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 Writing and Literature
Our Writing program centers on a workshop model where students compose, share, critique, and revise original work based on their interests and the themes the class is exploring. Assignments are structured around genres, such as the persuasive essay or the media review, to ensure common frames of reference in instruction and discussion. Practice in formal writing builds from short papers in ninth and tenth grade to a major formal research paper with multiple library sources in the senior year. Likewise, genres used progress from reports and arguments in the early grades toward autobiography, personal statements, and more sophisticated rhetorical analysis in the junior and senior years. Every year devotes a period toward the end to creative writing, by publishing literary magazines. Reading two or three major works of literature each year is also part of the rhythm of each class, as is regular work on vocabulary and review of grammar and organization. Most of all, we remember that writing is a personal craft, and our workshops aim to acknowledge and honor the sensitivity and courage demanded in the writing process. Literature courses at The Meeting School are distinct from the Writing program, allowing students to choose topics following their interests and permitting the teacher to choose methods and assessments suited to the subject. Course offerings thus vary depending on teacher and student interest; in previous years, literature courses have been offered on: Shakespeare, contemporary American poets, African-American woman writers, the Bible as literature, Post-modernism, and classic American coming-of-age novels. In four years at The Meeting School, students will take eight semesters of writing, plus at least two to four semesters of literature, making for an unusually writing-intensive program which remains accessible and inspiring.
During the fall we lay a foundation as a group of writers, putting pen to paper for weekly creative assignments which students redraft with teacher feedback and then share out loud, after which we do weekly in-class writing activities. We read the novel Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and have weekly discussions about his artistic choices as a writer; we also study vocabulary drawn from the weekly chapter. In the winter we focus on completing research papers; three pages are expected from ninth-graders and sophomores, and five pages from juniors. In class we also work on creative writing, and read poems, short stories, and a novel. During the spring the writing class focuses on producing a large volume of creative writing: memoir, poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. Students revise pieces often, using this exercise to become familiar with various writing tools, and to fill in any personal gaps in knowledge of grammar. To support the process of becoming better writers, students also study various published works of poetry, memoir, fiction, and creative non-fiction. Over the course of the semester we hold a continuous discussion of one's ability to understand and to manipulate spoken language/the written word and one's ability to master an understanding of others' language as perhaps one's primary form of empowerment as a human being.
Juniors and Seniors begin to interact more with the wider world as adults, and will be using their capacity for written expression to describe who they are to new audiences, including colleges, jobs, and the many new contacts they will make as they become independent. Writing assignments in this course, especially in the fall, will have two foci: writing for personal use, in autobiography and discernment, and writing for public use, in college applications, job applications, and other formal presentations. In the fall this writing class encourages students to develop their writing styles in a variety of genres, and examine their own relationship with writing. Using writing to tell one's own story to various audiences will be an aspect of this. Continuing to improve vocabulary and formal technique is another aspect. We always remember our need to work together as a group and support each other as writers. In the winter, the writing course revolves around writing a formal academic research term paper. A good research paper takes a lot of work, since it includes reading several books, making multiple revisions, and (ideally) some of the writer's hopes, fears, and convictions. We turn the paper into a process of multiple steps, with consultation at each step. In the spring the writing class focus returns to experimentation, with queries and prompts to help us generate at least one small new work each week. Each week we do a day of writing from a prompt, a day of reading and critiquing, and a day of selecting, editing, and producing a journal/'zine. In some weeks we also have a day reading and discussing published authors.
The Lord of the Rings is arguably the greatest work of imaginative literature ever created by a single author. Over the course of the class, students are be able to comprehend The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings at the level of plot, character, setting and idea; appreciate the astonishingly complex world in which Tolkien's novels unfold; think critically and write clearly about Tolkien's themes, with an emphasis on their contemporary relevance; and understand how Tolkien's fiction is informed by many literary and linguistic traditions, as well as by philosophical, psychological, sociological, and political issues. | ||||||||||
