Getting the Creative Juices Flowing

Students in Creative Writing break down barriers to form new levels of trust and comfort.

The overhead LED lights are typically off on any given day, with lamps and sunlight breaching through the windows setting an inspiring ambiance for the class.

Students in Allison Bass-Riccio’s Creative Writing class come in, get seated, and read over a prompt. From there, they write whatever comes to mind for 10 minutes. It’s how every class starts.

This exercise, Bass-Riccio explained, encourages students to become more comfortable sharing their writing on personal stories, topics, and issues they might otherwise not have talked about. And it’s proven to be successful, given the transformation in the students’ work from the start to end of the semester.

COMFORT, JOY, AND TRUST

One of Bass-Riccio’s goals is to ensure that each student walks away comfortable sharing their story, expressing their opinions, and trusting their peers and her.

“I really want them to work on creating a writing culture in our classroom by trying to use writing as a means of catharsis and processing the world around them, which I think is really important in the world right now,” Bass-Riccio said.

Helping students to process today’s environment is critically important for Bass-Riccio, who along with Theater Director Jennifer Guarino P’18, spoke in November at the National Conference on English Teachers Leadership about how the arts — such as English and theater — can assist students when responding to current events and emotions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The conference is hosted by the National Council of Teachers of English.

“Even though we might feel protective of things we create, being able to thrive in a writing group, with peers or faculty members, helps us not only to become better writers, but to feel more confident as writers and feel more joy in the process,” BassRiccio said.

The 10-minute daily prompt serves as a way for students to process, according to BassRiccio. And while it’s a routine, students are not required to share personal experiences early on in the semester; instead, they write about casual topics, like favorite foods or fond memories. “What I’ve found is that, as the semester goes on and as students become more comfortable with each other, they begin to share more and more.”

Comfort is critical, Bass-Riccio believes, especially after the pandemic. High school students today have been through a lot in the past two years, as evident in some of the discussions held in her class. Some students, for example, had repressed fears about the health and safety of their loved ones. What they realized through sharing their writing was that they weren’t alone with those thoughts.

“That is so much that they’re carrying,” Bass-Riccio reflected. “…To see them trying to process that through conversation — that’s more important to me than any sort of poetry form we could study.”

GOING BEYOND

The class traveled to Hartford in September to attend the Beyond van Gogh Hartford exhibit. Students fully immersed themselves in the history of the famed Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. And, in the next class, the students listened to “Vincent” by Don McClean. They spoke deeply about mental health and the importance of cultivating joy and ensuring that they used resources on campus if they needed to, such as a trusted adult or counseling services. They concluded the session working on ekphrastic poetry, which is writing inspired by art.

WRITING GROUPS

Another key aspect of the Creative Writing course is writing groups. Every Friday, the class participates in a student-led writing group. The lead student is required to come up with their own prompt and share a piece of their work at a site of their choosing. Locations vary depending on the student leading the group, and have included special spots on campus and local coffee shops.

Prompts include topics previously discussed in class, a piece of poetry they find meaningful, or something they have written — current or not. “It’s not about the work as much as it is about the sharing of the work,” Bass-Riccio said.

Peers are asked to critique the work, encourage their classmates, offer advice on how and where to improve in their writing, and more. It’s part of Bass-Riccio’s effort to cultivate culture in the classroom.

Writing groups, Bass-Riccio said, provide a change for students to communicate with each other about their writing, through their writing. As students lead writing groups, they focus on their own voices and stories, and get the chance to have a class centered on their individual growth.

Since Creative Writing is an elective, students in grades 9-12 and postgraduate can enroll. As such, there are some students who sign up as writers, knowing the ins and outs of creative writing. Others, on the other hand, have never written creatively before. With inspiration from Natalie Goldberg’s novel “Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within,” Bass-Riccio wants her class to break away the misconceptions of writing and provide students a space for selfexpression and freedom to share.

Going Beyond

On Sept. 29, the Creative Writing class traveled to Hartford to attend the Beyond van Gogh Hartford exhibit. There, in the 30,000-square-foot space in the Connecticut Convention Center, students entered an initial room to delve into the history of Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, his communications with family members, his thoughts on various topics, and so much more. They then entered the second, larger room, that showcased van Gogh’s work in digital form, which transitioned through themes such as The Starry Night and self-portraits.

After taking in van Gogh’s work and receiving inspiration, the students then found an area in the room to begin writing. There were no prompts; students were simply asked to write whatever came to their minds for 30 minutes. For Bass-Riccio, the exercise allowed her class to practice writing in a new space, which elicited new creativity from the students.

Following the tour, the class visited a local coffee shop, where they were able to discuss the experience and expand upon their thought processes.