Writing Camp 6-7: Mythology and Advanced Composition
Summer Language Arts
Schedule in 2026
An ancient island has been found and a protected secret is buried under its sand!
In this unique and energetic course designed for students entering grades 6 or 7, students will have a rare opportunity to develop their writing and problem-solving skills through the worlds of ancient mythologies. Much like real-life scholars and professionals today, students will be tasked to reconstruct a myth based only on material and literary archaeological evidence. Each day in class, students will study myths from around the world and investigate “ancient” artifacts recovered from a long-lost civilization. From shattered mosaics to fragments of ancient poems, students will embark on an adventure of a lifetime to effectively reconstruct the mythic narrative hidden within the artifacts.
By taking this course, students will accelerate their core language arts skills, such as the following:
- Advanced literary analysis: Students will become skilled readers of myth, learning to recognize the function and importance that these stories held for ancient societies. By analyzing and interpreting myths across a range of cultures, students will begin to understand how these ancient stories have influenced modern literature.
- Problem-solving and critical thinking: Each day, students will encounter a puzzling artifact from a fictional ancient society. Their task will be to use their critical thinking skills to form a hypothesis about what the artifact might have been, and how it might have fit into a larger set of values and beliefs held by the society.
- Creative writing: Over the course of this class, students will pull together their interpretations of all the artifacts they've examined and extrapolate a core myth of the ancient society they are studying — just as real archaeologists, literary scholars, and historians have done to figure out the myths of real ancient societies. Students will learn how to effectively implement literary devices typical of the myth-genre (e.g. hero’s journey plot, metaphor, anaphora, epithets, and more) to write their version of this myth.
Note: To ensure students have the best experience, it is recommended that they do not read the course texts before class starts.
This two-week course meets Monday through Friday for three hours each day.
Space is very limited for our summer programs. Please do not wait until the last minute to enroll. If there are more than two weeks before the course starts, a $200 deposit will be due when enrolling, with the balance due two weeks before the course begins.
