What Your Students Will Produce

Students will produce a piece of flash science fiction, featuring a brand new world that they imagine.

Session 1 : Bold New Worlds

Before You Start

• This prompt encourages students to reflect on social structures and their place in the current world. When introducing the prompt, be mindful that students will exhibit a wide range of social and self-awareness. You know your students best—if you sense students are struggling with an activity or prompt, invite them to write about what they feel comfortable sharing and to take risks when they feel ready. All students should feel welcome to participate.
• In this lesson, students will imagine new worlds in the genre of science fiction. We suggest redirecting students away from using weapons and physical violence in their writing and encouraging them to explore more creative, whimsical, and fantastic possibilities.
• If time allows, we suggest teaching Bold New Worlds and Heroes (and Villains, Mentors, and Sidekicks) of the Future together so students can also develop a character for their story and the world they create in this session.

This lesson aligns with the following CASEL Competency: 

• Responsible Decision-Making
  • Identifying solutions for personal and social problems
  • Evaluating personal, interpersonal, community, and institutional impacts

How To Begin

10 Minutes

To begin, ask students to take out a piece of scrap paper or writing journal and then imagine a unique world they’ve seen or read about in a movie, TV show, or book. Ask them to use a combination of simple drawings and written descriptions to sketch out their favorite part of that world on their paper. For example, in the movie Wicked, one of the iconic scenes takes place in the school library, right after Prince Fiyero is introduced. Students could draw the tables, bookshelves, round windows, and giant clock.

Ask for volunteers to share their sketches, the story they’re from, and why this part of the world is memorable for them. Is it because of the construction of the world itself, a part of the story that happens here, the importance it has to the characters, etc.?

Most likely, students will share details that relate to all three of those aspects, demonstrating the importance of building a strong, vibrant world in storytelling. 

Ask students to share what they know or can deduce from the term world-building. Along with their ideas, you may wish to add that world-building is the process of creating a world for your story. The strongest worlds make the reader feel like they’re living the story right alongside the characters—and a writer creates those worlds by providing lots of details. 

• World-building: the process of creating a world for your story.

Share with students that they will build their own worlds to serve as the setting for a short science fiction story.

15 minutes

Next, display the mentor texts on pages 1-3 of the Bold New Worlds— Handout and ask for volunteers to take turns reading each story: 

• “The Anime World” by Gabriella Mcclellan, Grade 5, 826michigan
• “Upside Down World” by Zakayla Tyson, Grade 9, 826NYC

As students read, ask them to note these details:

• What is special about these two worlds—how are they different from ours? 
• Did either of these worlds have any features that contributed to the story? If yes, how so?
• How were details of the worlds shown to the reader versus told?

Discuss the students’ answers to the questions. 

5 minutes

Then, share this definition of science fiction with students: 

• Science fiction: a genre of fiction that is based on imagined scientific breakthroughs and major social and environmental change; this genre of fiction is often driven by the question “what if?” and challenges the status quo through envisioning new worlds and futures

Ask students to briefly turn and talk to a partner about how world-building could be used as a tool to envision new worlds and futures. Then, ask for a couple volunteers to share what they talked about with their partner.

Tell students that today, they are going to envision a new world of their own, which could be inspired by many different components from our world—current social systems, their past experiences, pieces of their identity, etc.—and then write a very short “flash fiction” story in which their new world is the setting! 

One hallmark of science fiction stories is that they often build worlds to address, analyze, and critique systemic issues in our reality. In the next step, students will explore different social systems that exist in our world, as a jumping-off point for their world-building.

Ask students to share their thoughts on what a social system is, encouraging them to draw on any previous knowledge from history, government, or social studies classes. Then, share the following definition:

• Social system: a network of individuals, groups, and institutions that interact to create a whole. 

There are a variety of social systems. Share these examples with students and ask for others that they can think of:

• Local and family systems: school, home, extracurricular activities, your immediate family, places of worship

• City and state systems: doctors’ offices and hospitals, city government, libraries and parks, your extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins), public transportation, social media

• Global systems: global climate, technological advancements, global economy

Now that students have explored the concept of world-building, introduce flash fiction. As the name suggests, flash fiction is a type of fictional story that is very short—generally no more than 1,000 words. The story is over very quickly (in a flash!) because it doesn’t spend a lot of time building exposition or developing characters, but it still aims to tell a complete story. Flash fiction draws the reader in with exciting action, interesting characters, and well-developed worlds. This is the type of story they will write after they build their worlds. 

• Flash fiction: a genre of very short fictional story that draws the reader in with exciting action, interesting characters, and well-developed worlds. 

Pass out pages 4-6 of the handout, which students will use to begin world-building. On page 4, students briefly reflect on elements of our world to begin imagining how they would change things in theirs. On pages 5-6, they build out elements of their world: the foundations and the experience.

Educator Note: Some students may find it helpful to start small by breaking up the task of worldbuilding into smaller chunks. In this case, they can begin by reimagining something familiar, like school or home. Students can also choose to complete certain parts of the graphic organizer.

Finally, students write their flash fiction piece. They will need to create a protagonist for their story—it could even be a version of themselves! If time allows, they can develop their protagonist using the Heroes (and Villains, Mentors, and Sidekicks) of the Future prompt. If time does not allow, ask students these three questions to help get their ideas flowing:

• Based on your world, what kind of character makes sense as your protagonist? 
• Do you want your protagonist to have heroic intentions or villainous intentions? 
• Is there a part of yourself you could draw on to design a character?

These prompts can help students get started with their flash fiction:

• Prompt 1: Imagine you just woke up in the new world you created. Write a flash fiction story that shows off the features of your new world and makes your character wonder if they’d like to stay here or find a way back home.

• Prompt 2: Write a story inspired by “Anime World,” in which a feature of your new world helps solve a current conflict or barrier in our world. 

• Prompt 3: Write about your new world in a way that explores the limitless possibilities of world-building in science fiction. Worlds in science fiction stories do not have to follow the same rules as we have in our world, the inspiration could come from anything: a part of who you are, a social system in our world that you’d love to fix, your own neighborhood—anything! Show the reader what makes your world uniquely yours.

Tips for writing flash fiction: 

1. Have fun—play! Try new things with descriptive language or character interactions; create a whole new species to feature in your story; turn your cousin, brother, or aunt into an alien; create characters that defy gravity or travel through time, etc. The only limit is your imagination.
2. Ignore the word count for your first draft and tell the story that’s exciting to you. Then, in revision, go back and cut the unnecessary information that might be slowing the story down.
3. It might be tempting to tell the reader everything about the world you’ve built, but try to use sensory language, similes and metaphors, and dialogue to show the reader the world information through your protagonist’s eyes as it becomes relevant to them.

After students have a complete first draft, it’s time to revise! 

We recommend dedicating at least thirty minutes, or an extra day, on revision if possible. Feel free to use whichever structures for revision you may have in place, or try some of the following ideas: 

• Ask students to highlight descriptions of their world in their story or in a partner’s story. Then, ask students to mark whether those descriptions show what the world is like (S) or tell what the world is like (T). We recommend modeling this process in one of the mentor texts to show how students can transform “telling” details into “showing” details using sensory or figurative language.
• Pass out the Revision Bingo for Narratives and challenge students to try three narrative revision strategies to complete a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row.
• For more ideas, see 826 Digital’s Guide to Revision.

Conclusion:

826 National wants to publish the next generation of writers—that means the young people in your community and learning spaces! Students, families, and educators can submit writing from this session to 826 National, now through January 20, 2026, for a chance to become a published author. 

Submissions are open now through January 20, 2026! 

How to Submit: 

Students and families, submit your work using these links:

• Students and families submission form — English 
• Formulario de presentación de antología de escritos de estudiantes 2025-2026 de 826 National: ESTUDIANTES Y FAMILIAS — Spanish

Educators and program providers, submit work from multiple young people using this link: 

• Educator submission form 

Guidelines: 

• Our goal is to publish as many students as possible. With that in mind, we recommend a maximum word count of 1,000 for each piece. 
• Please submit no more than two submissions per student. 
• We encourage young people to write in their home language, and we welcome submissions in any language. If it is possible to include English translations with the original piece, they are welcome but not required.
• Due to the high volume of submissions received, not all pieces will be published in the anthology. The 826 National Anthology review team will review all pieces with the following criteria in mind: 

• Organization & Form

The piece creatively explores the science fiction genre and short story/poetry forms, including a variety of narrative and/or poetic devices. 

• Voice 

The piece is written with a clear and compelling voice. It includes intentional, effective word and stylistic choices, leaving an impact on the reader.

• Alignment with the Theme & Prompt(s)

The author’s work clearly aligns with the theme and speaks to the prompt(s). The writing explores the prompt in a unique way or point of view. 

• While we are unable to publish all pieces received, each student writer whose piece is submitted will receive a certificate celebrating their words and their work.
• Students with pieces published in the anthology will receive two free copies of the book, to be published and mailed in June 2026.