Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP) Young Writers Camp 2012

Michelle working with a young writer

Sharing your writing with a peer

            

 
                 Author's Chair

Information about the BAWP Young Writers camp can be found here. Early bird registration ends on 15 October.

After the success of the first BAWP Young Writers’ Camp in 2011, I am thrilled to welcome back Michelle Hackel and Marna Blanchard to conduct our second BAWP camp from November 28- Dec 1^st.  As usual, I will be there to work with the students as will the trainers from the Adam Khoo Learning Centre, who will be hosting this event at RELC.

Writing is something that I am growing more and more passionate about and it all began with helping teachers to teach writing.  I did of course do a lot of academic writing in my past life but that was a different type of writing. Then I started writing my newsletter and later my blog and this made writing somewhat of a routine for me.  But still, I won’t say I write regularly until my experience working with Michelle and Marna at the BAWP camp last year.

At our camp, every student has to do free writing for 10 minutes every day and as a rule, all the instructors wrote with the students. I also wrote when a writing task was set and all that intensive writing made me want to write more long after the camp was over.  So I continued writing on my own and took to keeping a writing journal in addition to keeping up with writing my blog.

A few months ago, I began a small writing group with some friends and we get together once a fortnight or so to write and to share our writing.  I finally was able to get started on writing all the childhood stories that I wanted to share with the younger members of my family.

I find that writing on a regular basis gives me more insight into the act of composing and it helps me be a better teacher of writing too. But this post is not about my own writing. It’s more about those students who came to our camp and what they wrote. After the camp, I wrote about some of the camp experiences, our teaching techniques, and you can read about them here.

But I did not get around to sharing some of the writing with you. Some of the pieces of fiction that the students wrote were very long but they also wrote poetry. In fact, it’s the poetry that really impressed me.

The students were given a copy of Where I’m from by George Ella Lyon as a mentor text and they were then told to wrote a parallel poem. Here are some samples of their writing. In all cases, students were given some help initially with brainstorming ideas but they wrote the entire poem by themselves. The instructors helped with some editing.

Read these poems and remember that these are all primary school students, not quite 12 years old, and marvel at their insight into their own lives and their beautiful choice of words and images. Good writing can be taught; good writers can be nurtured.

 I Am From                 

By Angela

I am from Nancy Drew book number two,

Hardy Boys,

Serious of Unfortunate Events.

I am from the diary in my room,

From smooth edges,

Thin pages,

A purple “This is MY diary NOT yours” cover.

I am from the fresh water and saltwater fish tanks in the living room.

From one puffer fish,

Two pregnant fish,

Three clownfish!

I am from Belinda,

Taking care of three babies each day,

From Joyce, Joshua, and Joel.

I’m from Geok Choo,

Telling me every day,

“A home is where your family must take you in.”

I’m from Fried Kway Teow,

Fishcakes,

Red, small shrimp.

I’m from abalone,

Yellow noodles,

Cai sim.

I’m from the secret room I found,

No one knows where it is

Neither do you.

It’s small,

Only a dwarf could fit inside.

I keep my Angry Bird toys,

Photos of my past,

Books I like to read inside.

From the attic,

The basement,

Where boxes hold the

Faces of whom

I dream.

I am from a map

To show you where you are,

So you will never be lost in your family tree.

I am from Poem

By Haqmal

I am from a Coke Can,
from bottles and slippers
scattered on the ground.
I am from the fridge in the kitchen with
frozen hot dogs and chocolate cakes inside it.
I’m from chicken rice every week and
chili crab sometimes.
I’m from a half-eaten apple and a single long sock,
from Ben who always use the computer and a kitchen table.

I’m from a fresh orange juice and a laced sneakers,
from a bed and a soft pillow.
I am from do not play football in the house and
sometimes a MacBook,
from a Imac computer and a nice photo Album.

I am from Dahlinar who feeds her baby daughter baby food
and Widad who often washes glass and plastic plates.
I’m from a bookshelf full of nice
old books and A Diary Of A Wimpy Kid sometimes.
I am from a family who likes to spend time together and
a sweet popcorn,
from a movie and a large cinema.

I am from

By Naveen

I am from an old grandfather clock

From chicken curry has thick gravy

I am from the air hockey table (so shiny and

Smooth I scored twenty two ) I am from Annand,

my cousin who loves shooting games

He could not contain his excitement

When he held his first gun

In the army.

I am from whipped cream

From Palm trees

I am from New York winter

From the indoor soccer field the cage

I am from hand me downs

From the shoes my sister gave me

I am actually from the chilli crab.

I AM FROM…..

by Joy

I am from pots and pans

used to cook dinner for three.

I am from the little brown squirrel

Climbing up the durian tree.

I am from the old stale pork resting on the kitchen table

Surrounded by flies.

From the untouched mango pudding

Frozen in the fridge.

I am from my guinea pig, Jerry,

Squeaking us insane.

From my tortoise ,Humphry,

Who stinks like rotten steak.

I am from Mr Ong Teng Chiong

One of the presidents of Singapore.

I am from my mum and dad

An egg and a sperm.

From the dear lord Jesus

Born in a manger.

I am from the 21^st of December

The day I was born.