What I Learned Moving an In-Person Creative Writing Summer Camp Completely Online
Creative Writing Can Happen Anywhere
The Third Coast Camp for Young Writers is an annual summer camp for young writers entering grades 3-8 that happens each year on the campus of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI. While planning for this year, my teacher partner Mrs. Roberts (Go see her at her teacher blog Literacy Adventures) already met to plan our sessions. I was going to do Animal Memoir writing with a mentor text of El Deafo by Cece Bell, and Mrs. Roberts was going to do science-themed writing sessions with the Science Comics series of graphic novels for kids. We had a plan back in February.
Then, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit our area, and we both navigated through emergency online learning, we were unsure that parents would want a virtual option at all for summer camp. We also were admittedly tired from online learning. After putting out a survey to our own students, their families, and former camp attendees, we got feedback that almost everyone wanted a virtual option for summer camp. So, we pulled together to develop a week-long adventure into writing called Camp Third Coast. See our promotional flyer here. This post is all about the planning of our virtual writing camp, and the lessons that I want to take with me into the fall teaching writing in an online environment. Spoiler Alert: The biggest lesson is that all of our students should we engaged in creative writing as much as possible-even in online learning formats.
Planning
We have always operated an in-person creative writing camp. Similarly, we had always taught writing in-person during the school year. There were tons of things to consider. Here were some of the concerns:
What platform will we use that all students from different schools can access? Answer: Google Classroom under a non-school account will allow non-school emails to join.
How long will sessions be each day? Answer: 30 minutes maximum. Some families wanted more time on the computer, but research shows this is all that our elementary and middle school students could handle. It was also summertime, and this short amount of time was needed after the school year.
What if kids don’t have devices? Answer: They need a device that they can type on in order to participate in a virtual writing camp. This would be a concern to revisit for the fall as many students use iPads or phones that make it harder to type out ideas.
Will we record sessions? Answer: At first we were going to record sessions, but after many conversations about privacy, we recorded asynchronous lessons that reviewed the material in case our campers needed the review and all live synchronous sessions were not recorded.
How will families register online for camp? Answer: Use Google Forms! We started using Google Forms last year when we moved registration online. It provides an easy way to access camper information and have it all in one place.
How much will we charge? Answer: Camp was $50 for the week. It also paid what you can by donation. Money or fees would not stop anyone from attending writing camp. With many of our families struggling financially during the pandemic, we wanted it to be an option to donate $5 and still be able to attend our writing camp.
How will we accept payment? Answer: The university allowed us to create an online store and accept electronic payments. If we were operating without the university, this would have looked like PayPal or Google Pay.
How will we share their writing at the end of the week? Answer: We thought of so many ideas! We thought about sharing on Flipgrid or holding a special write-in day or a writing marathon day, but ultimately we went with an emailed electronic anthology to share student work. In the past, we have turned this anthology around and have gotten it published in 1-2 days. We informed families it would take a full week with the number of students who attended our sessions.
How will we do camp t-shirts and tote bags if we aren’t in-person? Answer: We used Teespring this year! I wish we would have set up the shop sooner as some campers didn’t get their shirts or totes in time for camp, but this was an easy way to get gear delivered to homes that did not require camp staff to be out delivering materials.
Setup of Camp
Mrs. Roberts and I also wanted to get on the same page with our focus for the daily sessions.
MONDAY-BRAINSTORMING (Camper tool=hiking boots)
TUESDAY-SETTING (Camper tool=compass)
WEDNESDAY-CHARACTERS (Camper tool=binoculars)
THURSDAY-PLOT (Camper tool=field guide)
FRIDAY-REVISION AND EDITING (Camper tool=magnifying glass)
>>30-minute live sessions
>>Small group workshops/appointments (Elementary students met one-on-one, middle school students met in small groups of 2-3)
>>Feedback on Google Docs (I loved using the Mote extension for giving feedback! It also helped that students could hear my voice on their documents.)
>>Communication with families (We used a camp email account, but I began wondering about meetings for families that teachers can have throughout the year, even in online formats)
My Agendas for Each Day
DAY 1: Brainstorming Ideas
DAY 2: Setting and World-Building
DAY 3: Character Development
DAY 4: Reviewing Plot
DAY 5: Revising and Editing
Feedback from Campers/Families
We always end camp with a Google Gorms survey, and I try to really pay attention to what families want for next year. As a classroom teacher, I also hone in on the things that kids loved so I can use them in the next school year. Here are some questions and responses from campers/families:
>>What was your favorite day of writing camp? Answer: Kids said they loved the individual writing time with their teacher, and they loved day three which was character development day.
>>What was your least favorite day of writing camp? Answer: Lots of campers reported Monday was their least favorite day! (Day #1 brainstorming is tough if you already have an idea in your mind or if you have absolutely no clue what you want to write about.)
>> What improvements could be made to camp? What would you like to fix? (Think of the perfect camp…)
Answers:
Writing time is given during live class sessions
Group sessions could be longer
Camp should be more than one week (Note: It normally is two weeks, but one week was what we could manage with online learning)
More time is given before the story was ready to be published
Small group conferences every day
Include outside field trips, nature hikes, or other camp-like things
Small groups for most of the days, not just a few
Prompt for the whole class to base a story on or a group story
Virtual snack break
Start the meetings later than 9 am
Lessons for the Fall
One of the main reasons I write and reflect on the blog is to create a record of my reflection and my own learning. My goal for today was to tell you about the move of taking an in-person writing camp online, but also, I want to share what I am taking into the fall. Different experiences are shaping us in different ways. The move to online learning has the potential to change how my classroom runs from here on out. Forever. I am looking at grading practices, revisiting small groups and conferencing, and trying out new systems of technology. This year may feel all wrong, but there is a lot of right going on in our own learning during this time. Here are my lessons from the online writing camp that I will carry with me into the fall.
>>Creative writing needs to be a non-negotiable for all teachers. If I am not doing Friday Free Write, I need to be using creative writing prompts at least once a week. Kids want to create stories.
>>Small group time rules. I am so excited about the opportunity to experiment and think about how we do writing conferences online. My goal is to start this time 1-2 times a week with a whole group prompt, (reading check-in for reading conferences and writing prompt for writing conferences) and then have small groups of 2-3 meet together.
>>Kids need social time in online environments, too. This lesson is a little intimidating to try to fit in because our schedule is so rigorous. But, I think if we begin to think about embedding social time for our students to talk to one other at the end of a lesson or at the beginning of a lesson, we can give them the time to interact with their peers.
>>All teachers need to be doing asynchronous work. I was so skeptical, but after watching my teacher partner record lessons for kids, I was convinced at the power of pre-recording content, too. I plan on recording a mini-lesson after my lessons are done each day or during lunchtime. These don’t need to be in-depth lessons, but enough that students can get curious and control their own learning. Yes, this requires more planning. However, it is a strategy for making online learning more personal and deeper than what it was in the spring for emergency learning.
>>Teachers need to be writers. It is going to be easy to get caught up in the beauty of digital notebooks and the constant juggling of Google Meets video meetings and new deadlines for the fall. However, teachers need to maintain and include writing in their own classroom notebook. Teachers need to provide mentors, but also speak to the live experience of writing as a sample mentor text. I was tired going into writing camp, but I was re-inspired by my teacher partner’s work with “teacher as a writer” because kids need to see that we are writers, too. We struggle, we create, and we need to write as much as they need to write.
>>Publish their writing often. Kids love getting their writing published. I immediately started thinking of how I can encourage young writers to publish their writing not just for me as a version of a final draft, but for their peers. Ideas of a classroom magazine or marking period classroom writing project started swirling around my mind. For example, if we are doing argumentative essays, we can have students select parts of their papers to share.
Publishing Their Writing
Here are the two anthologies that came out of Camp Third Coast this summer! Students are only sharing their writing using first names only.