Creative Writing Syllabus Room 304 Ms. Graves
http://msggraves.wikispaces.com/
Major Units of Study:
In this course, you will learn various skills and techniques creative writers use to develop a sustainable practice of writing in the contemporary field. As a community, we will learn a great deal about each other by writing across various modes of art-in-language and describing how our writing works and what it does through various methods centering on close examination of language.
In addition to this, you will develop other valuable skills contemporary writers use to turn the habit of writing into a professional practice including generating new work, critical reading and written response, blogging/online presence, performing work on the page and aloud, submitting work for publication, and sharing critical responses to texts.
Major Units of Study:
.
Unit 1- Introduction to Creative Writing
Unit 2- Fiction
Unit 3- Poetry
Unit 4- Non-Fiction
Unit 5- Comedy
Unit 6- Playwright
Unit 7- Exit Portfolio Review
Materials Needed for Class:
*2GB USB Flash Drive
(You may purchase this at Walmart, Staples, or online with prices ranging between $5-$10)
*Wiki account
*Skype account
*Email account
*Youtube account
*Blog account
Due Dates:
These dates will be given as needed and are not flexible. You are responsible for keeping accurate records of all due dates in your agenda.
••• Remember to keep all work. Even I am capable of making mistakes in my grade book.
If you think you deserved a higher grade, prove it with the graded work I have returned to you.
Attendance:
Being successful in my class means; being on time, being present and participating. If you are absent you cannot be successful. Remember late work for illegal absences and tardiness are not accepted. Also keep in mind three instances of tardiness equal one absence. Finally, please note that any more than 3 absences from this course each marking period may result in an automatic failure unless all work is made up at least one week prior to the end of the marking period.
Late Work:
I will accept late work on the following occasion:
••• After an illness/medical or legal appointment (late work accepted the day of your return or by special arrangement in the case of long illness)
I will not accept late work:
••• After an illegal absence or tardiness
••• Work assigned prior to three weeks will not be accepted after the three week mark
Grading Procedure:
Your grade is calculated out of percentages. Each assignment will be counted as one grade unless specified. Please note that all projects will be given more weight as indicated by your rubrics.
••• Remember to keep all work. Even I am capable of making mistakes in my grade book.
If you think you deserved a higher grade, prove it with the graded work I have returned to you.
Grading Breakdown:
35% Daily Blogs (a minimum of 3 written blogs a week must be done, 2 video blogs)
40% Tests/ Quizzes/ Projects
15% Outside Readings, Classwork, Independent Study
10% Participation
Participation:
Participation is crucial for success in my classroom. You must earn these points; they are not just awarded for mere presence in the classroom. Extra points can and will be awarded for exemplary participation.
Writing Grades:
· . Papers not submitted within one week of the deadline will receive a grade of "0" in my grade book.
· .If you receive a "R W" on any written work, you have three days to write the material and submit it again. The higher of the two grades will be recorded.
.. PLAGIARISM: all plagiarized work will result in an automatic "0" with no chance of rewrite. If the paper is copied from a classmate, both of you will receive an automatic “0”. If you have doubts please ask for help and clarification.
.. COPYRIGHT: Media Projects require use of images and video for analysis. It is imperative you understand the differences between creative commons licenses, and copyrighted material. Any images or video copyrighted from the internet will result in an automatic “0.”
Academic Honesty:
It is highly important that every student respect the rights of all learners to ensure a fair chance of success in the classroom. The following behaviors may result in the loss of credit on test and other assignments:
· . Talking during a test/quiz or independent work time
· . Utilizing note, books, or other study material without specific directive
· . Use of electronic devices (cell phones, iPods, etc.)
· . Viewing other student's paper or responses
· Including text or responses from an unaccredited source within your paper (PLAGIARIZM)
Contacting Me:
.Email:
.Phone: 585-458-2110 Ext. 3040
Home Phone #: 585-319-1462
Please sign the next page and return the student and parent profile sheet to me ASAP!!!
Signature Page
By signing below you and your student affirm you understand the outlined expectations of this course and understand you may contact Ms. Graves for any questions or concerns you may have. Thank you for taking the time to review the syllabus with your student.
Parent Signature:______
Student Signature:______
**Please return this page to Ms. Graves by Friday, February 4, 2010**
The Work
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
We will spend time writing at the start of each class. Early in the semester, these assignments will focus on invention or generating new work. We will try to write in new ways, using a variety of new techniques that differ from our home practice.
As the semester progresses, our writing assignments will shift to focus on adding to, subtracting from, refining, “translating,” rearranging, and sequencing our existing work.
BLOG
Many writers today keep blogs as a means of social networking and critical engagement with the contemporary community of creative writers. For our purposes, your blog will be a place to publish critical responses to readings and other activities, write informally about your writing processes, create visual accompaniments to presentations, and engage with other bloggers in this class.
I am an avid blogger and found access to the community of poets in Chicago through blogging and using the blog interface to start a do-it-yourself journal called Seven Corners (www.sevencornerspoetry.blogspot.com) that publishes Chicago and Midwestern poets.
I follow blogs of many types in Google Reader. I highly recommend this practice for keeping tabs on what our class and the larger community of writers is up to.
PORTFOLIOS
My engagement with your work in this class will be via two portfolios: a mid-term portfolio of drafts and a final portfolio of finished work.
Final Portfolio
The final portfolio will be turned in on the Thursday of the 14th week of class. It will consist of 15-20 pages of texts that you feel are excited about. You should pay attention also to arrangement of the texts in order to make different stories, essays or poems “talk” to one another. The portfolio should be accompanied by a cover letter 600-800 words in length describing the choices you made in writing and arranging the texts and other things you think I may want to know as a reader. I will respond to your text in letter form, attempting to describe what the text is doing and situating it among other contemporary writing. Please also include the journal you did your longhand composing in (it should be about full). All this can be included in a dossier-type file folder with your name marked clearly on it.
With the final portfolio, you should also enclose a submission to a journal (that is not Euphemism) of your choice in an envelope with postage appended. I will peruse the submission and mail it on your behalf.
MEETINGS
You will meet with me twice during the semester because I feel that one-on-one meetings will provide specific and customized feedback related more closely to your work and interests as a writer. It is also important to meet and talk about creative-writing-related topics outside the classroom space. During one meeting, we will read closely a text or texts you wrote and discuss what they are doing and your motivations for writing them. In the second meeting, we will discuss the collection and/or journal you chose to read. Each meeting should be approx. 20-30 minutes, and the meeting discussing your work should be early in the semester, within the first five weeks.
FULL-CLASS WORKSHOP
Everyone in class is required to have their work discussed by the class at least two times or more, time permitting. I will make the workshop schedule. The week before you are to workshop, you will be required to bring a copy of your work for each person in the class. Please print your work ahead of time and be organized with enough copies for everyone. There will be a lot of paper changing hands in this class. Limit work for workshops to one page.
You will be required to respond in writing to other writers’ work. Please type about ½ page single spaced describing what you think the work is doing and your general response and comments on the work. Staple your typed response to the original work. Please also mark up the text itself with specific notes, explanations, etc., and be ready to give your signed text to the author when the workshop finishes.
SMALL-GROUP WORKSHOP
You will be given class time each week on Tuesday to meet with other people in your small group. I will arrange small groups after the three weeks of class and these will remain constant through the semester so group members become familiar with each other’s work. Small-groups will have the freedom to make decisions about how they will give each other feedback, but I encourage each group to bring paper copies of work for one another, read it aloud and respond both verbally and by marking up texts, emulating the design of the full-class workshop and changing it when appropriate.
PRESENTATION
You will give a five- to seven-minute presentation on the collection of poems, prose, or essays you read on your own including a reading of an author’s work that exemplifies the collection you read, your summary of critical reception of the work from reviews, essays, etc., and your specific thoughts on how this writer might influence your own writing OR and give a presentation on the journal you read including reading work that exemplifies the journal, submission details, journal affiliations, editors and their background(s), etc. Your presentation should use the blog and classroom technology for visual accompaniment.
Capstone Project
In order to graduate as a senior in high school, you need to have an exit capstone project which shows your research skill levels are on par with that of collegiate level research. Therefore you will e expected to complete a senior capstone project as a final evaluation of this course. Your paper will consist of a minimum of 7 pages of content. It will follow the MLA style format and will have a cover page as well as a works cited page. You may not choose a broad topic. Furthermore, you need to prepare to give a presentation on your topic which needs to consist of a power point presentation as well as a short movie. Both Primary and Secondary sources will be used on this paper and you will submit all materials concerning this paper to me every Friday until our capstone evaluation period begins.
Assessment
FINAL GRADE
I don’t believe in assigning a letter grade to creative work because it limits your ability to follow your instincts and curiosity as a writer by forcing you to write work you think I will like.
Therefore, your portfolio of work will be graded as we go along as well as your blogs. The key to being successful in this course is being here, being on time, and turning in all assignments no later than your due date.