Amanda Smith Photography
Writing
The Writers
This year’s creative writing class consisted of a diverse group of students.
Many pieces of poetry were written this year including shaped poems.
Students Asia Geeslin (12) and Jordyn Fields (9) stayed after school to conference about Asia's latest piece. In Creative Writing Students receive feedback from not only their teacher, but also their peers. Conferencing is a common and practically daily thing.
At the end of each semester, each student puts together a portfolio of their writing for their final project.
Note: There are two types of portfolios.
1. Best Works- 20,000 words of pure art
2. Growth- A series of improvements
CREATIVE WRITING
Creative Writing is a class offered to students at every grade level. This class, as taught by Mrs. Massart, provides students the opportunity to expand their writing skills. Students learn how to create an introduction, create imagery, properly structure a piece of writing to match the tone, use words effectively, and expand their diction and sense of creativity. These skills are learned from different exercises such as quick-writes.
Creative Writing also offers students the opportunity to teach other students skills through mini-lessons and Friday share-outs.
This year, not only was Mrs. Massart’s class full of learning, but it was also full of laughter and fun. “Mr. and Mrs. Massart occasionally bring their kids to class. One day Mr. Massart was holding a darling baby girl in his arms and asked which students wanted to hold her. Audrey Sanders’s hand shot right up. Just steps from Audrey Mr. Massart dropped the baby to the floor. The baby was fake, simply borrowed from another student who was doing a project, and Audrey’s face was priceless.”
Portfolios
“Creative Writing has been somewhat of a transformative experience for me. Writing has always been a passion of mine and having a class dedicated to it was thrilling to say the least. As the year grew on and my extracurricular life became more eventful, the class gave me an excellent outlet to vent to and even turn my stressors into what some would consider works of art. I’ve also had the chance to meet some of my lifelong friends. All in all, the class is an amazing experience and I would recommend it to everyone.” – Jordyn Fields (9)
"Writing is an outlet through which I allow my inspirations to flow, and the lense through which I see the world. Creative Writing helped me expand such an outlet and lense." – Asia Geeslin (12)
"I'd say that Creative Writing has really helped me cope mentally and made me a happier person. The atmosphere of the class really boosted my confidence; people's support and feedback generally made it easier for me to have an outlet for anything personal that I wrote." – Tristen Walz (12)
”Out of all the classes I took during my high school career, Creative Writing is by far my favorite. It is different from any other English class I have taken as it offers more opportunity for creativity since each standard has multiple ways it can be met. Students can meet their standards through poetry, rap, fiction, or any kind of writing. Mrs. Massart was a very flexible teacher and a wonderful asset to the class. She did her best to inspire all of her students, help them find new limits, and make them feel confident about their work. This is especially true to me for Mrs. Massart helped me discover that anyone is capable of writing poetry, even me.” – Amanda Smith (12)
What the Students Say
