Outside the Box is the latest in Taylor Sapp’s best-selling series of Stories Without End books. It’s a collection of stories without endings, leaving students to write their own, drawing on their own creativity. Even the most reluctant writer will find themselves sucked in with this deceptively simple method of getting students to write!
Why sci-fi and fantasy? These genres allow us to grapple with topical and important issues but indirectly and imaginatively. Science fiction shows us places we may go, while fantasy shows us the places we wish we could! Readers grapple with ideas they may have never considered before. And the unfinished stories let them put their own endings on them, exploring worlds they had never dreamed of, while considering themes that touch our real life.
Click through to download 2 stories.
This highly flexible, unfinished story model is perfect for teaching reading, creative writing, and discussion. It’s easy to use as a one-time treat or integrate into a larger creative writing unit. Taylor is already using these stories in his classroom to great success!
You’ll notice that some of these topics are a bit controversial. Like much literature students read, some of these stories deal with death, love, romance, and unethical behavior. And like good literature, these topics are raised to engage students and get them thinking about important themes. Sci-fi and fantasy often deal in extreme situations to highlight a particular facet of society or human psychology.
The great thing about presenting these controversial topics in a story is that students are not being directly challenged. And they have the power to write their own ending and take ownership of ideas that they might find it hard to deal with.
And as if that’s not enough, some of the stories even lack a beginning! They start in the midst of the action, so students can add a beginning and/or an end!
Taylor’s first book of unending stories, Stories Without End, has been a commercial and critical success already. It was a finalist for a 2019 ELTon award in Innovation in Learner Resources (The judges said, “There’s nothing quite like it in the market to motivate learners”), It’s being used in language schools across the country. In fact, ELS Language Center offers an elective class taught around this book.
Most importantly students love it! Check out the video or the reviews on our site: Stories Without End.
Reviewers love it too:
“One of the best [lessons] this year for engagement, and tonnes of language production.” —Peter Clements, British Councils, and author of 30 Roleplays for TEFL
“…well-organized and thought-provoking…” — Elena Murphy in MATSOL Currents
“If all that doesn’t sound like pedagogical fun, I don’t know what does.” — Wayne Trotman, EL Gazette
Taylor Sapp has two passions which shape his books: writing and teaching.
He has a BA in Creative Writing and Film from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California and spent a few years toiling in the film and TV business. He also has an MA in Education/TESOL from Concordia University in Portland, OR. He has spent over 10 years as an educator of ESL students across different universities and private schools in Japan and America. He is currently teaching at ELS Portland. All three of his books are best-sellers, used in classrooms worldwide to teach creative writing, reading, and discussion.
In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and two boys, watching movies, doing yoga, and writing fiction and haiku. He eats blueberries every day to keep his mind sharp and young and suggests you do the same.
Alphabet Publishing is a small independent educational publishing company that produces supplementary teaching materials that use creativity to engage and inspire students! All of our authors are teachers working in the classroom and using the very materials that they bring to us to publish.
We support them by giving them creative control; they’re the ones who know what works and what doesn’t in the classroom. And we also support them by splitting the profits with them. Our authors work hard to write at the same time that they teach and we think that should be rewarded!
It’s a thrill to work with new authors like Taylor and help him find his voice and his place in the world of ELT.
As a small company, we are able to bring out innovative and creative materials like Stories Without End and Outside the Box. We love taking risks with new authors and untried approaches to teaching English. We can do this because we don’t aim to sell millions of copies around the world.
Unfortunately that means that we don’t get the same sales volume that large companies do. We can’t afford the massive national and international marketing and sales teams that the large publishers have at their disposal. Yet we face many of the same costs they do. That means that even our best-selling books don’t always break even let alone make a profit.
We believe in supporting our author: all professionals with unbelievable talent. We support our authors in a number of ways including generous royalties. We also support our editors and our designers, all outstanding professionals. But that means we don’t have the resources for traditional business models: including building up huge sales and marketing teams, acquiring other companies, and pushing only projects with global appeal
So now we’d like to make you a partner of sorts. Your funding can help provide the educational world with new resources and new talents. And we’re open to your editorial input as well. You’ll notice that quite a few of our rewards involve you helping us, shaping the book, giving us ideas. We need you on this journey!
Together we can provide some great materials for our students!
The unedited manuscript is completed. The editing, revising, and design process do take time and there is always the possibility of delays due to availability of the creative team. But we don’t anticipate any risks that would prevent publication.