Writing Camp

What does it say about public education when kids and their parents comment that “real” writing has to happen outside of school?

I spent the last week with nine kids ages 10-14 eager to go deeper in their writing practice.  They spanned from novice to accomplished, “my mom talked me into it,” to “FINALLY I get to work on what I want to write.”  We worked four hours a day with minimal pre-planning by my partner and I, and we delved into the topics and needs of our participants.

No, there was no pretest.  No, we didn’t have an agenda, other than to give our kids the experience of real, not school, writing.  What did we do then?

We started by a look at what I fondly call “The Muppet”, and constructed our own.  You can visit my co-teacher’s blog to read about this and see some of the kids’ artistic representations of their muppets.  Muppet is just my term for that judgmental voice in our heads when we attempt to write or act authentically; it’s often known as “The Critic.”  We then moved into what each kid wanted from the camp–what their particular writing needs and questions were, and how we could serve them.

Every day we checked in with the kids and looked at some aspect of writing they seemed to want or need.  We looked at strategies for getting unstuck, how great writing has to “Say Something,” and helping each other move past sticky writing problems or needs through group critique.  Every single day we had large chunks of time to write and work together on topics of our own choosing.  When I say our, I mean all of us, including me and my co-teacher.  Personally, I worked on developing an idea for a book to help teachers find their own teaching voice, and I brought my own thoughts and problems to the group to get input along with them.

I was struck how all of these middle school aged kids were so focused and on task, even the ones who’d come uncertain about being there.  We really didn’t direct them all that much, and yet, they set their own agendas, even breaking for lunch on their own schedules and returning to work in a timely manner.  I found myself wishing school was more like this…relaxed and focused on helping kids find their own paths, interjecting lessons as it was clear they needed them and were receptive to them.

I try to make my classroom like this, but I fight the school structure all the time.  The further I proceed down this path, the more I am convinced school needs to be radically different if we really want to meet the needs of all of our kids.

Today we had a follow up session to support our kids on their writing projects, and it was phenomenal.  More group critique, more writing time, and the use of a new tool via TappedIn.org to continue the collaboration between meetings.  And the writing these kids are doing?  Powerful.  Filled with depth, topics they care about, and a complexity I don’t think you’ll ever find in an assigned writing topic.  More on that later.