Summer Writing Camp (WriteNow!)

Every year we have summer writing camps featuring Write Now!® writing courses designed to improve students’ skills in formal, informal, and creative writing.

The program is offered in two formats:

The goals of both formats is the same: (1) to help students acquire excellent writing skills and (2) to encourage a love of writing in students. To facilitate the second goal, it is important that writing not be viewed as a painful chore; the vast majority of students tell us that they enjoy the classes and would recommend that their friends take them.

The writing courses begin with a review of sentence structure to verify that the students’ most basic skills are in place. We then move to the building blocks of all good writing: paragraphs. Using WriteNow!®’s copyrighted templates, students practice writing several different kinds of paragraphs: the classic five-sentence paragraph with a topic sentence, three supporting sentences, and a summary concluding sentence; variations on the classic that include both supporting and countering points; bullet-point paragraphs; and both introductory and concluding paragraphs. The third step is to proceed from writing strong paragraphs to combining them into outstanding essays and other literary forms.

All teachers are experienced Emerson Montessori staff members. Materials and exercises are designed and prepared by Charles D. Bernstein, Ph.D., executive director of the writing program and president of Early Learning Institute.

2024 Summer Writing Camps

Overview

July 8- August 2

One subject is covered in each of the three one-week camps.  They include:

• Expository Writing—focuses on the four subjects of the California Writing Tests, prose forms used in school assignments, the processes of selecting a topic and outlining the content, and writing mechanics (word choice, sentence structure, variety, etc.).
• Creative Writing—concentrates on a variety of literary forms (e.g., stories, plays, poems, journals, autobiographies, letters) and authentic self-expression, with emphasis on descriptions of character, setting, and action, as well as writing mechanics.
• Presentation Skills—(subtitled “Posters and PowerPoints” this year) develops students’ analytical and public speaking skills, with emphases on planning, outlining, and creating classroom communications using a variety of presentation tools.

We provide a binder to each child with all the agendas, handouts, and excercises for the one-week program.  The courses are led by long-time teachers, most with over 20 years at the school.

Students will bring their own lunches. The school will provide snacks in individual packages, that will be sanitized before they are distributed. Student may bring their own snacks, which must not be shared, in their lunch boxes.