Messy Endings: Writing, Film, & Creativity

Learn to write with voice, choice, and creativity!

Students (and educators) too often regard the essay as merely an instrument of assessing learning, but the essay has a rich history as a creative genre. In this course we will approach the essay as the creative, dynamic, imaginative literary form that it actually is. Your approach to writing essays will not be the same and you'll never go back to the five paragraph essay again! We will look at examples of the essay, use film for inspiration, and play with other means of creativity.

You will leave this course with a very different and improved understanding of the essay, and you will be better writers. The essays you write in the future may challenge some of your teachers’ more conventional expectations, but they will be better, more interesting, and more like the real writing professional essayists actually create. Your professors in college will be grateful.

Sessions Offered

Session 2: July 6 - July 12

Format

Residential, Non-Credit

This class is meant to be immersive and students will:

  • Become better writers, more independent, more creative, and more original.
  • Choose topics of interest, explore genres of writing, develop their own voice, and write!
  • Learn a little bit about the history of the essay as a literary genre.
  • Read a variety of essays form a variety of essayists.
  • Experiment with writing different kinds of essays, such as personal essays, op-eds, commentaries, and rants.
  • Use film to inspire analysis and writing.
  • Share writing with one another both for revision and entertainment.
  • Play around with some multimodal forms of composition.

Image of students

Image of student

Image of students

Schedule at a Glance

 

7am – 9am: Breakfast

9am – 12pm: Class

12pm – 1:30: Lunch

1:30pm – 4pm: Class or Workshop

2:40pm – 4:45pm: Closing Ceremony on Friday

5pm – 7pm: Dinner

7pm – 9pm: Social Programming

10:30pm: Room Checks

Meet the Professors

 

Amy Nocton is an ECE Spanish instructor at EO Smith High School and has been teaching English composition as an adjunct for ten years for the University of Connecticut, Storrs campus. She is a film aficcionado and a published poet. Amy has long incorportated film into her ECE courses and her English classes at UConn as another means of exploring text and creativity. Amy's late husband, the former Director of the Connecticut Writing Project, used to run this course, so she learned from the best mentor possible and will do her best to make the course what he would have wanted it to be.

Katie Grant is a Training and Organizational Development Specialist with the Connecticut Education Association, where she works to support the advancement of the teaching profession, as well as the experiences of students in schools, across the state. She was previously a high school English teacher and UConn ECE Experience Instructor as well as program staff for UConn Pre-College Summer. Katie loves all things in teaching and learning—and especially all things relating to the teaching and learning of reading and writing. As a high school teacher, Katie was focused on creating student leadership opportunities through directing her school's yearbook program and writing center.