Previous Student Writing

November

Last month you met the students in my Payton class. Now their stories are underway. On October 9, they wrote down simple plans, and here they are.

#1 After spending the day humiliating people, a man comes home to discover his house has been destroyed by birds.
#2 This concerns a young man who can read people's minds. It's a gift as well as a curse. It creates opportunities as well as problems such as the time he knew all the bad things his date was thinking about him.
# 3 To maintain some order in his unstable life, a high school counselor has conversations with the lawn gnomes at his house.
# 4 In a future world only too extreme classes exist:: the super rich and super poor. A super poor guy tries to defy the odds and make a better life for himself.
#5 A guy is being chased all over the by cops and he has no idea why.
#6 Bunch of girls on a road trip to visit the grave of a friend who has recently died.
#7 This takes place in future where people live in a godless tyranny. No one is safe.
#8 in school one day a girl is told by a stranger: " Don't give into the one within." This changes her life. a young boy. Years later the victim murders the priest and now the witness, a lawyer, must defend him.
#10 A girl is stuck in her own nightmares.
#11 Girl tries to hide her inner turmoil of her life from a friend.
#12 Two people who have known each other for a long, long time and who might have been meant for each other, never quite get together.
#13 Kids in a warehouse get infected with super powers. Owner wants to kill them before word gets out.
#14 In the future crystals sustain life, but now they are losing their power. The hero steps in to save the day.
#15 Girl who has had too much to drink has an accident, which seriously injures her friend. Now she must live with the guilt.
#16 Maid works in a boarding house/hotel and gets to know a lot about the people.

October 23

      Today the students described a place from their story. I wanted them to imagine even more clearly and deeply where the action will take place. Here are some examples:

Amber Huff - Hotel story
Hotel acts as the focal point within the story. Hotel acts like more of a boarding house, people allowed to live there for months at a time.

      Outside is of decent appearance and generous size. It's not the best looking hotel, nor is it the worst. Concrete walls, orangish in color. Plants neatly line the entryway. The front doors are open to the cool air-conditioned lobby. Inside the floor is lined with the familiar ornamental carpets and rugs, burgundy in color and covered in floral print and scrolls. To the right is the reception area. Dark brown desks stand proudly with a uniformed receptionist right behind them. There are couches in the middle of the room, black faux leather and uncomfortably soft. They're huddled around a small coffee table where travel magazines and brochures lay cluttered. To the left is a hallway leading to the first set of hotel rooms. Also, on the left are a pair of stairs leading upward to the second floor. It wasn't grandiose or extraordinarily stunning, but it was, overall, just a three-star hotel.

      The rooms come in varying sizes. Smalls consisted of one bed, one bathroom, one desk, chair, phone and TV and usually one person. Mediums doubled the number of beds. Suites, few in number in such an old hotel, had too-big beds, a separate kitchen/dining area and living space.

Natalie - the party house before the accident Party: Claire's House
Outside
Huge, white mansion. Since she is very rich.
Many flowers - huge front yard.
Pillars out in front.
People standing around chatting.
Some people laying on the grass from drinking too much.
A lot of trash, door wide open inviting everyone.
Music blasting from inside.
Lights are all on in the house.
Inside
People just about in every corner.
People drinking, talking, laughing, dancing, yelling.
Music blasting.
Alcohol and red cups everywhere.
Pretty empty of furniture - open space.
Pizza all over the place.
Hospital Room
General hospital equipment
Sunlight pouring in through the shades
Big room, TV, small furniture (2 chairs)
Flowers and balloons for Ashley
Sign: We love you, Ashley ?
High School - Peoria High School
Typical high school.
Many students
Posters all over the school for different activities, clubs, etc.
Big (2,000 students?)
Lockers lining the hallways

Martina's - main character's house
      Crummy neighborhood. Three story building. I walk in, the gate is never locked. Nice garden. No flowers. I want to ring the doorbell that doesn't work. I push open the lobby door that's always cracked open. Tile floors. Enclosed space. I see the staircase with a big, gashing hole in the side. I can see the garbage that has been stuffed/thrown in it. Three flights of stairs = 82 steps. As I walk up the filthy pinewood staircase I hear the TV of the apartment on the first floor, and the old lady across the hall yelling at her kids. As I reach the second floor the aroma of marijuana fills my lungs. I can feel it begin to change inside of me (the monster - repression of the girl's separate life - that the main character hides from her friends). I venture on. Only one more floor to go. I look up at the skylight that has black paint smeared across the top of it. I can hear the next door neighbor's squeaky voice as I walk past her door. It seems miles it takes to reach the door - Home Sweet Home.

Andrew's house:
FOR SALE: Beldin Manor
Asking price: $3,154,790
6 bedrooms, 5 _ bathrooms, fully remodeled and restored.
      "Our next stop on the tour is the formal dining room. Please cross the foyer and enter through the archway. Now this room comes fully furnished. The tables and chairs are hand carved from Italy. The wood paneling is Mahogany and has been fully restored. The fireplace still burns wood. You do not find that too often in the city." Chimed real estate agent Peggy Johnson..       "What's that?" asked Tim. Ford as he pointed in the corner. Its paint was chipping off.       "Oh, that's a gnome," said Peggy nervously, "the previous owner had a bit of an obsession."

Jennifer's warehouse
      The warehouse is made of brown and dark red bricks. It has windows all around the building. One or two windows are broken because the warehouse had been abandoned.

     Inside there are guards watching out. There is Mr. Sloan's office where there are cameras watching the warehouse. It's the control system for the house. Also inside there are plenty of machines making the goo that gave kids their powers. The goo consist of different types of goo: blue goo, green goo, red goo, yellow goo, gray goo and black goo. Each goo stands for a different power it can give you. In another room is where they test the animals to see if the goo is safe and if it works. There is a fence around the warehouse with wires on top. There is a slight hole in the fence, which is where the kids get in.

Jordyn's taxicab:
     The yellow taxicab speeds down the street, moving and swerving past slow moving cars. Inside, the taxi is divided into two sections by a glass screen with a slide open that is used when it is time to pay the fare charge. The seats are dirty with discarded gum wrappers and scattered crumbs. It has the "new car" smell, most likely because of the tree air freshener. The dice bounce up and down, sway from side to side on the rearview mirror, as the taxi avoids traffic. In the front part of the car the driver turns up the volume of the radio and begins blasting his old jams, music of the Temptations and Jackson 5. The passenger in the backseat rolls her eyes in irritation over the music choice of the driver. She had always disliked Motown. She was more of an inspirational song person. The windows of the cab were rolled down, but the passenger had rolled up her backseat window. The steering wheel had a green money dollar covering, that was placed on it by the driver. The fare box kept ticking on more numbers, representing the passenger's fare charge as the car sped on.

Since this is devoted to teacher writing, we will include some poetry by a teacher from DeVry -- Bob Lawrence.
Rock'N Roll Dreams...and other poems

The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless has a new creative writing project. To learn more check out: http://www.chicagohomeless.org. To read some student writing by shelter residents: http://www.chicagohomeless.org/node/265

Here are some writing samples from the summer session of the East Village Youth program. All the prompts are from Moe's Cafe. You can find more information about this great organization at: www.evyp.org.

Click here for previous student writing.