This writing curriculum takes an original and highly creative path to teaching elements of literature and creative writing. In this course students learn characterization, plot, setting, theme and conflict--all the traditionally taught elements of literature, but not taught in the traditional manner. These elements are learned in the context of writing their own adventure novel. This is a hands-on literature course. The course consists of watching a brief lecture on DVD, reading a portion of the textbook and completing writing assignments in the workbook. The assignments in the workbook are putting into application the element taught in the lesson, with the added benefit of beginning to build the framework for the novel. At the end of the year, the student will have written a 12 chapter adventure novel.
Website: The One Year Adventure Novel
(1 Reviews)
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Contributor Reviews
Reviews are solely the opinions of the contributor.
Cons: price (although it can be reused for other kids, so it's not necessarily a con)
Grades Used: high school
We've used the One Year Adventure Novel curriculum for all three of our kids.
While my son isn't much of a writer (or a reader for that matter), he learned a lot about story structure from the curriculum which helped him be able to analyze works later on in school.
My oldest daughter, on the other hand, was completely inspired by the curriculum and is a die-hard writer now, and OYAN definitely was the main reason for that. She's a really solid writer (she's written over 4 million words in all her writing projects since she started OYAN!), and she can analyze any story she reads or movie she watches down to the last detail. She understands the story arc, and can identify why a story is strong or weak all because of the excellent foundation she got with the curriculum.
We also love how it's not just a curriculum. There's also an excellent student forum where they critique each other's writing and talk about writing in general, character development, and their favorite fandoms. There are Summer and Winter Workshops (we've attended several Summer Workshops), live webinars with Mr. S (the creator of the curriculum), story contests, and video contests.
What's really amazing is that the students of the curriculum have literally created their own subculture. (Fun fact: If you're an OYAN student, you're called an "OYANer"). My children have made some of their closest friends through the curriculum.
I definitely recommend this curriculum for any high school student, and especially if they have any interest at all in telling stories, creative writing, fiction writing, screenwriting, playwriting, etc.
Even if they're not interested in writing fiction, the curriculum can give them a solid foundation in the concept of story which will prepare them VERY well for critiquing literature in other classes later on in their school career.