Hannah Buckley
Writer
Advanced Creative Writing is a pilot program new to Foran this year. The class of 11 is led by teacher Rick Raucci.
The students, all seniors, have been handpicked by Mr. Raucci to participate in the program. The class has received a grant from the Board of Ed for $2,000. During the year the students will be writing several short stories of about 12 pages each. In the spring they’ll have to choose which of their stories to publish.
The class is teaming up with the AP Art students, who will be illustrating their stories. There will be a panel of teachers to determine what stories and what artwork goes in.
Most of the grant money is being used to publish the book of short stories. The book will be sold on Amazon and at Barnes and Noble. The group is allowed to learn both the creative writing curriculum as well as the publishing process that authors have to go through.
“It’s a great and exciting experience opportunity to be a part of,” said Caitlin O’Halloran.
During the month of September the students have been focusing on learning what elements of creative writing should be included and exaggerated in order to make their pieces authentic. The class has an exciting atmosphere to it because of the fact that they’re writing a book.
The students are extremely excited to become published as authors at such a young age.
The idea came about when Mr. Raucci felt that the half year of Creative Writing Foran offered wasn’t enough to go into as much depth as he’d like to with the class. However, he loved teaching creative writing. He spoke with the supervisor downtown who headed the entire English program for the Milford Public School System and they drafted a class together.
“I love the class. It’s a great group of kids and I have high expectations for their writing. I know they’ll all be able to rise to the challenge and create work that hundreds of people will be able to enjoy reading.” said Mr. Raucci.
One student said she likes the class because it’s exciting and there’s a lot of engagement rather than lecturing
“Mr. Raucci is the perfect person to be teaching this,” a student said. “It’s nice to be in a class where everyone is comfortable sharing their personal feelings and the things they write with each other. It helps us to not only grow as writers, but people as well.”
