826LA offers the following standard field trips for elementary school classes:
Storytelling and Bookmaking
Recommended for grades 1–4
In our most popular Field Trip, students must bring forth their best writing for Professor Barnacle, our unseen, time-traveling publisher who is figuratively (and sometimes literally) stuck in the past. Students collaborate with trained volunteers and each other to produce a story with all-new characters, setting, and plot, all the way up to a cliffhanger—at which point each student finishes the story with their own original ending. Should everyone write up to their potential, and convince Professor Barnacle once and for all that new stories are just as powerful as tales of old, the Professor will approve their stories for publication, and each student will take home their own bound and illustrated book.
Well-Wishing and Poetry Writing (Mar Vista)
Recommended for grades 3–5
Students are called on once again by Professor Barnacle to write, this time to cheer up the Professor’s beloved but melancholy pet with the power of poetry. With our volunteers, students work together in large and small groups to explore different poetic techniques like alliteration and personification and types of poetry such as list poems and odes. Finally, students will write and perform their very own poem for Professor Barnacle and their pet. At the end of the field trip, each student will leave as a published poet, taking home their own poetry collection.
Poetry & The Time Travel Machine (Echo Park)
Recommended for grades 3–5
Students will travel through space and time through poetry. Professor Barnacle’s time travel machine is broken, and they are inconsolable. Students will learn poetic techniques like personification and sensory details in order to write poetry that has the power to send Professor Barnacle to past and future eras. Students will work in small groups with our volunteers to write two collaborative poems focusing on the past and the future and one individual poem centered around the here and the now. At the end of the Field Trip, each student will leave as published poets, taking home their own poetry collection.
Choose Your Own Adventure
Recommended for grades 5–8
It’s an action-packed thriller! With the support of our volunteers, students begin writing a story as a group, but stop when the second-person protagonist has a decision to make. At that point, the group splits into two to write each branch of the story. As more decisions present themselves and storylines continue to branch, the groups continue split into smaller groups until the . Each student ends the adventure by finishing the unresolved story branches with their own endings. By the end of the field trip, students will have written an 11-page adventure with six different endings, and every student will take home their own version of the adventure.
STEM
Recommended for grades 5-8
In this brand new Field Trip, students will work together in small groups to design and build a prototype for an invention to solve a problem 10,000 years into the future! Students will work in teams to draft blueprints for their invention, and attempt to replicate their peers’ inventions based on their peers’ blueprints. At the end of the field trip, each student will write his or her own letter to the future, describing their invention, the process used to create it, and its potential use in the future.
826LA offers the following standard field trips for middle and high school classes:
Small-Group Storytelling
Recommended for grades 6–8, including special education and ELL classes
In this Field Trip, students are invited to the 826LA writing lab as guest authors for the day. Students work in small groups and with our volunteers to create an original story from start to finish – constructing characters, finding a setting, and planning a plot suitable for all ages. Each group’s story will be published, and every student will leave with their own copy of their book to share with family and friends.
Screenwriting
Recommended for grades 9–12
In this Field Trip, designed with the help of a professional screenwriter, students work in small groups on a script written for stage or screen while learning to craft scenes and write engaging dialogue. Students will leave with a bound script, published and ready to send right off to Hollywood.
Memoir
Recommended for grades 9–11
It’s never too early to start your memoir! During this Field Trip, students explore storytelling through a nonfiction lens. They reflect on their lives and unpack important moments, events, and memories that have shaped their identities. With the help of volunteers and focused small group work, students walk away from this Field Trip with a collective class memoir, a map of their memories, and the beginnings of their own personal narratives. This Field Trip can be used as a tool for students as they prepare to write their personal narratives for college application essays, whether that be this year, next year, or several years into the future.
College Personal Statements
Recommended for grades 11–12
Crafting personal statements for college applications is one of the most powerful examples of writing as a tool for empowerment and equal access. Colleges are looking for personal and honest stories, and in personal statement Field Trips, 826LA volunteers spend time with students to learn their stories and then shape their experiences into essays that reveal character and determination. We emphasize reflective and thoughtful writing while making sure students are answering all the questions in the prompts for University of California schools, private colleges, and California State EOP short answer questions.