July 17, 2000
Summary Report for the Young Writers Camp 2000
During the week of July 10-14, 2000, The "Travelling Young Writer's Camp" was held at four school sites and at Willamette. The four school sites were: Mill City Middle School in Mill City, Clear Lake Elementary in Keizer, Myer elementary in West Salem and Monmouth Elementary in Monmouth, Oregon. The staff consisted of: Directors: Robin Fromherz, Willamette University, Carol Long, Willamette University and Melody Munger, Mill City Middle School; four site directors: Anita Leach, Mill City Middle School, Dave Bertholf, Clear Lake, Pat Knight, Myers, and Nancy Albritton, Monmouth; the teaching staff included; Janel Jones, Pat Knight, Cheryl Lawerence, Dave Bertholf, Glen Bledsoe, Shawn Beam, and Teresa Baumbach. All are fellows of the Oregon Writing Project at Willamette, save Anita Leach. A job description for site directors and teachers is attached.
104 students attended the camp at the school locations and 77 attended the final day at Willamette. 37 students attended the Monmouth site as part of their summer school experience, but were not registered as campers and did not go to Willamette.
Each site director developed a schedule for their school site. (See attached schedules) On the final day of the camp, all students travelled to Willamette where they participated in sessions with a poet, Janet Wong, cartoonists, The Flying Rhino, toured The Hallie Ford Museum and took a walk-about of the campus to write. (See attached schedule and newspaper article)
Strengths of the Young Writers Camp: teachers were all alumni of The Oregon Writing Project and shared a common philosophy towards writing.
*AIumni were involved again in The Oregon Writing Project
<>Teachers were able to watch teachers teaching young writers
*A strong teamwork developed between the staff as they worked to meet the needs of the young writers and share their own writing.
<>A partnership was developed between Willamette University and the involved school sites
*Talented Young Writers had opportunities to develop their writing
<> Young Writers had an opportunity to "publish" their writing through an anthology and a few students were published in the Statesman Journal