“My daughter had an awesome time. We really apprecite all the thought that went into this camp.” Lila, Parent

We created our own curriculum because Nara had mentored at Fullerton before, and she had some ideas she wanted to try. What if you gave kids a step-by-step process to learn the basics of storytelling? Then, once they understood the basic rules, they could break the rules and create any kind of story they wanted.

So we created a curriculum of story choices. For example: choose your favorite genres (and mix your favorite genres together), choose a time period, choose a location. Ideally, this would be an interactive app, but we did it all on paper. As kids considered their choices, they had to balance and rebalance story elements. It really got them thinking.

The curriculum could get pretty complex, requiring students to make a lot of story decisions. They had to think about the kind of story they wanted to tell, and what they wanted to say.

The mentors were always there to work with groups or one-on-one. Some kids needed to talk things out. Others needed to ask a lot of questions. 

We had only completed two sections of our curriculum: Genre and Ideas. But that was enough to give the kids what they needed to start a new story.

All the mentors met each day after class to discuss what worked, what didn't, and what we'd do different next time. Here are a few ideas:

• Create a one-day version of the curriculum. Break it out into two sessions: before lunch and after lunch. Focus on writing one picture poem and one piece of flash fiction.
• Visit homeless shelters and literacy outreach programs (like 826 National) to see how we can plug into their service efforts. Storytelling can be an important skill for kids at risk.
• Expand the curriculum to cover an entire month. Make it only 2 hours a day (3 was a little long for most kids). This will give us more time to dig deeper into the content.
• Create a curriculum that connects with Common Core so we can take it into public schools. We can act as a resource for teachers.
• Create an online version that can be sold for a low price point. It can be in ebook format or (even better) an interactive website or app.

“Thank you for giving Carlos this wonderful gift. It is a treasure that will last a lifetime.” Ana, Parent

THE STORY ROCKET
The Story Rocket held all their basic choices. They had to make at least 5 main decisions before the rocket took off (and before we moved on in the curriculum):

• Character(s): Human or non-human, one or more than one? Who will pilot your story?
• Basic Action: Something you can write in just a few words, like "Aliens attack earth."
• Place: Where does your story take place—on earth, another planet, in a fantasy world?
• Time: When does your story take place—past, present, future, fantasy time?
• Genre: What genre or mixed-genre is your story?

​Each of these core decisions were linked to other areas in the curriculum, for example, we want to create one entire chapter that focuses on the when of your story.

We were surprised to discover that most of the kids were very familiar with the concept of genre. They grew up with movies, TV , smartphones, and social media. The challenge was trying to get them to tell stories of their own, stories that really mattered to them.