October Assignments

Students continue to explore different literary genres and uncover writing skills they didn't know they possessed. In addition to daily writing prompts and reading excerpts by Maya Angelou, Victor Lavalle, George R. R. Martin and Stephen King, they completed four different "long" works this month.

1. One-Act plays: students continued honing their ability to write dialogue and added stage directions and prop/stage considerations.

2. Sympathetic writing: students considered how a story changes depending on its narrator's perspective. They watched this video of a civilian takeover of Best Buy and recounted the story through the eyes of several different participants.

3. "Chapter 1": Students wrote the first chapter of a novel, paying close attention to what a good first chapter doesn't tell its readers.

4. Interview stories: students interviewed each other and used one or more quote from the interview as inspiration for a short story. 

Personal History Readings

This week students revisited the brief personal histories they wrote during the first week of school and published audio versions on their blogs (my example below). You can listen to their work by visiting their blogs (links in the blogroll).

Mr. c's history by rhscw

September Assignments

My students are dripping with creativity these days and showing it in all sorts of ways. Here are some of the assignments they've tackled this month:

1. Magical Realism  

After a quick introduction to the literary genre, students looked at various surrealist works of art. Paying close attention the juxtaposition of literal and fantastical elements in each work, they looked for common themes like terror, time, revolution, the carnival and the promise of a better future.

Next, they created their own simple works of surrealist art, exchanged pictures with a classmate and turned the picture into words. They wrote stories about the picture without speaking to the artist, going solely off what they saw. Finally, they returned the picture and corresponding story to the artist and discussed their interpretations. 

2. Collaborative Fiction

Students worked with a partner, selected a setting, character, plot twist, dialogue and theme from a list of options and pieced together hilarious short stories. The challenge came in trying to include everything they'd selected in 750 words or less. 

3. Movie Scripts

After watching Better Off Dead and reading excerpts from various other 80's classics, students visited simplyscripts.com, read the script "The Only Boy In The World" and watched the movie:

After that, they created their own short film script about loneliness. Watch out, Hollywood! 

Brief Personal Histories

During the first week of school, my students harnessed their inner Henry Rollins and wrote their "Brief Histories." After watching Rollins tell his story they told their own life stories in 1000 words or less.

Their work revealed defining moments in their lives - great achievements, hardships, relationships and plans for the future. Visit the links to their blogs and read more.

Liftoff

This year, creative writing students at Riverside High School in Durham, NC will self-publish their writing on blogs every week.

This site will serve as the mother ship, linking to student work. Stay tuned for more details.