RE-VISION—Submitted by Lillian Cooper

Whew!! After all the effort put into our daily writing, drafting, revising, and editing, today was the day to turn in a favorite piece of our writing, to be published in the 2015 YWC Anthology. We celebrated in the afternoon by writing a piece, “I am a writer,” each student then choosing their favorite line to add to a group poem to be read on our final day of camp.

In teaching the writing process, especially with this year’s YWC focus on revision strategies, I found myself re-thinking re-vision. What does it mean to “re-see” something, and what does it mean to be a writer? Here’s where I always find myself getting clues from my students for my insights.   Yes, in their revisions, through our Writing Response Groups and individual conferences, students were encouraged to re-see their writing in new ways, with learned strategies such as adding detail, vivid verbs and adverbs, sensory imagery, and questioning.

But as a reader and listener, I realized these young 4^th and 5^th graders were giving me another definition of re-vision. They were also inspiring me, their audience, to re-see and re-think my world in new and different ways. Isn’t that what draws us to good authors—how they craft language to illuminate their purposes for writing, whether it’s fantasy, narrative, non-fiction, poetry, opinion, or whatever? Yes! My world will never be the same after re-visioning it through the unique voices of our writers.

In case you’re wondering what I mean:

I’ve visited the Falling Star many times, but from now on I will “see” this:

“The plants are as bright as a grassland spilled with red, purple, yellow, and orange paint, as if you’re looking at a painting.”

Or I will now re-think the meaning of color after reading our students’ odes:

To black, “for casting the shadow of my soul”

To “color blending and shaping the blue and green marble we call home”

I never before was persuaded that, “rock and roll is better than pop music because it is more for tomboys.”

How about avoiding getting eaten by becoming, through a series of escapes,

“the first pizza to walk on Jupiter”?

Then there’s your True Name:

“I secretly know that my name means to give hope to the world.”

 Sometimes just one word can change a picture in your mind; I’ve always associated drifting with water, but now I can see “Leaves that drift off the tree.”  

These questions made me re-think what I would prefer, given a choice:

“Would you rather have a bossy sister or no sister at all?”

“Would you rather be only able to sing or only be able to whisper?”

“Would you rather have no friends or no parents?”

As for our celebration of writing, I feel that our young writers are thinking like writers. Here is a sampling of some individual lines:

I AM A WRITER

I think words are the key to another world of wonder.

I believe that writing is a super power.

What I write is impossible yet not impossible.

I feel that writers use their imaginations as mentors.

I know my words make sense.

I use my surroundings for ideas.

I let my pencil glide across my paper

I believe writing takes you on a journey in your imagination.

I use writing to share my imagination.

I believe that writing opens your mind.

With my pen I can have more power than army on earth.

I believe writing gives you freedom to create anything.

My words create an image in the mind.

I make portals to new worlds and write stories.

Writing pours out on paper in any way.

I think writing is important because it lets you express your feelings.

I believe that there is a magical power in writing

Re-vision, re-thinking, publishing, and celebrating writing by hearing student voices—it was a great day at UCSD Young Writers’ Camp!

Kids These Days—Submitted by Dave Mattas

As a teacher, I am sometimes confronted by people who talk about “kids these days.” It’s a thought that is usually followed by a bulleted list of the ways that previous generations were superior. It’s an argument that every generation seems to make. The past week and a half has made me more sure than ever that “kids these days” are doing just fine.

Working with the high school group at UCSD has been an engaging, enriching, and constantly surprising experience. Any uncertainty that students arrived with dissolved in the first days of camp and instead an atmosphere of trust and adventure began to develop. What thrills me most, both in terms of this camp and the future, is the imagination and thoughtfulness that our group has shown. Writing camps lend themselves to the ridiculous, and we have certainly had our share of crazy and absurd pieces. Through it all is a conscientiousness that blows me away. Put simply: our kids are deep. We’ve had pieces about relationships and abuse and religion… BIG topics. During drop off one morning, a long conversation developed around the idea that humans give objects meaning and resulted in some truly fantastic writing about shoes. That is not a typical “hallway conversation” for high school students to have. Then again, this place is not a “typical hallway.”

The space that we have at UCSD allows for all kinds of exploration. Our home base in the cross-cultural library is filled with comfortable chairs and words on the walls. When we leave, the campus provides all sorts of possibilities: giant stone bears, a long winding path shaped like a snake, a library named for Dr. Seuss, and a small house that looks like it’s fallen from the sky. It all helps to breathe life into writing and it has been fuel for the many creative minds in our room.