Eng 221 - Creative Writing

What is Eng 221 - Creative Writing all about?  

Creative Writing is a writing class aimed at growing each student's creativity, stamina, and confidence as a writer. We accomplish this through daily writing, which exercises our writing muscle in order to strengthen each student's brainstorming, planning, organizing, thinking, revising, editing, and publishing skills. These skills are all necessary to be strong, effective, and creative writers in both an academic and real-world setting. 

What will you do in Eng 221 - Creative Writing?

You, as creative writing students, will read and write every day - learning to read as writers and write as readers.  In order to do that, obviously you will be thinking, thinking, thinking and writing, writing, writing. You will also have the opportunity to read both independently and as a class from multiple sources of information, learning how to both write creatively and think critically about what we read and discuss. In turn, you will be able to express your thoughts, feelings, stories, and opinions in a creative, original, organized, and coherent manner.  You will accomplish this by learning more about and continually practicing the good writing skills of brainstorming, planning and organizing, composing, revising, editing, and publishing solid, coherent, original texts.  You will also complete your own creative writing project of your choice (short story, non-fiction essay, graphic novel, poetry collection, etc.)

What are Mrs. Hartwig's classroom expectations?

There are three basic expectations that guide everyone and everything in this class: 

1)  Be respectful...no matter what.  Each of us wants respect; therefore, each of us will give it.

2)  Be here in both heart and mind.  You can't learn if you aren't here (either in-person or online) or don't care. 

3)  Be the best learner you can be (that's your job) who thinks, exercises his/her brain, takes responsibility for his/her learning, and contributes to the learning environment of the entire class.

Behavior inconsistent with the above expectations will be handled according to Mrs. Hartwig's Classroom Discipline Routine, which is intended to minimize classroom disruptions by handling behavior issues quickly and quietly.  If classroom misbehavior results in a parent/guardian having to wait to pick up the student or a student missing the bus or after-school activities, it is my hope that family members will hold the learner accountable so that this natural consequence will hopefully encourage respectful, productive behavior as a learner.  If parents/guardians have concerns about this policy, I sincerely welcome conversations on how we (myself, our school, and our families) can team together to best help our students succeed. 

What are Mrs. Hartwig's academic expectations in Creative Writing?

Mrs. Hartwig firmly believes in the great potential of each one of her students. She also understands that we are all human and, therefore, oftentimes don't live each day showing that great potential. But in this literacy classroom, we will work hard to meet our potential as high school learners.  The following academic expectations will help learners do that:

1) Always engage in active listening and speaking, using discussion connectors to help any class discussions develop as thoroughly as possible.

2) Always actively read (including reading along in whatever your class, group, or partner may be reading), remembering to carry on a conversation with the text by using strong reading strategies and learning to read as writers.

3) Always practice your best writing skills, remembering to use complete sentences, scholarly language, proper punctuation/capitalization/spelling, your most legible handwriting, and always proofing all your work before completing and submitting.

5) Always use class time productively to complete all assigned work in class, remembering to timely complete assigned work that may occasionally require out-of-class time.

As a reward for being responsible learners and as extra practice in responsibility, a classroom manager will be chosen for each week of class. This student will get the privilege of providing the entry music for each day of class that particular week. This classroom manager will also be responsible to be the point person in class leadership, classroom discussions, and general helpfulness.

What is the grading policy in Creative Writing?

Standards-Based Grading -  Your overall course grade is determined by your proficiency level practiced and demonstrated in this course's eight (8) course competencies. Each course competency is assessed through individual literacy standards that are based on the 4-point proficiency scale shown below: