City Kids Stories is a year long program broken up into five sessions: two in the fall, three in the spring. The program focuses on both literature and writing and aims to help students express their thoughts, feelings, arguments, and imaginations in their writing. Our classes function as writing practice, as a creative outlet, and as an interdisciplinary tool; often, our writing classes are relevant to what we are doing in our other programs, such as civics or civil rights. Yearly sessions usually include expository writing, narrative writing, rhetoric/persuasive writing, poetry, journaling, and a unit on Shakespeare. We include oral storytelling, dramatic play, word games, and drawing as mechanisms for story building that the kids can use as inspiration for their written work.
Dr. Stacey Cohen is City Kids Stories' teacher. She received her PhD from the English Department at Howard University and has worked as an English Professor in New York and Washington, D.C. Dr. Cohen has also taught elementary, middle school, and high school level courses. Dr. Cohen is a long time homeschooler and currently homeschools her eleven year old son.
Becuase of Covid-19, these classes will be held outside during warm weather and online during inclement weather. Classes/activities held outside will require all participants to wear masks and to stay at least six feet apart.