Curriculum

Literary Arts 1 & 2

Throughout Literary Arts 1 & 2, students will complete 16 total project cycles.

• Storytelling: tell your peers an 8 minute true story from your life

• Flash Fiction/Micro-fiction: capture a brief but poignant moment in 500-1000 words

• Short Story: write a story in 2000-3000 words

• Novella: pen the opening chapter of a novella in the voice of a villain

• Novel: learn how to plan a lengthy novel project

• Playwriting: dramatize a story in 10 minutes

• Poetry: attempt to write 30 poems

• Graphic Novel: write and draw an 8-10 page graphic novel

• Short Film: film a short film of any genre or length

• TV Pilot: work with a peer to write a pilot for a TV show in any genre

• Full-Length Film: write the first draft of a feature-length film

• Critical Essay: investigate a question that engages you and write an essay exploring the complexity the answers reveal

• Lyric Essay: combine creative writing and essay writing skills to use this complex form to write an engaging essay

• Experimental: do something weird to stretch yourself as an artist

• Student Choice: choose your own form and genre. This unit occurs twice.

Literary Arts 3

Literary Arts 3 focuses on more traditional forms of writing while giving students more freedom in subject matter and more community involvement between students. They complete 6 project cycles.

• Poetry: write 10 poems on any subject using a variety of forms

• Short Story: draft a 2000-3000 word short story

• Essay Writing: choose an essay writing mode and explore a question or line of thought

• Novel: attempt to write a novel in 30 days

• Playwriting: script a 10-minute play

• Student Choice: choose your own form and genre

Literary Arts 4

Literary Arts 4 students will take the entire year to complete a senior thesis. They also have to teach a class to the Literary Arts 1 & 2 students.