What is the siegel writing club?
Writing is an incredibly versatile art form. That said, the Siegel Writing Club can really be whatever its writers make of it. While the club has a syllabus with challenges to meet throughout the school year, we believe staying true to the versatility of writing is a must: One writer's mystery about the disappearance of their parents is another writer's coming-of-age tale about accepting their family's differences. Or what begins as an epic poem might end up as a modern-day stage play. After all, writing should be an adventure into the unknown. As novelist E.L. Doctorow once said, "Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."
okay, sure, but what do you actually do?
Oh! My misunderstanding :) To better answer your question, here's a rundown of our syllabus for the year:
1st Quarter - The Very Very Short Story
In this assignment, students were challenged to write cliffhangers in which the action of the story stops either right at or just before the climax. This accomplishes several things. First, the theme is shifted from how problems are resolved to the conflict itself. Also, all characterization stems from how characters relate to the conflict rather than how they might overcome problems as they arise.
2nd Quarter - The Epic Poem
Now that students have practiced a few of the basics of storytelling, writer's will turn their attention to a Herculean task: a 10-stanza, 100-line epic poem. In this assignment, students will follow the conventions of epic poetry with rhyming couplets, the introduction of a hero and their fatal flaw, gods and goddesses, prophesies, and to top it all off, a final battle.
3rd Quarter - The Play
F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, "Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy." With this in mind, our writers will adapt their epic poem from the previous quarter into a stage play or screenplay set in today's world. Heroic deeds may take an introspective turn, and the heroes themselves may no longer be the valiant figures they once were.
4th Quarter - The Memoir
To close out the year, students will write a third-person narrative about a formative moment or series of events in their life. Memory can be a tricky thing. On one hand, it can be full of vivid imagery, and rich with sensory detail; on the other hand, it's often inaccurate and emotionally charged. Our writers will explore this conundrum by putting a lens to their own lives.
1st Quarter - The Very Very Short Story
In this assignment, students were challenged to write cliffhangers in which the action of the story stops either right at or just before the climax. This accomplishes several things. First, the theme is shifted from how problems are resolved to the conflict itself. Also, all characterization stems from how characters relate to the conflict rather than how they might overcome problems as they arise.
2nd Quarter - The Epic Poem
Now that students have practiced a few of the basics of storytelling, writer's will turn their attention to a Herculean task: a 10-stanza, 100-line epic poem. In this assignment, students will follow the conventions of epic poetry with rhyming couplets, the introduction of a hero and their fatal flaw, gods and goddesses, prophesies, and to top it all off, a final battle.
3rd Quarter - The Play
F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, "Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy." With this in mind, our writers will adapt their epic poem from the previous quarter into a stage play or screenplay set in today's world. Heroic deeds may take an introspective turn, and the heroes themselves may no longer be the valiant figures they once were.
4th Quarter - The Memoir
To close out the year, students will write a third-person narrative about a formative moment or series of events in their life. Memory can be a tricky thing. On one hand, it can be full of vivid imagery, and rich with sensory detail; on the other hand, it's often inaccurate and emotionally charged. Our writers will explore this conundrum by putting a lens to their own lives.
who are the club sponsors?
Dustin Allen and Patti Long-Lee is the short answer. Mr. Allen is a seventh-grade ELAB and sixth-grade ELA teacher in his third year at Siegel Middle, while Ms. Long-Lee is in her second year as Siegel's SPECTRUM teacher. Before he was an educator, Mr. Allen was a journalist for a number of newspapers and magazines (both print and online). Long-Lee has spent time as a professional book editor, and is highly involved in local theater as a performer and behind the scenes. Both have an avid love for the craft of writing and spend their free time working on novels and short stories.
what's this i hear about a quarterly newspaper?
So glad you asked! The Cavalier Chronicle is Siegel's newsletter published at the end of every quarter to highlight activities in each subject area for the grading period, news regarding our many clubs and sports, and a timely word from our principal. In fact, one of the requirements for membership in the Writing Club is to write a short piece for the Chronicle on one of our many schoolwide events throughout the year. If you'd like to find out more, click here for our most recent issue