Normally, the sky’s the limit for the kids at West Sedona School, but since Debbie Sanders’ sixth-grade class of advanced readers were writing science-fiction, the limit extended well beyond the sky to distant planets, stars and strange worlds, some of which were pleasant, others down-right dystopian — all of which were imaginative.
The sixth-graders had been anxious to try their hand at writing ever since Sanders introduced science-fiction reading materials several weeks ago for the purpose of teaching the students proper story arc composition. In works like Patrick Moore’s 1959 book “The Dome On Mars,” Monica Hughes’ 1975 short story “Goodbye to the Moon” and sci-fi dreadnought Ray Bradbury’s 1950 classic “The Veldt,” Sanders helped the class dissect the plot line elements essential to writing compelling fantasy stories.
On Feb. 13, Nancy Lattanzi, arts and culture coordinator for the city of Sedona, was on the scene in Sanders’ class-room to oversee the latest installment of her Artist in the Classroom series — a special writer’s workshop for the students. Lattanzi, through her partnership with the Sedona-Oak Creek School District, has helped bring dancers, mural painters, musicians and more to classrooms districtwide in an effort to strengthen the arts in child development and give students an opportunity to interact with professional creative artists.
For the writer’s workshop, Lattanzi invited three published Sedona authors: Joan Borque, Cindy Cole and Bryan Reinhart. Students were split up, with each author leading a group of about three to four kids. The kids read aloud the second drafts of their science-fiction/fantasy stories and received feedback from the pros. Sanders had, by this point, checked the students’ first drafts for any glaring grammatical or spelling errors, so that the workshop leaders could skip past technicalities and offer each budding writer valuable insights on their story’s plot, characters, voice and essence.
“The kids were really excited to get this feedback, they all said, ‘Miss Sanders, we all want honesty,’ and I say, well what does that mean? ‘We want them to not sugarcoat anything,’” Sanders said.
“At first, it sounded like they were hesitant,” Lattanzi added.
“But now they’ve totally seemed to come out of their shell.”
“We studied the different elements of a plot line, from exposition, rising action, climax, resolution. And then they went ahead and created detailed plot lines for themselves and wrote the story off of their plot lines,” Sanders said.
Among the three groups, kids could be heard reading tales of droll video game-like worlds where spaghetti tacos are a commodity, suspenseful scenes of a mysterious voice that lures its audience into the woods and even surprising commentaries on how class divides might become inflamed by space travel and technology in the distant future.
“Wow. That was quite a trip you took me on just now,” Bourque said after Alana Schrader read her story, which was formatted as a series of emotionally gripping journal entries leading up to an ominous event called simply “The Reaping.” Sanders’ students have penned the following tales:
- “Experiment 358” by Leeny Suarez
- “Devastated” by Alana Schrader
- “The War of the Rich and the Poor” by Sam Johnson
- “The Arrival On Pluto” by Larry Palmer
- “Dying Donkeys” by Elias Guzman
- “Maryo” by Aiden Stumplen
- “Green Blanket” by Kimani
- “Story of the Stars” by Amy Brefeld
- “The Voice” by Laura Guerra
- “The Messenger” by Emily Frey
Bourque explained to her group the need to imbue a story’s characters with deliberate details so as to create an emotional attachment from the reader. Cole talked to her group about the importance of brevity and eliminating unnecessary words in their stories — even teaching them the word superfluous. Reinhart stressed the importance of crafting a story that will draw readers, and asked his group what exactly enables readers to become engrossed in a story.
When asked what tip she found most useful, Emily Frey said, “To not use such overused words like ‘like’ or ‘that.’”
Amy Brefeld said, “Sometimes you write how you talk and it’s important to remember that sometimes that doesn’t make sense in [a story].”
Sanders said the introduction to serious fiction writing, supplemented by Lattanzi’s Artist in the Classroom project, helped engage a group of students that have proven themselves to be critical yet imaginative readers and eager writers
