Creative Writing Syllabus
Creative Writing Syllabus
Last Updated Aug 2025
Last Updated Aug 2025
Creative Writing will have students study modern and historical texts in order to create their own original writing that explores a variety of writing styles, audiences, genres, techniques, and skills. Afterwards, students will share their work in a collaborative, supportive environment that will use constructive criticism to help push students to find their own authorial voice. Writing projects will span short stories, poetry, song lyrics, and experimental forms.
The primary goal of the course will be to increase student creative writing, narrative writing, and presentation abilities through immersion in a supportive and engaging environment. Additional goals will include mentorship, integration of high and low English proficiency students, and improve overall confidence and self-esteem for all students involved.
We’re all beginners here and this class is NOT designed for professional creative writers. Instead, it’s designed for regular people (just like you) who want to experiment, play around with writing, and have fun. So, don’t be afraid to write poorly! The fear of writing is the biggest thing that prevents people from writing!
Students cannot write if they are afraid, feel ashamed, or don’t feel safe. My number one goal is to make every student feel safe (they can express their voice freely and without judgment) and valued.
When people write to please other people, they externalize the value of the writing. In other words, they won’t write unless they get a reward! This is a huge problem! So prompts and assignments will be open-ended so that all students really focus on the most important thing: finding a unique voice that they feel satisfied with.
When we share or comment on work, it will be to focus on what kind of reaction or response the work generates, and NOT whether or not it is ‘good.’ This is not academic writing, so no one in this class (myself included) has any right to say something is objectively ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Instead, what kind of reaction does it produce in the reader?
Each student will write their own, original pieces on an almost-weekly basis. These works will be creative and focus on eliciting a specific reaction from their reader.
Each writing assignment will begin with a study of at least 2 similar literary pieces. For example, a student may be asked to write a descriptive paragraph about their home. They would first study 2 or more varying paragraphs to see how those descriptive words convey certain experiences. Then, students will attempt to replicate similar experiences in their own, original work.
Each writing assignment will end with a writing circle, where students will share their writing piece to the rest of the class. Each student will be responsible for sharing their work at some point in time.
Assignments will start off small and increase in complexity. The goal is to increase student confidence in reading and writing on a weekly basis. Almost all feedback during the course of the class will focus on positive elements; criticism will not be accepted or encouraged.
Students feel safe in Mr. Tretyak’s classroom. They feel as though they can express themselves without judgment, share their opinion, and make mistakes. They feel as though Mr. Tretyak sees them as good people and that ‘bad’ behaviors are windows for something they might need support for.
Students feel intrinsically motivated to push and achieve their personal best. They avoid unnecessary comparison and prioritize their own, personal growth. They are academically honest and understand that to compromise the process of learning is to hurt themselves and their peers in the process.
Students strive to be as consistent as possible with their attendance, reading logs, reading, participation, and any other assignments. They see growth as something that happens everyday, 1% at a time and that attempting to rush this growth will only hinder it. When things occur to block their consistency, they take steps to communicate, find help, and use resources so that school and this classroom can continue to be a place of comfort instead of turbulence.
Students work hard to establish a unique, independent voice by consistently attempting to contribute something new to every conversation. They are careful to cite the work of others as they are working hard to distinguish how what they say might be different and might contribute compared to what others say. Finally, they understand that creativity is a process and requires hard work to generate; people are not ‘born’ creative but are rather made that way by constant attempts, risks, failures, and recoveries.