Creative Writing (Parents)

Welcome to week nine of digital learning! (6/15)

Good morning, sophomores and juniors!

Since your senior classmates have completed their coursework, there will be no more essential assignment for this class. You will, however, still find a list of optional prompts under the "assignments" tab on my website to keep your writing skills sharp as the year winds down.

I've had so much fun reading all of your writing this semester, and I have been so impressed by your creativity and thoughtfulness. If you have any questions this week about your grade in the course, or about writing in general, don't hesitate to reach out to me via email.

Best,

Mrs. Marshall

Welcome to week eight of digital learning! (6/8)

Good morning, students and families!

At this time, posted grades are reflective of your current grade in the class. Please check your Skyward access. If you see a passing grade listed, you do not need to be concerned about course credit. At this time, I will not be taking late assignments. Please email me if you have any questions about grading.

You should be submitting your memoir project today. I look forward to reading about your unique experiences, and to see your reflections on how you've become the people that you are today.

Students, the conversations and events surrounding discrimination and police brutality in our nation may be impacting you emotionally on a range of levels. I want to let you know that I am here to support you, connect you to resources, or just to listen. Please don't hesitate to let me know if you are having a hard time focusing on school work. While we can't be together in person right now, I am still here for you.

On the week at a glance available HERE, you'll find poetry and literature relevant to the Black Lives Matter movement. If you have a suggestion for a text I should read that isn't on the list, please email the title to me. I'd love to check it out!

Seniors, it has been a pleasure to grow with you this year. I have been floored by your collective creativity, passion and energy. Despite the brokenness of our world today, you are a reason to believe that the future will be a better place. Whatever you do, I hope that you keep writing. Your words hold so much power and promise.

I can't wait to witness all that you accomplish.

Best,

Mrs. Marshall

Welcome to week seven of digital learning (6/1)

Good morning, student and families!

This week, you will be continuing the work you started with memoirs last week. You'll be reflecting on your own experiences to write a brief memoir of your own about your education. You can find this week's plan HERE as well as on my website under the "assignments" tab.

Seniors, as we wrap up your grades for the year, take some time to review your grade on Skyward and confirm that you don've have any outstanding work completed that you forgot to submit. The last day I will collect any late work for semester two is this Friday, June 5th.

Students, be sure you've updated your final reading long for the month of May. I will be checking your logs this week.

Feel free to reach out to me if you need any additional support!

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Welcome to week six of digital learning (5/26)

Good morning, students and families!

Seniors, you are in the home stretch of your high school career! This is an exciting time to celebrate you and to reflect on what the past twelve years of your life have meant to you.

Whether seniors or not, you will all get chance to reflect on your memories this week as we delve into an overview of memoir writing. Between this week and next week, you will tackle one final writing genre. You can find this week's plan HERE as well as on my website under the "assignments" tab.

If you are still working to submit any missing assignments, please note that the last day for any late work submissions is Friday, June 5th.

Feel free to reach out to me if you need any additional support, or have any questions about grading.

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Welcome to week five of digital learning (5/18)

Good morning, students and families!

This week, students will be completing a project with one book or fictional narrative they've read this semester. This project will allow students to reflect on individual reading in a creative way. You can find the weekly plan HERE as well as on my website under the "assignments" tab.

I know some of you are balancing AP testing this week, and you will notice that you have some freedom in the schedule for the week. You may tackle this project at any pace, though the slides are broken down into one task per day. You do not need to submit this assignment until it is fully complete (no later than Tuesday, May 26th).

Feel free to reach out to me this week if you need any additional support!

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Welcome to week four of digital learning (5/11)

Good morning, students and families!

This week, we'll continue our work with poetry. You can find the weekly plan for our learning HERE as well as under the "assignments" tab on my website.

I know some of you may also be balancing AP testing this week, so you will notice that some assignments this week are split over several days. If you are struggling to balance coursework and exams this week, you may also reach out to me for extra support. Best of luck with those exams!

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Welcome to week three of digital learning! (5/4)

Good morning, students and families!

You can find the weekly plan for our learning HERE as well as under the "assignments" tab on my website.

Students, this has also been emailed to your Skyward email addresses. If you are not receiving these weekly emails, let me know so that we can update your Skyward email address.

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Grading Update (5/1)

Good morning, Creative Writing students and families!

First, I wanted to extend a big thank you to every student who has been logging in to online learning and making the most of this strange time. I know you all have full course loads of classes and are working hard to navigate a range of new online platforms. Parents and families, thank you for your support and patience throughout this process.

Next, I wanted to update and clarify details regarding semester two grades for this course. Based on OSPI’s grading guidance for the rest of the year, grades will not go lower than recorded at the time of MT3, provided that you continue to engage and participate in the remaining year’s classwork. Reading log scores and assignments collected or issued after MT3 may raise your grade, however.

You will not be issued any summative assignments or a class final. Your remaining assignments will include writing practice, assigned reading and analysis questions and the remaining readings logs for the year.

Because I will continue entering grades over the coming weeks, your grade may drop from the MT3 grade. However, as long as you are engaging in course work and participating in class, your semester two grade will reflect the higher grade.

If you are in need of support with class content, online learning platforms or anything else, please email me at marshallc@issaquah.wednet.edu.

Best,

Mrs. Marshall

Welcome to week two of digital learning! (4/27)

Good morning, students and families!

Thank you to everyone who has engaged with online learning in the last week. This week, we are continuing our online learning with a closer look at some writing conventions.

You can find the weekly plan for our learning HERE as well as under the "assignments" tab on my website.

Note, today's presentation has a note about grading - in light of OSPI's guidance last week. Take a look and feel free to reach out to me via email with any questions you may have.

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Welcome to new learning in Creative Writing (4/20)

Good morning, students and families!

Today, we are starting new learning in Literature and Creative Writing. To facilitate this learning, you'll spend time today getting set up with a Turnitin.com account.

To help keep you organized as you delve into new learning for all of your classes, please see this week's plan HERE. (Note: this plan also contains brief instructions for setting up new accounts on Turnitin.com and Actively Learn - but you'll find more thorough instructions on the daily Google Slides linked in the plan.)

Parents, you are included in this email this week as we kick off digital learning. After this week your student will be getting these emails to their own email addresses only. You are always welcome to check out what we are doing on my website.

At this time, all of our content will be located under the "assignments" and "resources" tabs. The "extended closure tabs" contain only the optional work that wrapped up on April 10th.

While digital learning will have its challenges and drawbacks, I'm so glad we get the chance to keep learning together. If at any time you have challenges accessing course work, figuring out a new platform, or balancing expectations, feel free to reach out to me via email. I'm here to help!

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Extended Closure Update (4/10)

Good morning, students and families!

I am reaching out to remind you that next week coincides with our originally planned spring break. You will not see any new content uploaded to my website in that time, though you could use next week to complete any missing work prior to the start of new graded learning on April 20th.

Your teachers at IHS are doing our best to ensure that everyone will be able to access that new learning. At this time, I am asking all students to take my technology access survey (here) so that I can reach out on behalf of any students who indicate technology issues, as well as for any students who may be unable to view the survey and respond.

Please feel free to reach out to me with any other questions or concerns.

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Extended Closure Update (4/7)

Good morning, students and families!

By now you have no doubt heard the news that Governor Inslee has announced that schools will be closed for the remainder of the year, to be replaced by distance learning.

While this news is a lot for us all to process, we do have a path forward. The our next phase of online learning for the ISD will begin the week of April 20th. After that date, you can expect to see new content and graded lessons uploaded to my website. I'll be providing more specific details about that in future emails, but please encourage your student to catch up on any missing assignments prior to that date. This will help reduce their workload in the future, and hopefully reduce stress as well.

I know this is not the year any of us envisioned. Seniors, I know the loss of these days hits especially hard. If you've not heard it yet, thank you. Your sacrifice is making a difference.

Families, thank you for all you are doing to support your students!

As always, you are welcome to reach out to me with questions and concerns. I will do my best to provide information as it is made available to me. Check out the ISD emergency resources page for their latest details about resources during the closure.

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Extended Closure Update (4/6)

Good morning, students and families!

This is a reminder that students can keep their writing skills sharp with a weekly list of writing prompts posted to my website. You can find these prompts under the "Extended Closure" tab.

Many students shared updated reading logs with me, and had a grade posted on 3/31. This assignment was issued before break. If you see only an asterisk (*) for this assignment in Skyward, it means that either: your reading log was not shared with me, or your reading log was not updated for the month of March. Please follow up with me via email if this is the case, or if you need support with this in any other way.

As always, you are welcome to reach out to me with any questions or concerns.

Best,

Catherine Marshall

Extended Closure Update (3/30)

Good morning, students and families!

This is a reminder that students should continue to practice their writing during this time of school closure. Another set of prompts has been posted for students to access in the "Extended Closure" tab.

Students should also ensure that they have updated and shared their reading logs with me. I will be reviewing and posting grades for the March log tomorrow, 3/31.

Thank you for your hard work and flexibility during this time! As always, you are welcome to reach out to me via email with any questions.

Best,

Catherine Marshall