A Community of Young Writers Find Voice

In cooperation with the Chicago Area Writing Project (CAWP) and School District 128, Mrs. Gayle Greenwald and Ms. Pam Peters lead a writing camp at Independence Junior High School on July 27 and August 4, 2016. With the hope of enhancing the students' writing through techniques and strategies that Greenwald and Peters learned from CAWP, this summer writing institute's goals were to involve the community by inviting young writers up to twelfth grade from the area to participate.

By letting the students have the opportunity to write and explore their imaginations, they can find their voice. Writing is more than writing just about reading assignments, and the students need a creative outlet to write just for sake of creativity and explore the writing process. To elicit student's writing, CAWP writing strategies were used such as looping, small-group discussions, conferencing, and questioning. Prompts were gien to evoke students' responses that lead to many different interpretations.

These students will be submitting their finished pieces to the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. If any students are interested in submitting their creative writing pieces, please do so--and any teachers interested in becoming a member of CAWP, please contact Dr. Barbara Kato, Director of the Chicago Area Writing Project at 312-355-4445 or bkato@uic.edu.

Submissions for the 2017 Scholastic Awards opens on September 14, 2016. All submissions must be received in two forms: 1) online submission at www.artandwriting.or and 2) paper copy of writing with one submission form and fee. Submissions with paperwork need to be mailed to Chicago Area Writing Project at UIC. DHSP Building (MC 637) 1640 W. Roosevelt Road--Room 645 Chicago, IL 60608-1316

Here is just a snapshot of students' work from the camp:

Excerpt from eighth grader Leah Bylut's "A Day in the Life of a Shoe":

When we get home, my owner puts my twin and me away and goes to work. Although I know I am her favorite shoe, I always get jealous of her work shoes at this time of day. While I sit in the bin, I always make conversation with my twin. We may be a pair, but we have completely different personalities. He is easygoing one. I am more stubborn and complain a lot. It is hard to complain to a shoe that only talks about the greatness of life and what an amazing life we live. Don't get me wrong, I think my life is great, but it isn't always a walk in the park.

Excerpt from eighth grader Maggie O'Brien's "Loss":

Loss. The wind of the world. You can't touch it but you know it's there. The hardest moment is the feeling you get when you don't realize what you have until it's actually gone. Each new day, you replay the memories you made before the loss and before your world immersed into an everlasting chamber. The chamber that lets no words in and no words out like your world has no more meaning.

With this Summer Writing Institute, Mrs. Greenwald and Ms. Peters had hoped to give the students an experience that they could not ignore--but the teachers--felt it truly was the students' energy, ideas, and writing pieces that made the Summer Writing Institute memorable.