Clemente Middle School ASPIRA Leadership Club Writing & Photography Coquí Summer Camp PSSA Video Team Writing Contests Clemente News Club Al Día Newspaper Iglesia del Barrio Clemente Tech News
Clemente Middle School
Birthplace of Clemente News and Creative Writers Clubs by EscritorXâ„¢
ASPIRA Leadership Club
Strategic collaboration between Creative Writers and ASPIRA Clubs
Writing & Photography
Creative Writers combined words and pictures to help students share their stories
Coquí Summer Camp
Creative Writers adapted for ASPIRA's Coquí Summer Camp
PSSA Video Team
Special PSSA preparation service announcement video project
Writing Contests
Black History and Hispanic Heritage celebration writing contests
Clemente News Club
A precursor to Creative Writers After School Program (CWASP)
Al Día Newspaper
Strategic partner for publication guidance and field trips
Iglesia del Barrio
Creative Writers adapted for Iglesia del Barrio's after-school program
Clemente Tech News
Tech for non-techs newsletter aimed at Clemente Middle School teachers

Welcome to the Creative Writers Program Official Archive

Creative Writers After School Program (CWASP) was initiated at Roberto Clemente Middle School in 2001, a spin-off of the Clemente News Club that designed and published the school’s official newsletter, among other marketing tools.

Computer Skills

CWASP introduced students to both traditional and technology-assisted writing methods.

Presentation Skills

Students learned skills to improve speaking, listening, and presenting skills in addition to their writing.

Writing Portfolios

Regardless of when students joined the club during the year, personalizing a writing portfolio came first.

About Us

The rise and demise of Creative Writers Club

Creative Writers began at Roberto Clemente Middle School in the 2001-2002 school year, though its roots trace four summers earlier and continued intermittently for over a decade since. View the timeline for a more complete picture of how and when things started and why things fizzled until now.

CWASP set out to do many things for its participants at several locations. Two of those things were to instill a love for writing and to inspire within each student a deep-rooted need to write, whether for expression, refection or introspection.

Who What Where Why How... and When

A CWASP Timeline

Summer Institute program newsletter with then-computer teacher Jim Douglass.

Reprised Summer Institute program newsletter with then-computer teacher Jim Douglass.

Clemente Newsletter continues tradition of Summer Institute publication with student involvement.

Clemente News continues with new eighth-grade students.

Martin Picturesque established community-based, Picturesque-branded “Creative Writers’ Guild” in North Philadelphia following self-publication of “Dearest Love: An Anthology”.

Creative Writers Club introduced at Clemente Middle School under Martin Picturesque’s EscritorXâ„¢ brand for eighth-graders only. Student writing was first hosted at writers.camcobra.com/students with written permission from parents to publish student work online.

Clemente News continues with limited publication throughout school year.

Creative Writers expands after-school club to include grades 5-8 and rebrands as EscritorXâ„¢ Creative Writers After School Program (CWASP), introducing full creative writing curriculum authored by club sponsor.

Clemente News continues as one of several CWASP projects, publishing only once during 2002.

Special Clemente News tech feature for teachers spawns new Clemente Tech News, published entirely on the school’s intranet and authored by Technology Team members.

CWASP grows to reach more than 140 students (10% of the student body) through strategic after-school programming partnerships and multiple weekday club meetings. Student writing moves to a reorganized web presence at students.camcobra.com.

CWASP is also introduced to the ASPIRA after-school Leadership Program and partners to provide cross-training and to collaborate on events and activities.

Clemente News publishes only once during the year, its final publication. Though the March 2003 edition was published, the final version has not been located among stored files, and the most recent draft available has been shared on this archive.

Clemente Tech News continues publication on school’s intranet.

Creative Writers continues until about the end of the school year, at which time club sponsor and program author takes a job at ASPIRA. Program curriculum and materials, all intellectual and physical property of Martin Picturesque, remain with club sponsor.

CWASP ceased as an after-school program, and historic student writing remained at students.camcobra.com.

CWASP reprises as an ASPIRA Coquí Summer Camp academic enrichment activity and again as special Tuesday evening offering for NET Centers clients, hosted in ASPIRA’s Computer Technology Center (CTC) for six or eight weeks.

No student writing from either experience is added to the student writing website, which remains dormant since the program ceased at Clemente Middle School. This is owing, in part, to overt co-branding of the website with the middle school, posing time investment to rebrand it to include new partnerships and student writing.

Fun aside: This is also the summer that the infamous CWASP credo (search is underway to share on this archive site) got the club sponsor in trouble with other teachers of the Coquí Summer Camp.

Students received instruction in core academics – math, reading, science – during the morning hours and academic enrichment – art, music, photography, CREATIVE WRITING – in the afternoon. One of the academic teachers complained to management that her students physically recoiled from her when she was handing out pencils in her class one day. When she asked what was going on, students told her that Creative Writers (formal title in their minds) don’t write in pencil, only in pen (CWASP credo).

Fortunately, the teacher and the CWASP sponsor were on great terms, and they were able to discuss it openly and resolve it quickly. At the very next CWASP class, the sponsor told students that a very important part of being a Creative Writer is using whichever writing implements another instructor provides in a class other that CWASP. It worked. They used pens in Creative Writing and whatever tools were provided them in other classes.

CWASP is adapted for the after-school program at Iglesia del Barrio in Kensington under direction of Pastor Cookie and guidance of the program’s original author. Students were tested on the Creative  Writers Credo after a week of orientation to the program. Though much of the proprietary curriculum is licensed at no cost to the church, it is unknown whether the program continued after the author took new employment in the fall.

Long overdue website maintenance and COVID-19 conspired together to afford the vast amount of time devoted to taking inventory of and optimizing websites at camcobra.com One of the last subdomains to receive an overhaul, students.camcobra.com represented the greatest volume and complexity of work, especially when choosing how to reproduce original works from the static HTML website to a dynamic content management system (CMS).

While the entire overhaul has been arduous, probably the most challenging was locating and preserving the integrity of the printed newsletters in their original electronic form. Some missing fonts and other minor issues have resulted in some text being cut off in places. The final newsletter is incomplete, though a final version did exist at some point, as it was the final newsletter completed and published in print. Perhaps a future exploration of these files will result in a more complete version to share.

Below is a photo gallery that takes visitors on a virtual tour of the original static HTML website, designed in a period of small computer screens with poor resolution (800×600), such that the site’s tiny appearance today belies its screen-fitting design of yesteryear. Is 2020 the year to revive this program, update it for current times and technologies, and welcome a new generation of CWASP Masters to its pages?

Our Workshops

What students learned

Computer Skills

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Public Speaking

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Digital Imaging

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Letter Writing

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Field Trips

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Internet Etiquette

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Peer Review

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Writing Goals

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DCF 1.0

In the mix

Better Together

Blended Learning

Combining service and project-based learning

Adapting to diverse learning styles and needs of students while also satisfying graduation requirements

CWASP used its professional network to connect students with careers and community projects and to help them earn community service hours required for graduation.

Where we've been through the years

Play Video

Clemente

2001 | CWASP opened at Clemente Middle School

Coqui Camp

2007 | Offered one-summer enrichment course at ASPIRA

ASPIRA/NET

2008 | Offered NET Centers clients at ASPIRA

Kensington

2012 | Licensed to after-school program at Iglesia del Barrio

CWASP HTML Website Archive

Clemente News – March 2003

Clemente News – December 2002

Clemente News – April 2001

Clemente News – March 2001

Our Experts

Awesome Team

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Jennifer Doe

Valunteer

Jonathan Mike

Valunteer

Lisa Doe

Valunteer

Testimonials

People Who love Us

Our happy clients and their review

Have any Project in Mind?

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