Creative Writing Syllabus for 2011-2012 Teacher: Gary Dustin Materials: Notebook with paper, pen, creativity Course

Description Cold Start PromptYou have one week to write in your preferred genre or format (fantasy, sci-, poem, short story, horror, etc.) to the following prompt: Back to school (Page Limit 4 Pages). Do your best work. I am looking to appraise your natural talent as well as your current skill set. Do you best work, and we wont have to cover material that you already know. Genre VoteOnce I have your Cold Start Prompts, we will vote on the genres that you want to write in. During the semester, we will write in 4 genres. You will turn in a nal draft for each one of these genres; this nal draft will be considered your common assessment and will be graded on an agreed-upon rubric. We will do a poetry unit, but we can vote on when to write poetry. Possible genres include but are not limited to (your suggestions, please!): comedy, horror, sci-, fantasy, ction, mystery, heist, and memoir. Original Rubric Creation: As a class we will set basic standards for what every story should havea hook, introduce the characters, solid punctuation, etc.this will become the basic rubric for the class. We will also identify key genre-specic elements which will then become the rubric your Common Assessment in each genre will be graded against. Unit Description: 1. Rubric Design: The rst days and up to the rst week of a unit will be dedicated to creating our rubric for that genre. Each student will be required to bring what they consider to be a prototypical example of the genre. They will present their example to the class and explain why their example is the standard that all other writing in that genre should be measured against. During these presentations, we will as a class decide on the basic characteristics of the genre and decide how to represent these on our class rubric. Participation in Rubric Discussion will be worth 10% of your unit grade. (Wyoming Standard: Writing 1:G:1-6) 2. Reading Log: Each person in the class will select one other persons prototypical example to read for inspiration as they write their Common Assessment (CA) story. You will keep a reading log as you read wherein you record the insights you glean from the book. You will use this reading log to

help you in writing your CA story. The minimum requirement for log entries will be 2-3 per week. You will turn this log in at the end of the unit. It will account for 10% if your grade for the unit. (Wyoming Standard: Writing 2:A: 1-4) 3. Writing ExercisesThroughout the semester we will take time to stretch your creative juices. These exercises may take the form of writing to a wacky prompt, participating in word games, or solving riddles, but they will give you a chance to sharpen your skills. These exercises will be worth 5% of your unit grade. Drafting: We will go through 2-3 peer edit and/or teacher conference sessions per unit. You will be required to bring a working draft to these sessions. This draft should not be a last minute throw-together. Instead, it should represent your best effort up to that point. You will participate in 2-3 peer conferences on conference days. In these conferences you will use the rubric as a springboard as you and peer conferencing partner work together with to help improve each others common assessments. After participating in 2 peer conferences, you will have the option to conference with me. I will do my best to help you create something you are proud of. Your drafts will be worth 10% of your grade for the unit. Your peer conferences will be worth 20%. (Wyoming Standard: Writing 2:B:1-4 and Writing 1:H:1) Writers Workshop: During each unit, I will take 2 days to introduce a new punctuation mark, rhetorical device, gure of speech, or style-enhancing technique. You will then be required to work this new technique into your CA story. You will demonstrate mastery of the technique as you label it and use it appropriately in your story. Writers Workshop will be worth 5% of your overall grade for the unit. (Wyoming Standards: Writing 1:E, 1:C, and 1:F) Common Assessment: You will turn in a nished draft to me. This draft will be worth 40% of your grade for the unit and will be graded against the rubric we create together and use as a reference throughout our unit.

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School Literary Magazine ! At some point during the semester, we will vote on the best work to that point and submit those winning stories to the art department for illustration These stories with their illustrations will then be turned over to Mr. Fullmer to be included in the High Schools Arts and Literature Magazine. This magazine will be available to the school just like the newspaper and yearbook, and will represent the school at a state competition.

Publication ! If you wish to submit one of your Common Assessments to a contest or to a literary magazine, I will assist you in nding a publisher. Publication will not inuence your grade, but its still dang cool to be a published author.