Pembroke Academy Mission Statement

Creative Writing

Mr. Nate Graziano

Rm. 1030

(phone) X 1030

Pembroke Academy Mission Statement:

Pembroke Academy is a community of lifelong learners within which each individual is known and valued.
We believe high school is a transitional experience that prepares each student to achieve, contribute, and thrive in the 21st Century.
We commit to rigorous academic and personal standards, while acknowledging these are accomplished in various ways.
We value depth of understanding and believe learning is student-centered, fostering problem solving and complex thinking in both independent and collaborative work.
We practice democratic ideals within an ethical, civil, and tolerant culture while contributing to family, community, nation, and world

Course Essential Question: What does it mean to be a human being, and how is this condition explored through creative writing?

Course Description: This course is focused around the analysis and composition of creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry and screenwriting. You will be experimenting with different styles, forms, and narrative techniques, as well as an eclectic body of contemporary and classic work. Keep in mind: any good writer READS far more than they produce, so don’t be disillusioned into to thinking this is solely a writing course. This course requires nightly reading assignments along with the writing. If you are not reading a selected essay, story, poem or play, you will be asked to read and critique one of your classmate’s pieces and/or participate in a number of independent reading assignments.

This course emphasizes the writing process. We will establish a workshop environment where we can openly share and discuss our work. Rewriting and revisions are a requirement, seeing good writing means rewriting. We will also examine the submission process, in which you’ll be researching markets, writing cover letters, and preparing work for submission for publication. At the end of each unit, you will be required to turn in a portfolio your most accomplished work produced in the class. The course will conclude with a group project where you will adapt one of your classmate’s stories into a screenplay and produce a short film.

Texts: The texts you’ll be reading in the course are primarily photocopied from a sundry list of sources, ranging from mainstream magazines—such as Harper’s, Esquire, and The Atlantic—to small academic and literary journals, to individual collections of essays, poetry and fiction and different literary anthologies. I share whatever I can dig up that I find interesting and provocative. The material covered changes according to what is being published today—as an emphasis is placed on contemporary literature, as opposed to Canon classics. You will also be required to do outside reading, in which you’ll choose novels and poetry collections published in the past five year to read and deconstruct through close, annotated readings. Some the following texts are frequently taught:

Creative Nonfiction: Excerpt from “Townie” by Andre Dubus III; “The Fourth State of Matter” by Jo Ann Beard; “The Youth in Asia” by David Sedaris; “My Father’s Life” by Raymond Carver; “Fat Girl Rhapsody” by Roxane Gay; “Killing Chickens” by Meredith Hall; Excerpt from Kate Christensen’s Blue Plate Special.

Short fiction: “Backrub” Tom Perrotta; “Greasy Lake” T.C. Boyle; “What We Talk About When Talk About Love” Raymond Carver; “Popular Girls” Karen Shepard; “How To Talk To A Hunter” Pam Houston; “Car Crash While Hitchhiking” Denis Johnston; “Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story” Russell Banks; “Mouses” Thom Jones; “Hills Like White Elephants” Ernest Hemingway; “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” Sherman Alexi; “My Amendment” George Saunders; “Ask If I Care” Jennifer Egan; The Art of Fiction John Gardner

Flash fiction/vignettes: “Incarnations of a Burned Child” David Foster Wallace; ‘A Very Short Story” Ernest Hemingway; “Rose” John Biguenet; “Why You Shouldn’t” Samantha Schoech; “Snakes” Daniel Crocker; “Brisket” Stuart Dybek; “Rib” Kim Chinquee; “The Great Responsibility” Rusty Barnes; excerpts from A House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros; Bad Writing directed by Vernon Lott

Poetry: “The Ben Franklin of Monogamy” Jeff McDaniel; “Some People” Charles Bukowski; “Careful What You Ask For” Jack McCarthy; “Sestina Aguilera” Matthew Guenette; “How It Will End” Denise Duhamel; “Here, Bullet” Brian Turner; “Strip Poker” David Kirby; “Kelly, Ringling Bros. Oldest Elephant Goes On Rampage” Joel Brouwer; “On a Maine Beach” Robley Wilson; “Thesaurus” Billy Collins; “Home to Roost” Kay Ryan; “Marriage” Gregory Corso; “This is Just to Say” WC Williams; “Barbie Doll” Marge Piercy; “What Work Is” Philip Levine; “Home for Christmas” Franz Wright; “The Waking” Theodore Roethke; “Chicks Dig War” Drew Gardner; “First Writing Since” Suheir Hammad; “What Teachers Make” Taylor Mali; “Beethoven” Shane Koyczan; “Skinhead” Patricia Smith; “Thunder Road” Bruce Springsteen.

Flash fiction/poetry: “Incarnations of a Burned Child” DF Wallace; “Rose” John Biguenet; “Why You Shouldn’t…” Samantha Schoech; “The Ben Franklin of Monogamy” Jeff McDaniel; “This is Just to Say” WC Williams; “Daddy” Sylvia Plath; “Barbie Doll” Marge Piercy; “The Waking” Theodore Roethke; “Chicks Dig War” Drew Gardner’ “First Writing Since” Shueir Hammad; “What Teachers Make” Taylor Mali; “Beethoven” Shane Koyczan; “Skinhead” Patricia Smith.

Screenwriting/playwriting: “The Sandbox” Edward Albee; excerpts of No Country for Old Men The Coen Brothers; “If Susan Smith Could Talk” Elaine Romero

**note: Some of the material we read in this course covers some adult themes, content and language; although I can assure you it is not pornographic or gratuitous. If you are sensitive or offended by adult themes, please see me at the beginning of the course.

Tentative Syllabus: The writing assignments in this class will be divided, as I mentioned above, into four sections: creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry and screenwriting. The emphasis will be placed on poetry and fiction. Below is a tentative breakdown of your weekly assignments.`

Creative Nonfiction:

“We are a species who needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one of the reasons they write so little.” –Anne Lamott

Week 1: The memoir/personal essay/analyzing craft techniques

Week 2: Critiquing student work/work on drafts

Week 3: Student-conferences and peer-editing groups

Week 4: Revisions, copy-editing, and student-led conferences *Creative non-fiction essay

Fiction:

“Thus the value of great fiction, we begin to suspect, is not just that it entertains us or distracts us from our troubles, not that it broadens our knowledge of people and places, but also it helps us to know what we believe, reinforces those qualities that are noblest in us, leads us to feel uneasy about our faults and limitations.” --John Gardner

Week 5-6: A sketch of a character/ Red Barn exercise/ notes on fiction writing

Week 7-8: A Park Bench/Song Story: a dialogue-driven story/ the unreliable narrator.

Week 9-10: A Childhood Story: a story based on a personal experience/ the retrospective voice.

Week 11-12: Rewriting/ Exploring the Second-Person/experimental prose/style.

Week 13-14: Shake up Point-of-view Story: A story written from the opposite sex p.o.v/psychic distance.

Week 15-16: An Article Story: story based on a newspaper article/historical fiction

Week 17-18: A Modern Retelling of a Myth or Fairy Tale/plotting

Week 19-20: Revision and Editing/ Submissions: Working towards a final draft/flash fiction.

Poetry:

“A poet is somebody who feels, and who expresses his feelings through words. This may sound easy. It isn't.”---e.e. cummings

Week 21-22: Flash fiction/ the vignette/prose poems

Week 23-24: An image-driven poem—a haiku or a picture in words/ line breaks/ form.

Week 25-26: Metaphors and figurative language

Week 27-28: Sound devices and rhymes.

Week 29-30: The fixed forms—a villanelle/sonnet/sestina.

Week 31-32: The narrative poems/ persona poems

Week 33-34: Spoken word and music/bad poetry contest.

Screenwriting:

“All writing is discipline, but screenwriting is a drill sergeant” ---Robert McKee

Week 35: Elements of screenwriting/playwriting/formatting a screenplay/sample one-act plays and screenplays/ Adaptations/Collaborative writing of a one-act play or screenplay for a short film.

Week 36-37: Production and presentation of dramatic piece/ Final exam

The last two weeks of each unit are usually workshop-intensive as students compile, reflect and prepare to turn in portfolios. We also conference and allot time for student presentations during this time.

Final Assessment: Your final assessment will consist of two parts: a reading and writing section. The reading section is a cold reading of a short story, a piece of flash fiction, and three poems. For the writing portion, you will need to use the narrative, fiction and poetry portfolios to pull passages that demonstrate an understanding of the core concepts in the course.

Homework: You can count on having a reading assignment just about every night in this course. It is expected that you read. We will have class discussions on the reading—for which you’ll be expected to participate. Occasionally, there will be reading quizzes to assure that it is being done. Also, students will frequently be asked to lead our daily discussions of the literature, which involves preparing thought-provoking questions before the class they’ve been asked to lead.

You will also be expected to be writing and revising continually in this course. The basic procedure is as follows: Drafts of writing pieces will be checked on Fridays. A revisions and reflections of a writing assignment will be checked on Wednesdays. If you do not stay on top of the writing assignments, you will not pass this course.

Portfolios: You’re portfolios will consist of what you consider to the best writing you’ve done over each unit. The final copies of portfolio pieces will need to contain a minimum of three drafts and a final-typed copy in manuscript form (manuscript form is covered in the class). You will also need to complete 1-2 page typed self-analysis for each portfolio in which you make specific textual references to your work. These are the only two summative assessments in writing. Failure to turn in a portfolio will likely result in failure of the course.

Presentations/Independent reading: Students will be required to do a presentation on a contemporary author each quarter. This means you will need to find a contemporary published book, read it outside of class, and write a review of this author’s book that demonstrates critical analysis skills. You will also be required to do a presentation on the author that includes biographical information and quotes and research gained from interviews with the author (personal or published). These presentations will count as both reading and listening and speaking summative grades. Failure to complete either of these assignments will likely result in failure of the course.

Workshops/Class Participation: I’d like to note that due the nature of a writing workshop, it is absolutely vital that you participate in the class. This involves reading each other’s work, making constructive comments and suggestions, and staying on top of all the assigned reading. Everybody in the class will be required to submit a story and a poem for workshop. This means that your work will be read, critiqued and discussed by the class. There will be sign-up sheets and you will be given a date that your piece will be up for workshop weeks in advance. It is absolutely mandatory—barring a complete medical or personal disaster—that you are in class on the day you’re up for workshop. If you refuse to participate in workshops, your grade will suffer accordingly. Thus, logically speaking, if you are frequently absent from class, you cannot participate and your grade will be affected.

Technology: All assignments in this class need to be typed (prose double-spaced) so access to word processing technology is highly suggested. Also, all assignments in this course will be posted on Google Classroom and can be turned in throughout the site as well. If students own a laptop, it is suggested that they bring it to class each day.

Absence Procedures: Obviously, excessive absences will affect your grade. However, consult the student handwork for make-up work procedures if you have an excused absence. You are responsible for getting your make-up work and turning it in. I will not come to you.

Vacations and Unexcused Absences: According to New Hampshire law, absences due to vacations that occur during regularly scheduled school days are considered unexcused. Students must communicate any such absences as soon as possible (atleast five days in advance) to their teachers and to the Assistant Principal of their house (Walker House or Blanchard House).As with other unexcused absences, students will not receive credit for any formative work assigned or due during that time.Students need to make arrangements with their teachers to make up any summative assessments that were missed within a reasonable time frame designated by the teacher.

A note on college-level work

Please be aware that this course awards college credits through Southern New Hampshire University’s dual enrollment program. Students may choose this option, which will be explained in detail, but they are not required. However, it does mean that this course is taught at a college-level and college-level writing is required. In other words, the writing will require rigorous revision, and the expectation that students produce coherent, structurally sound, thoughtful pieces of writing is non-negotiable. This also means that students will be held accountable for their own work and must cultivate the type of autonomy that college work requires. Remember, writing is thinking, and to write clearly, one must first think clearly. In no small terms, this is the essence of education, as well as coming to an understanding of our thoughts, identity and experiences as human beings.

If you have any questions of concerns regarding the syllabus, please feel free to contact me in person, call or e-mail me. Good luck, and let’s enjoy this stuff.