The Hughes News
Creative Writing Newsletter ~ Winter 2020
REAL-WORLD PUBLISHING: MEET GOODREADS.
In addition to all of the creative writing exercises and writing assignments your student-author is doing this year, s/he is also doing real-world publishing.
Every term, students publish multi-layered, analytic book reviews about their term choice books on GOODREADS. The best part? In addition to getting real-world publishing experience, they are writing for an authentic audience of 90 million bibliophiles, rather than just for Teacher-Lady. It doesn't get more authentic than that!
Click HERE to read more about how I use Goodreads in the classroom--featured on EDUTOPIA, George Lucas' site for his educational foundation.
FOR THE WRITER WHO HAS EVERYTHING
WHAT WE'RE LEARNING
CREATIVE WRITING I
This term, your student and I have been exploring the various elements of an effective short story, answering the The Essential Question How do authors craft meaningful stories? Our exploration will culminate for the Midyear Exam, for which your student author will combine all of the elements we've discussed in their own short story. Next Term, we'll be exploring and publishing poetry.
CREATIVE WRITING 2
This class of advanced writers have been exploring the platform of live storytelling (a la the Moth). Inspired by Matthew Dicks' text Storyworthy: The Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling, we have explored in depth how to dream-up, test, begin, entice, and close stories for the stage (which is extremely helpful in narrative writing as well). For Term 3, we'll be exploring and publishing poetry.
THE GRATITUDE PROJECT
I live with two teens (and teach 125 others), and gripes are par for the course. At home, I'm reminded that we don't make as much money as X and we don't go on extravagant trips like Y and we don't allow as much freedom as parent Z. It's sort of background noise at this point. We can't earn more, we do one summer trip (but not 5 throughout the year--often overseas, like many of my kids' friends), and I have a front-row seat to what happens when parents afford their teens too much freedom. If I didn't know my kids, I'd think think they didn't appreciate a thing.
A few years ago, I'd had enough. And an idea for my classroom was born.
The week before Thanksgiving, I put the brakes on what we were studying and replaced it with what I call The Gratitude Project. The students were assigned their own slide on a community Google Slide deck, where they were asked to list at least five things for which they were thankful. It wasn't a genius idea by any means, but it was definitely a paradigm shift for many of my students--especially as they headed into the holiday season. The project also involved committing a random act of kindness, writing a letter to someone for whom they're thankful, and reflecting on all of the above when they returned from break.
The results were humbling, and an annual tradition was born.
Click HERE to see what your student is thankful for, as well as to learn a little more about the project.
Regardless of what the world says about teens or what I often see at home, our teenagers are pretty fabulous. And grateful.
Be sure to ask your student what s/he is learning, as well as how s/he behaves in and contributes to our class. Scores alone merely show whether or not students are good test-takers and/or consistent homework doers. (Honors students are usually both of these things.)
Instead, ask to see your student's Term 1 CLASS ENGAGEMENT SELF-ASSESSMENT and your student's DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP SELF-ASSESSMENT. These two end-of-the-term rubrics provide a much more complete picture as to how your child is doing in English.
Is Your Writer Reading at Home?
How to Contact Me
Email: beth.hughes@wpsk12.org
Website: msbethhughes.org
Location: Wakefield Memorial High School, Farm Street, Wakefield, MA, United States
Phone: (781) 246-6440
Twitter: @msbethhughes