photo credit: stellar nursery, by the European Southern Observatory
For Winter/Spring 2021, Rhizome is pleased to offer a range of in-depth programming, facilitated by practitioners, for homeschoolers and other members of the community. These will be small, friendly, relaxed classes focused on creative collaboration and open-minded engagement with the material. Please email info@rhizomedc.org with any questions. Scholarships available.
Close Reading II: Goodness | Mondays 10-11am | Ages 12-14
Story Structure | Mondays 130-3pm | Ages 12-15
FULL/WAITING LIST Writing for Flow | Mondays 330-420pm | Ages 9-11
Exploring Creativity through 7 Elements of Art II | Mondays 430-530 | Ages 8-12
Bodies of Knowledge: Experiential Science | Tuesdays 130-230pm | Ages 8-12
Literature & Crisis | Wednesdays 10am-noon | Ages 16-18
Literature & Inquiry | Wednesdays 230-415pm | Ages 13-15
Literature & Creative Writing | Thursdays 10-11am | Ages 10-12
All classes begin the week of January 11 and run through the week of May 10.
No classes the week of March 29 - April 2.
Classes are 16 sessions each. No classes Monday 1/18 or Wednesday 1/20. Last Thursday class May 6.
A note on the sliding scale: Low end of the scale is ~$11 per hour of instruction. High end of the scale is ~$16.50 per hour of instruction. Please pay in accordance with your family's resources and needs.
There are scholarships available if the low end of the scale presents a financial burden - please reach out to us at info@rhizomedc.org
Close Reading II: Goodness | Mondays 10-11am | Ages 12-14 | Sliding scale: $175-275
Provocative reading on the question of Goodness, and how to do it! Secular close reading class ranging from The Eloquent Peasant (Ancient Egypt's take on the Golden Rule), on through Sartre, Peter Singer, and Chief Tecumseh. Chekhov, Tolstoy, Audre Lorde! The semester also covers some famous ethical thought experiments, including Phillipa Foot's trolley problem. Fun, lively, but definitely challenging, for middle-high schoolers with a philosophical streak and strong reading skills.
Story Structure | Mondays 130-3pm | Ages 12-15 | Sliding scale: $265-400
Support, feedback, and guidance for middle- and high-school-aged writers.
Writing for Flow | Mondays 330-420pm | Ages 9-11 | Sliding scale: $150-220
Play-based exposure, including creative prompts, group writing activities, and in-class writing sessions-- great for enthusiastic writers but designed to entice the reluctant or inhibited writer too. Writing as a form of play helps shorten the distance between the thoughts in our heads and the words on the page. Go wild, and go for the giggles, while building stamina, confidence, and appreciation for the possibilities of the blank page. This class is designed to be homework-free.
Exploring Creativity through 7 Elements of Art II | Mondays 430-530 | Ages 8-12 | Sliding scale: $175-275
Throughout the semester, students will learn about Line, Color, Shape, Form, Pattern, Space, and Texture. We will build on the skill we learned in part 1, but new students are welcome as well.
Objective: Understand and develop a relationship with the fundamental elements of art, and develop the skills to identify these elements in popular motifs and artworks.
Students will also be challenged to explore new ways of expressing these elements through the performance arts, visual arts, and sound. With these skills, students will build the confidence to speak about artworks and create artworks that are deeply rooted in the art elements.
Creativity is the ability to bring something that was once invisible into the light.
Bodies of Knowledge: Experiential Science | Tuesdays 130-230pm | Ages 8-12 | Sliding scale: $185-290
This is a play based course focused on tuning our bodies to cycles inside and outside of our own body.
Participants will explore elements of scientific thinking by doing observations and explorations. We will set physical and observational intentions for our time. Every class we will move together, and we will gather observations and share theories.
In January, we will begin our study of cycles by learning with waveforms. We will think with the spine and explore the properties of waves by doing observational drawing and writing work. In February, we will continue thinking about cycles and time by making an observational moon journal. In March, we will investigate bulbs and plants as the weather gets warmer. We will be conducting an investigation into the intelligence of plants. April and May investigations tba…
Please join us in the zoom room!
“Peter's teaching is joyful, observational, and wise. He models and discusses self-challenge and body-knowledge in a way that has definitely rubbed off on my very heady kid. (He is literally the only person ever to persuade her to do a mindfulness exercise.) Through him, she's also generated some really delightful visual studies of her feet.”
Literature & Crisis | Wednesdays 10am-noon | Ages 16-18 | Sliding scale: $350-525
What role can creativity play in times of crisis? What literature might best speak to us? What would we like to create in response? This is a literature and writing class that will focus on our unstable times. We will read novels, poems, plays and nonfiction that respond to or reflect historical and contemporary crises, directly or indirectly. We will explore how the literature is framed by crisis and conflict.
This class will help prepare students for college-level writing by developing their ability to express complex arguments and analyses, as well as sharpening their attention to details of grammar and style. We will focus on what makes writing effective and enjoyable to read, as well as how to feel confident with one's writing voice. Students will also be invited to respond to the works we read through creative writing, visual art, music, or video. Classes will involve short lectures, discussions, writing, and small group projects. Students will be expected to read 150-200 pages per week, as well as complete short weekly writing assignments and two longer papers.
Sliding scale available if needed.
Literature & Inquiry | Wednesdays 230-415pm | Ages 14-15 | Sliding scale: $300-450
In this class, our basis for study will be inquiry. Students will read challenging works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and practice writing strategies to communicate complex ideas. They will also write creatively, both individually and collaboratively. Class time will be devoted to discussions, writing activities, and language games. Our goal is to challenge ourselves and enjoy literature. Students will be expected to read roughly 150 pages a week, as well as complete short writing assignments and one or two longer papers.
Because the theme of this class is Inquiry and Creativity, part of our reading list will be determined by students. We will examine the ways in which literature can creatively respond to and generate more questions. Students can respond in creative ways to the literature and discussions through writing, visual art, music, or video.
Open to 13 year-olds with permission from the instructor. Sliding scale available if needed.
Literature & Creative Writing | Thursdays 10-11am | Ages 10-12 | Sliding scale: $175-260
In this class we will read novels, short stories and poetry, as well as draw and write. We will respond to the literature through discussion, creative writing and drawing, and playing games. The goal of this class is to enjoy literature and creative writing, collaborate with others to discover/uncover meaning, and have fun. Part of the collaborative work will be choosing what books to read during the year. This process opens our minds to genres and authors we may not have discovered otherwise.
Sliding scale available if needed.
About the instructors:
Leslie Bumstead: I am a poet and writer who has been teaching literature and creative writing to homeschoolers for the past seven years. Previously I taught poetry in a high school, and composition and literature at George Mason University (where I got my Master of Fine Arts degree). In addition to homeschooling classes, I teach creative writing to children and adults in the DC area. My collection of poems, Cipher/Civilian, was published by Edge Books in 2005. Other works, including essays and translations, have appeared in anthologies and literary magazines. I homeschooled my own children for twelve years.
Maps Glover creates work inspired by human behavior and pervasive social issues. He illustrates how time affects behavior, and how observation alters perspective. He constructs portals in which the characters he creates exist and experience the world or maps around them. Often the works addresses emotion thought conflicting colors and distorted Characters. Maps has created works at Kennedy Center, Smithsonian Arts & Industries Building, Transformer DC, and more. His unconventional approach to expressionism evolves the birth of something new.
Anna Josephson is a homeschooling parent in the District. She grew up in Alaska, where she received Socratic seminar education starting at age 12. She is a published author currently shopping her first novel. "Anna’s class turned my reluctant writer into a storyteller. In addition to producing a 75 page story in the class, she has started on the sequel and has three to four other stories in various stages of production. Writing has become her favorite thing to do." "Everything she has taught me has improved my skills as a thinker, writer, and surveyor of the world." "Anna is an amazing teacher and I feel very lucky that my teen was able to take several of her classes. She knows her material, chooses readings that are challenging but accessible through careful analysis, and her enthusiasm for each discussion is contagious. She is one of the most thoughtful people I have ever met, and her real interest in and respect for the students and their ideas allows her to help them value their own ideas and deepen their thinking through debate and reflection."
Peter Redgrave is a teaching artist based in Baltimore, MD. He has worked in education for twenty years. He taught in public schools for ten years during which time he focused on increasing student voice in the class room. He led middle school science, drama for K- 5, and third grade. He has presented at conferences, led workshops for adults and young people. He is currently interested in learning outside school settings. “Peter's teaching is joyful, observational, and wise. He models and discusses self-challenge and body-knowledge in a way that has definitely rubbed off on my very heady kid. (He is literally the only person ever to persuade her to do a mindfulness exercise.) Through him, she's also generated some really delightful visual studies of her feet.”