What I Learned Moving an In-Person Creative Writing Summer Camp Completely Online

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.