Free curriculum · for classrooms, clubs & workshops
A week with Grimoire
Five lessons that take a class from "what's a terminal?" to a finished short story in a real manuscript. There's a guide for teachers and a workbook for students, and every page prints neatly as a handout.
- 5 days
- about 50 minutes a day
- ages 12 and up
- macOS · Linux · Windows
- free, always
The teacher guide
Setup before the week, then each day: goals, a minute-by-minute plan, what to say, what to demo, what tends to go wrong, ways to support and stretch, and an exit ticket with answers. A rubric and a troubleshooting page at the end.
Open the teacher guide → For studentsThe student workbook
A handout for every day with steps to follow, things to try, room to write and questions to look back on. Plus a key card, a story planner, scene cards and an author's certificate for the end of the week.
Open the student workbook →The week at a glance
By Friday every student has written a short story of about 1,500 to 2,500 words (you can change that), shaped it in an outline, drafted it in timed sprints, revised it with a partner, and compiled it into a manuscript in the standard format editors expect.
| Day | Focus | Students leave with |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 Open the book | Install, make a book, find your way around the desk, and write a first scene that saves itself. | a book of their own and a first freewrite |
| Day 2 Build the bones | Plan a story in three movements, shape the outline to match, and fill in scene cards on the corkboard. | a story plan and a card for every scene |
| Day 3 Draft | Write fast with sprints and focus mode, and leave notes and TKs instead of stopping to fix. | a brave first draft of most of the story |
| Day 4 Revise | Clear the notes, fix spelling, keep names straight, catch echo words, and trade feedback. | a revised draft and a partner's notes |
| Day 5 Publish | Compile a real manuscript, read it like a reader, celebrate, and look back on the week. | a finished manuscript and a certificate |
What you need
- A computer for each student, or one for each pair (macOS, Linux or Windows).
- Grimoire installed on each one. It takes one line in a terminal, and the teacher guide walks through it.
- A projector or a shared screen for your demos.
- The student workbook, printed a day at a time or all at once.
- Optional: LibreOffice (free) if you'd like PDFs on Day 5. Word files work without it.
Grimoire needs no accounts and no internet once it's installed, and it keeps every word in plain files on the student's own computer.
Printing
Every page has print buttons. Print everything gives you the whole guide or workbook with each day on its own page, and each day has its own Print this day button for a single handout. Printed pages come out black on white, with ruled lines to write on and boxes to tick.
Free, and yours to share
You never have to pay for this curriculum. Print it, copy it and adapt it for your classes, commercial use included. Please keep the credit: A Week with Grimoire, by Catfinity Studios, grimoiretui.com/learn. If it helps your students and you'd like to give something back, a donation is appreciated and goes toward Grimoire's development. It's never expected.