Kids Canon: Behind the Scenes
- by Victoria Kane
Studio’s Kids Canon classes are built around a curated curriculum of novels accompanied by study guides to help students further engage with the texts. Up until now, Studio has been using a variety of excellent study guides from a selection of trusted publishers. Now, however, we have seized the opportunity to create our very own study guides, tailored precisely to the unique design and goals of Kids Canon.
Our in-house study guides help students foster a deep understanding and appreciation of literature and become exceptional writers themselves. Written by teachers and authors from around the world, the guides are customised to each of the Kids Canon novels. They all include descriptions and examples from the text of important literary terms, character and plot developments, and engaging questions about the story. For each section of the novel there are original vocabulary exercises focused on facilitating a genuine understanding of new words in their appropriate contexts.
The first part of the study guides describes and illustrates the ways in which authors set up the conflicts and main plot points in their stories, create characters by describing traits and cleverly use literary devices. In the second part of the guides, students use the same organisational categories they just saw while reading the novel to organise their own creative writing pieces. In this way, students not only benefit from learning about the different literary devices and story arcs used by authors, but also implement these tools in their own writing. By breaking down the different components of literature for our students, they can see firsthand what it takes to put together a cohesive story, and then do it themselves.
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