Soon students will be able to draw on the walls of the Writers’ Studio.

Pamela Clubb, Writing Director of the Writers’ Studio, along with Ms. Jacobson and Dr. Lamkins, initially wanted to install wall talkers, a surface that covers the walls and allows the students to plan and visualize the writing process.

Clubb sought the capable hands of Kayla Fender (‘17), Emily Fender (‘17) and Desi Hambrock (‘17) at the end of last year to help her with the work. “Desi, Emily, and Kayla are former students. And I knew of their artistic ability, so I wanted not only someone who understood writing and the writing process, but also had the technical and creative skills to be able to come up with designs that would fit into the space along with the architecture and the color palette in the room,” said Clubb.

Students who frequented the Writers’ Studio offered Clubb their opinion on what diagrams and topics would help the peer consultants best guide them through a meeting.

The peer consultants and Clubb discussed this idea last year, “We had had several conversations about templates and ideas to help students when they came in the studio,” said Clubb.

Kayla Fender(‘17) and her sister Emily (‘17) met with Clubb multiple times over the summer to discuss design. According to Fender, they were “trying to figure out interesting shapes for the students to write on because everyone does Venn diagrams and semantic maps, but we really wanted to make a fun and engaging way for students to be able to plan out their essays and get the help they need.”

After last year when the wall talkers were initially improperly installed and the walls refurbished, the Writers’ Studio artists could start work late in the summer, but especially the Sunday before school started. In the following weeks, Clubb and Maintenance plan to put a sealant on the walls that will allow to write with a dry erase marker.

At the next meeting of the Writer’s Studio staff, Clubb will brief peer consultants on how to use the templates when working with students.

Even though students cannot live out childhood dreams of writing on the walls without a timeout until later this month, the Writers’ Studio opened last Monday, the 29th, and welcomes students to seek help on English, history, and even science and foreign language assignments.