Twelve no-prep narrative writing lessons for Years 7 to 9 that you teach from one screen: a projector, TV or interactive whiteboard. Students write in their books, so there are no student devices or logins, and with a Lesson Guide page for every lesson it also suits a relief day.
Runs in a browser. Nothing to install, no account, and it works offline.
WHICH EDITION DO I NEED?
- Teacher-Led Edition (this one): 12 lessons you run from one screen. Students write in their books. No student devices, no logins, no prep. A Lesson Guide and an optional student booklet are included.
- Student Game Edition: each student works on their own device, with six skill bays, a story capstone and a teacher console. Choose it if your class has laptops or tablets.
- Emberwick: The Lantern Archive, Teacher-Led Edition (Years 7 to 9): 12 narrative lessons plus a bonus lesson, set in a painted harbour town where the lights are going out, with voiced characters and music, a printed Keeper's Journal, three levels in every lesson and Relief Lesson Cards. Choose it if you want a story world to carry the unit.
WHAT'S INCLUDED
- The lesson app: one HTML file with all 12 lessons, the artwork, music and sound effects built in
- Lesson Guide (PDF, 14 pages): one page per lesson with every step and its minutes, teacher notes, answers and curriculum links
- Cadet Logbook (PDF, 16 pages): an optional printable student booklet, one page per lesson
- A START HERE read-me
HOW A LESSON RUNS
Most lessons follow the same rhythm, so students know what's coming:
- Today: learning intention and success criteria
- Story: a short story beat or a crew member's request
- Warm-up: a timed word game in books
- Learn: explicit teaching of one skill, with weak and strong examples and a quick check
- Model: think aloud through a strong example, and each press of the arrow reveals the next move, so the class can predict it first
- Together: you type the class's ideas on the live board, and in the skill bays the tool beside it responds as you type (a checklist that ticks, words that light up or a meter, depending on the bay)
- Your turn: students write against the timer, with sentence starters for support and stretch tasks for fast finishers
- Check: success criteria, an exit ticket and a share
Some lessons add a matching task, a decoding game or a Choose step, and the planning and drafting lessons at the end leave some steps out. Lessons run 39 to 56 minutes, and the Lesson Guide shows the time for each step and the total for each lesson. In the six skill bay lessons you choose Cadet, Officer or Commander level for the class.
THE 12 LESSONS
- Crash Landing: setting through how it feels in the body
- The Abandoned City: precise visual detail
- The Shoreline and the Signal: atmosphere through sound and touch
- Vocabulary Deck: precise vocabulary instead of vague words
- Genre Bay: shifting tone and genre with the same facts
- Dialogue Bay: punctuating and setting out dialogue
- Character Workshop: character through action and detail
- Descriptive Language Deck: layering sensory detail
- Drafting Bay: revising, cutting weak words and tightening sentences
- Plan the Chapter: building tension on a story mountain
- The Offensive: Draft: drafting an opening chapter
- Final Review: revising so every sentence earns its place
The story runs across the whole unit. Your class are cadets whose ship has crash-landed, and each lesson moves the mission forward, finishing with a full drafted and revised chapter.
EASY TO RUN
- Keys: arrows or Space to move, T for the timer, R to reveal answers, H for a hint from Nova, F for full screen, M for music, ? for teacher notes
- Works with a presentation clicker
- Music is off when you start, and the sound effects have their own button
- Nothing about students is collected or saved. The browser remembers only the class's progress, on your own computer.
CURRICULUM
Australian Curriculum v9 English, Years 7, 8 and 9, and Common Core W.3, W.4, W.5, L.2 and L.6 for Years 7 to 10. The codes for each lesson are in the Lesson Guide.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
All four Teacher-Led Editions (narrative, persuasive, informative and analytical writing) come as a bundle in the Star Class Academy store. Want to try the style first? The free Narrative Writing Worksheets and the free Story Structure Planner practise the same skills. Star Class HQ is free too: a classroom hub with a behaviour tracker, name pickers and reward games, running in a browser.
Licensed for one teacher and their own classes.
Questions? starclassacademy.com/help?ref=sh or hello@starclassacademy.com
