Teachers & Students
Virtual Educational Programs
Bring Twain's life, writings, and humor to your in-person or remote classroom!
If you aren’t able to visit us here at the house, your students can still learn about the home where Twain worked and raised his family, explore the social and cultural issues that shaped his writing, and even do a little storytelling themselves through a variety of interactive, inquiry-based programs led by our expert staff. We also offer a wide range of related educational resources. Combine them with our virtual programming for an even richer experience.
All of our synchronous virtual programs are scheduled at your request and delivered through secure video conferencing software. Choose from the programs listed below and use the form at the bottom of the page to book some Twain time today!
Hartford School Free Programs: Students at K-12 Hartford schools may participate in any of our virtual educational programs at no cost.
Priority School Free Programs: Students at priority schools in Connecticut may participate in a free storytelling or creative writing program. Ask for details when you submit or call for a reservation.
Program Descriptions
Chat With a Historic Interpreter!
All grades ⋅ 30 minutes ⋅ 25 students ⋅ $45 ⋅ HP
After you and your students explore our free virtual tour and matching flexible inquiry framework, schedule a conversation with one of our historic interpreters. They’ll answer all of your questions about Mark Twain, his home, and the people who lived and worked there.
Note: This scheduled time is not for exploring the virtual tour itself. It is an opportunity for your students to expand their own exploration, practice inquiry, and share their thoughts. Please make sure you and your students have explored the virtual tour prior to the program.
Mark Twain: America’s Master Storyteller
Grades K-5 ⋅ 30 minutes⋅ 15 students ⋅ $45
How can we use the objects around us to tell stories in collaboration with others?
This program introduces Mark Twain to a younger audience and allows them to do what Twain did best: make up stories! He used the Victorian bric-a-brac on the mantel in the library of his home to invent nightly bedtime stories for his three daughters. In this program, students collaborate to tell their own story using those exact same objects. The results are certainly creative—and almost always hilarious!
Sketches New & Old
Grades 6-12 ⋅ 45 minutes ⋅ 36 students ⋅ $80 ⋅ HP
What choices do artists make when illustrating a book like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer?
Mark Twain’s stories are familiar to us not only through his words, but through illustrations of his iconic scenes and characters that artists have produced over the years. In this program, students learn about the choices and challenges that artists face when illustrating a book. Then, using their visual arts and text analysis skills together, they read a short scene from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and look at several different illustrations of that scene, analyzing and comparing the choices each illustrator made in transforming Twain’s words into art we can see.
Extend your students’ learning: Any class that participates in Sketches New & Old can then send in its own illustrations of Twain’s writing to be featured on the museum’s website.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: An American Story
Grades 9-12 and undergraduates ⋅ 45 minutes ⋅ 36 students⋅ $80
How does someone come to believe the views they were raised with were wrong–and how do they change those long-held views? How is personal reflection part of taking informed action?
Mark Twain described Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as “a book of mine where a sound heart and a deformed conscience come into collision and conscience suffers defeat.” In this program, students learn how Twain came to recognize the ways that white supremacy had deformed both the national conscience and his own, and explore the ways he and other 19th century American writers and activists successfully–and not-so-successfully–worked towards national and personal reform.
Note: This program is intended to support students who have read or are reading Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but it does not summarize (or spoil!) the book itself.
Make Music With Mark Twain!
Grades K-12 ⋅ $125
Schedule Your Virtual Program Today!
Please fill out this form as completely as you can. After you submit it, a staff member will be in touch with you to finalize your reservation. If the dates and times you provide aren’t available, or you have more students than we can accommodate in a single session, don’t worry! We’ll work with you to find times and dates that work.
Programs can begin no earlier than 9:15 AM Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, and must be scheduled at least 14 days in advance.
Student programs at The Mark Twain House & Museum are supported by Lincoln Financial Group; The Brown Rudnick Charitable Foundation; the Charles Nelson Robinson Fund, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee; the Ellen Jeanne Goldfarb Memorial Charitable Trust; and the John and Kelly Hartman Foundation.