Writing

Creative Nonfiction – Grades 10, 11 & 12
Creative nonfiction is an expansive genre that combines personal narrative and critical reflection to examine our lived experiences and our relationships to society, culture, and other people. When we write and read creative nonfiction, we deepen our understanding of both literary craft and ourselves. In this course, students will draft and revise multiple works of creative nonfiction and will be challenged to take creative risks through low-stakes writing exercises. To provide models and prompts for writing, we will also read memoirs and creative essays by Chloé Cooper Jones, Charles D’Ambrosio, Carina del Valle Schorske, Kiese Laymon, Maggie Nelson, and Jia Tolentino.

Journalism is a course designed for students interested in digital and print journalism and developing their skills as a writer. This class produces the high school division's digital news site, The Grace Gazette, and emphasizes the journalistic writing style of modern media. Students will regularly read and critique a variety of publications and explore the fundamentals of writing, editing, and producing news stories. There will be an emphasis on emerging media as a journalistic tool, including photojournalism, television production, podcasting, and social media. Students will be expected to attend events, conduct interviews, and research stories outside of class as part of their assignments. This class is open to students in Grades 10–12. Students in Grade 10 will enroll in this course for one semester only, while students in Grades 11 and 12 are expected to enroll for both semesters.

Unrestrained by the bounds of the physical world, speculative fiction offers many lenses that realistic fiction cannot. But, like realistic fiction, it can also grapple with new technologies, as in Frankenstein or Black Mirror, it can cast a mirror on society, as in Slaughterhouse Five or Lovecraft Country, and it can echo our own emotions and pasts, as in Beloved or The Shining. This agility and range make it a rich genre to dive into again and again. In this course, students will read several pieces of speculative fiction from a range of centuries and authors, and the class will culminate in a creative work of their own, in the form of a story, podcast, map, short film, song cycle, animation, etc . . . This course is opened to Grades 10, 11, & 12 Texts Beowulf --trans. Maria Headley Ring Shout -- P. Djeli Clark Slaughterhouse Five --Kurt Vonnegut The Lesson --Caldwell Turnbull Embassytown --China Mieville Folding Beijing --Hao Jingfang trans. Ken Liu Station Eleven --Emily St. John Mandel

Good criticism is a burden of love, and the job of a critic is not simply to judge and evaluate, but to expand the work and deepen the relationship between that work and its audience. Whether it be on Beethoven’s Ode to Joy or Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, Rashomon or Black Panther, successful criticism positions its subject in its cultural and historical moment with an eye to its future relevance. Reading contemporary criticism and reviews of films, albums, and television shows by writers from Hanif Abdurraqib to Eve Ewing to Zadie Smith, students will also write multiple drafts multiple essays on a film, album, or TV show and will supplement these major essays with weekly responses to both art and criticism. 

Texts:

Why Black Panther is a Defining Moment for America --Carvell Wallace 

Windows on the Wall --Zadie Smith 

On Seatbelts & Sunsets --Hanif Abdurraqib 

Frank Ocean, Harper Lee, and the Reclusive Artist --Eve Ewing 

Two recent movies and two recent albums that will fluctuate from year to year

Multiple reviews and essays about each of these texts

Yearbook Journalism is a class in which students are the leaders, designers, and decision-makers on the yearbook staff. The yearbook course provides students with the journalism skills to design and produce the Grace yearbook. Units of study include: teamwork and accountability, concept, content, and coverage, reporting and writing, headlines and captions, editing, photography, typography, graphics, finances, advertising and distribution. The work for the course results in the completed volume of the school's yearbook. The publication strives to maintain a tradition of excellence in which the school and the community can take pride. This class is open to students in Grades 10–12. Students in Grade 10 will enroll in this course for one semester only, while students in Grades 11 and 12 are expected to enroll for both semesters.