I.C.E. Writers

8:30-9:20: Check-in & Quick Write

We begin our day with a mini warm-up writing activity while the campers are checking in for the day and getting settled. This activity is intended to get the juices flowing and set up the Craft Lesson.

9:20-11:30 Craft Lesson

Facilitators present a Craft Lesson on various types of techniques and genres (setting, memoir, plot building, research and informative, poetry, character development, articles, and many, many more). Facilitators use various types of media to present and model before the campers write for an extended amount of time. This session ends with Sharing in the Author’s Chair.

11:30-12:30 Lunch & Free Time

The entire group eats lunch together before doing various free time activities: gym/playground, movie, game room, computer lab, nature walk, etc. This time allows for all groups to mingle and move around before continuing to write.

12:30-1:30 Revision Lesson with Buddies

Facilitators present a lesson on a specific revision tool (literary devices, grammar, organization, etc.) to the whole group before the campers meet with their Revision Buddies to apply their tool to their writing from the morning session. The campers use the Ladder of Feedback (Clarify, Value, Concern & Suggestion) with their partners and communicate ways to improve their writing while gaining a different perspective.

1:30-2:30 Publishing

The campers have this time to type their writing pieces to publish in our anthology or onto the blog to receive feedback from the other campers, families and facilitators. They may log onto the blog to provide feedback, work on a project (Movie Maker, Photo Story, etc) or do research.

2:30-3:00 Author’s Chair

We end every day of camp sharing our pieces in the Author’s Chair. This is time to celebrate our daily accomplishments and enjoy one another’s beautiful words.

 

In 2002, Jennifer Albritton, legendary English teacher and co-founder of the Tampa Bay

Area Writing Project, founded a younger writers camp.  Enlisting the help of fellow TCs (Teacher Consultants), she modeled a camp after TBAWP’s Summer Institute for writing teachers. It was their vision and goal to create a camp that provided young authors from 3rd to 12th grade a safe environment to write, revise, share and publish their writing. The first campers dubbed the camp I.C.E. – Imaginative, Creative Explorers – and it has been held every summer since at various locations throughout the Tampa Bay Area, growing from one location and 12 campers to six locations and 100+ campers.

In 2008, we began our first expansion. A group of TCs from Pasco county started their own young writers’ camp, and the students there named it F.I.R.E. – Fiercely Imaginative & Remarkably Expressive Writers. Under the leadership of Freda Abercrombie, the camp started small, but continues to grow.

In 2015, I.C.E. Writers joined F.I.R.E. in Pasco, opening a third camp in Trinity.  A fourth camp started that same year by TC Tedra Tatelbaum who took over as director after Jennifer’s passing. That camp, located in St Pete is one of our strongest sites! A fifth camp opened that year as well in Brandon.

In 2017, John Eric Vona took over as director of TBAWP’s Youth Programs and started yet another program: W.I.N.D. – Writers In Need of Direction. W.I.N.D. For ages 16-25, W.I.N.D. is a whole different kind of program designed to catch those “kids” who have outgrown I.C.E. and F.I.R.E. It is held summer nights on the University of South Florida campus.