As upperclassmen head into the course selection season, one senior English course offers students the freedom and creativity they crave. Typically taught by SHS English teacher Paul Scavotto, Creative Writing is a one-semester course that encourages students to explore their passions and individual goals. Through writing projects, artistic expression, and collaboration, seniors push the boundaries of their creative spirit.
Seniors can take Creative Writing as a college-prep or honors class. As an example of the creative freedom students are permitted to exercise, students recently thought of a new, original twist on poetry in the classroom: SHS teachers from every academic discipline were invited to share their favorite poems with the class. After reading their poems out loud, the 20 participating teachers explained why the poems were meaningful to them, which prompted class discussion.
Students learned that teachers from different departments enjoy the same poets or the same genres of poetry. Robert Frost was a favorite for math teacher Jonathon Schindler and music teacher William Richter. War-themed poems were shared by music teacher Adam Gruschow, special education teacher Michael Timcoe, and English teachers Catherine Hall and Laura Messner.
Earlier in the semester, class members wrote a murder mystery as a group project. Small groups worked with categories of scary topics and composed short stories. Next, the students in the class had to guess which category inspired the group. This exercise highlighted “showing versus telling” and how emotions can drive a story.
For Halloween, Scavotto’s creative writing students wrote original scary stories and presented them to students in the iExcel program. Students could share their work in front of an audience in various ways. Many students added sound effects and descriptive words as they shared or performed their stories. Scavotto explained that the drive behind having students present was to give “writing students the opportunity the experience of immediate feedback from a live audience and getting the iExcel students an opportunity to be entertained.”
As he reflected, Scavotto felt the audience was fully engaged in the storytelling: “The details of story action and setting helped create the mood. Creative voice delivery and even acting from the writers helped, too.” In the future, Scavotto hopes to continue this collaboration with the iExcel students and discover what types of stories they are interested in hearing.
SHS senior Christina McGillicuddy wrote her scary tale about “No Move Monday” and why students are not allowed to leave their homeroom–because there is a terrifying monster roaming the halls. McGillicuddy learned how to “show, not tell” in her writing and even added a plot twist to her story, which made it stand out. When asked how it felt to share her story with an audience, McGillicuddy stated, “I felt great–it was a great experience, and I enjoyed listening to others as well. I think my class did a fantastic job with this assignment, and everyone took their writing in a different direction.”
Senior Leonie Kelly wrote a story about Pennywise the Clown and Dracula the Vampire. Kelly acted out the story for the audience: “It felt fun getting to perform the story and see where our minds could take us.” Adding sound effects such as growling increased the depiction of Dracula and made the story more suspenseful. Kelly enjoyed being able to “bounce ideas off each other.” The fan-favorite Halloween storytelling class is a memory students will carry with them and a learning experience like no other.
In Scavotto’s opinion, Creative Writing permits students to “engage their imaginations, set the table for what matters to them, and create worlds they want to see.”