026 Biography and Autobiography | Literary Terms- biography, autobiography, main idea, supporting details, point of view, imagery, chronological order Texts – The Story of My Life by Helen Keller – The Life of Harry Houdini by Tom Lalicki | – Colons – Proper Nouns – Creative Writing Activities |
| November/December 2026 Information, Argument, and Persuasion | Literary Terms- argument, persuasive techniques, text features, summary Texts – Supercroc by Peter Winkler – What Video Games Can Teach Us and The Violent Side of Video Games by Emily Sohn – Should Wild Animals be Kept as Pets by The Human Society of the United States | – Using capitalization, quotation marks, and italics to punctuate titles correctly – Creative Writing Activities |
7th- 8th Grade English Language Arts
| Month & Focus | Reading Workshop | Writing Workshop |
|---|---|---|
January 2026 Plot, Conflict, Setting | Literary Terms- plot, conflict, setting, sequence, foreshadowing, flashback, cause and effect Texts – From Holes by Louis Sachar – Papa’s Parrot by Cynthia Rylant | – Sentence fragments and run-on sentences – Punctuate possessives – Pronoun-antecedent agreement in numbers – Creative Writing Activities |
February 2026 Character and Point of View | Literary Terms- character traits, characterization, first-person point of view, omniscient point of view, inferences, context clues Texts – Charles by Shirley Jackson – from The Man Who Was a Horse by Julius Lester | – Present, past, and future verb tenses – Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives and adverbs – Creative Writing Activities |
March 2026 Theme | Literary Terms- topic, theme, symbol, cause and effect, sequence, make inferences, compare and contrast, clauses Texts – Homeless by Anna Quindlen – from The Hummingbird That Lived Through Winter by William Saroyan | – Coordinating conjunctions to join sentences – Combine dependent and independent clauses – Creative Writing Activities |
April 2026 Poetry | Literary Terms- imagery, figurative language, sound devices, form, personal response, connotation Texts – A Minor Bird by Robert Frost – Under the Back Porch by Virginia Hamilton – A word is dead by Emily Dickinson – Cynthia and the Snow by Gwendolyn Brooks – The Courage That My Mother Had by Edna St. Vincent Millay – Ode to Enchanted Light by Pablo Neruda – Snow in the Suburbs by Thomas Hardy | – Support key points with quotes and details – Punctuate various types of sentences – Active voice – Creative Writing Activities |
May 2026 Mood, Tone, Style | Literary Terms- mood, tone, style, monitor, summarize, subject-verb agreement, fact, opinion Texts – From Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse – From The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | – Subject-verb agreement – Creative Writing Activities |
September 2026 Myths, Legends, and Tales | Literary Terms- myth, legend, folktale, tall tale, universal theme, compound sentences, complex sentences, homograph Texts – Echo by Alice Low – From Young Arthur by Robert D. San Souci – From The King Who Wished for Gold by Anna Rockwell – From The Three Wishes by Ricardo E. Alegria | – Sentence structure – Simple and compound sentences – Complex sentences – Creative Writing Activities |
October 2026 Biography and Autobiography | Literary Terms- biography, autobiography, personal essay, historical drama, primary sources, personal narrative Texts – Names/Nombres by Julia Alvarez – From East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart by Susan Butler | – Punctuate titles with italics and quotation marks – Creative Writing Activities |
November/December 2026 Information, Argument, and Persuasion | Literary Terms- fact, opinion, text features, argument, persuasive techniques, reasoning Texts – What Do You Know About Sharks by Sharon Guynup – Great White Sharks by Peter Benchley – Teen Reading Survey by SmartGirl.org – Take a Book Wherever You Go by Joan Aiken | – Use commas and colons correctly – Creative Writing Activities |
High School English
| Month & Focus | Reading Workshop | Writing Workshop |
|---|---|---|
| January 2026 Narrative Structure | Literary Terms- plot, conflict, flashback, foreshadowing, suspense, Texts – A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury – Fish Cheeks by Amy Tan – From Piedra by Gary Soto | – Realistic dialogue, characters, and descriptive details – Pronoun agreement with antecedent – Creative Writing Activities |
February 2026 Analyzing Character and Point of View | Literary Terms- point of view, characterization, allusion Texts – from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou – Caged Bird by Maya Angelou | – Adding supportive details – Adjective clauses, relative pronouns, and adjectives – Creative Writing Activities |
March 2026 Setting, Mood, and Imagery | Literary Terms- setting, mood, imagery, inference Texts – The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe – From The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien | – Formal vs Informal Language – Creative Writing Activities |
April 2026 Theme and Symbol | Literary Terms- theme, universal themes, symbols, Texts – Poem on Returning to Dwell in the Country by T’ao Ch’ien – My Heart Leaps Up by William Wordsworth – The Sun by Mary Oliver – The Apple-Tree by Katherine Mansfield | – Independent and subordinate clauses – Creative Writing Activities |
May 2026 Author’s Purpose | Literary Terms- author’s purpose and perspective, patterns of organization, tone, inference Texts – From The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros – His Name Was Pete by William Faulkner | – Coordinating conjunctions – Concrete and abstract nouns – Creative Writing Activities |
September 2026 Argument and Persuasion | Literary Terms- elements of an argument, craft of persuasion, rhetorical devices, repetition, analogy, allusion Texts – I Have a Dream by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr – Testimony Before the Senate by Michael J. Fox – Appearances Are Destructive by Mark Mathabane | – Imperative sentences – Parallelism – Creative Writing Activities |
October 2026 The Language of Poetry | Literary Terms- form, stanza, free verse, rhythm, rhyme, meter, repetition, alliteration, assonance, consonance, imagery, figurative language, simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, ballad, dramatic monologue Texts – I Am Offering This Poem by Jimmy Santiago Baca – I Ask My Mother to Sing by Li-Young Lee – Ode to My Socks by Pablo Neruda – O What is That Sound by W.H. Auden – The Seven Ages of Man by William Shakespeare – To Be of Use by Marge Piercy | – Descriptive language – Participles and participial phrases – Infinitives and infinitive phrases – Creative Writing Activities |
November 2026 Author’s Style and Voice | Literary Terms- style, voice, tone, realism, sensory details, sequence, Texts – Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy? Tim O’Brien – Going to Japan by Barbara Kingsolver – A Few Words by Mary Oliver | – Sentence structure- interrogative, exclamatory, declarative – Word choice- denotation and connotation – Repetition – Homonyms – Creative Writing Activities |
Want to know more- keep reading! Interested in signing up? You can head to the live class page! If you’re looking to enroll more than one student and would like a huge discount, check out my All Access Membership.
FAQ-
How often do the Reading and Writing Workshop Classes meet?
In the 2026 school year, each 4-week class is offered January to May and September to November. See the class calendar above for exact dates.
Is there homework?
Do you want there to be? It’s up to each family. I offer reading and writing activities that students can do at home so they can practice what we’re learning.
Do you give grades?
Students can send me their writing for feedback. They are assessed informally when they participate and share their ideas and writing. At any time, parents are welcome to message me with questions or concerns. I do not give grades.
What happens if my student misses a class?
There are no make-up classes, but I will send the students the slide presentation I used, and they are welcome to email me with questions.
Do you offer accommodations?
Yes, the accommodations below are offered in every class. If your student needs additional accommodations, please contact me prior to signing up so we can see if my class will be a good fit for your learner. I do everything I can to make my classroom accessible to all students and learning styles.
- Students are welcome to have a scribe or use speech-to-text
- All class materials, including texts, will be read aloud while students follow along.
- All instructions are written and read aloud.
- Cameras can be on or off.
- Students can participate by unmuting or typing in the chat.
- Sharing is encouraged but never required.
What materials will my students need?
Students will need:
- Printed copies of handouts- these include the texts and activities
- Folder for classwork
- Paper, notebook, or computer to type on
- Something to write with
- Access to Zoom
- Access to Common Lit and Wayground for games and activities- students will be provided with links. We do not use these sites in every class.
Do you offer discounts if I enroll more than one student?
Yes, join my All Access Family Membership, and you’ll save a BUNCH. Plus, your family will have access to all of my one-time classes held on Thursdays, my Member Library, Pen Pal program, Book Club Novel Studies, and so much more!
What are your qualifications?
I received my BA in English in 2001, my Commonwealth of Virginia Collegiate Professional License in English in 2004, and a State of Indiana Professional Educator’s License in 2007. I taught English and Creative Writing for three years in a public high school, and middle school and high school English and Creative Writing at a private school for learners with dyslexia for six years. In 2013, I started facilitating creative writing classes for adults and youth at Women Writing for (a) Change, and in 2017, I began offering ELA classes online. I do not keep my teaching license up to date because I teach students all over the world. However, I am constantly reading and taking professional development classes to keep my learning up-to-date.
I’d love for you students to join my monthly Creative ELA English Language Arts classes. Feel free to ask questions below or reach out via email.
