At Advanced Creative Academy, we offer a range of workshops specifically designed for children and youth to develop narrative skills, enhance their reading, storytelling, and writing abilities. Our workshops are research-based with the goal of applying narrative and storytelling skills not only for creative and writing activities, but transferring these skills across subjects such as math, science, social studies and beyond. We apply Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy with constructivist learning theory, the narrative paradigm, and project-based learning (PBL) in our practice. 

 

• Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP)

CPS is an educational approach that not only values but actively sustains the cultural practices, languages, and identities of diverse student populations. It builds upon Culturally Responsive Teaching by advocating for an environment where students' cultural backgrounds are not just acknowledged but continuously supported and celebrated throughout their education.

• Key features:

Affirming cultural identities: Encourages students to see their cultural heritage and linguistic diversity as assets, not deficits.

Promoting cultural competence: Helps students learn about their own and others' cultures, fostering mutual respect.

Sustaining cultural practices: Integrates students’ cultural practices into the curriculum, ensuring they can thrive in both their own communities and wider society.

• Benefits:

Increased engagement: Students feel more connected to the learning material, which boosts motivation and participation.

Improved academic outcomes: When students' cultural identities are validated, they are more likely to succeed academically.

Empowerment: It empowers students by affirming their cultural and linguistic backgrounds, promoting pride in their identities.

Equity and inclusion: It addresses educational inequities by creating a more inclusive learning environment where all students feel valued.

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• Constructivist Learning Theory (Piaget, Vygotsky)

This theory emphasizes that children learn best by constructing their own understanding through experiences and active engagement. When teaching narrative writing, children should be encouraged to draw on their own lives and experiences to build stories. This approach can then be expanded to other subjects, allowing them to apply narrative thinking in different contexts (e.g., telling the story of a scientific discovery or a historical event).

Application: In a science class, for instance, children might write narratives about the life cycle of a plant, weaving in both factual information and creative storytelling to demonstrate understanding.

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• The Narrative Paradigm (Walter Fisher)

The narrative paradigm suggests that humans understand the world through stories and that storytelling is a fundamental form of communication. Fisher argues that people are “homo narrans” (storytellers by nature), and by teaching children the structure of effective narratives—characters, conflict, resolution, and plot—they can learn to apply narrative reasoning to any subject. This can help children make sense of complex concepts in other disciplines. Application: In social studies, children could use narrative to tell the story of a historical figure or event, focusing on key elements of plot and character development to make history more relatable and engaging.

 

• Project-Based Learning (PBL)

Project-Based and Play-Based Learning encourages students to work on extended projects that require critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity. By integrating narrative writing into PBL, children can apply storytelling to larger projects that span multiple subjects. Students engage in multimodal and creative activities such as storyboarding, text remixing, blackout poetry/story creation, drawing and illustrating scenes from stories, etc.

Application: A cross-curricular project might involve writing a narrative about a journey through space for a science class, incorporating facts about planets or space exploration into a creative story. This encourages children to connect factual knowledge with creative thinking.​

 

Our team consists of dedicated English and Creative Writing lecturers bringing teaching and research experience in college and elementary school settings in the United States. The author of the workshops is a Master’s in Teaching English as a Second Language and a PhD candidate in Education with the focus on multilingual education. Our team is committed to nurturing young minds in the art of storytelling and writing. Also, we are dedicated to providing a welcoming and encouraging environment to instill a deep appreciation for the richness of diverse cultures and languages.