Maine Campers Kindle Creative Fires with Pens, Pages

Publication: The Times Record
Date: July 23, 2010

Summary: Students at this writing camp don't have to be the best writers, just creative, say organizers from the Maine Writing Project. In fact, the biggest growth teachers observe in students is a boost in confidence.

Excerpt from Article

Over the last few years, we've had between 20 and 25 campers. Our typical camper — they range coming into grades three through 12—and they are mostly students who love to write, and this is their opportunity to be creative," Aronson said Thursday morning, as a batch of enthusiastic writers neared the final chapter of this week's camp. "They have a choice of genres—fiction and nonfiction. They write a learning autobiography. They're able to get support from teacher consultants," with the National Writing Project.

"We also have students who aren't the best writers, but their parents have encouraged them to join the camp to see if they can find a creative outlet," Aronson continued. "They know they have to do some writing in school, it's how we communicate. So to sort of encourage them, it's different than school writing. It's not graded. They are published at the end," in an anthology, which further engages the students.

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