Looking for a comprehensive high school writing class that will take your learner from inspiration to finished essays?  

You want your learner to become a better writer, but it’s not easy to find instruction that will actually improve their skills. Simply explaining what good writing is or giving students worksheets to fill out about characteristics of writing won’t get them anywhere. In fact, it will only teach them that they are “bad at” writing and that there is no point in trying to improve.

What learners need is practical lessons that will get them engaged in analyzing writing, discussing what makes good essays, and experimenting with techniques and styles. 

The exercises, assignments, and sample texts in this full semester class have been honed over 20+ years of teaching. I have found great success teaching writing using these plans to all levels of students, from AP Literature classes to my most reluctant learners.  

There are no lectures or presentations in this class—learners will be empowered to find their own answers and find the confidence they need to find their voice and write great essays that express their ideas and unique perspectives on the world.

While most of the work will be done in class, students have the option to work outside of class as well including submitting drafts for feedback.  If a grade is desired for the class, we will go over a rubric and expectations beforehand.  If students would like to count the class towards high school credit, we can also set up a schedule for outside work in order to have enough hours.

This is the second semester of a full-year course.  Students are not required to take the first semester, and while we will focus on similar kinds of writing, the mentor texts and exercises will be different from the first semester.

When your learner takes this innovative semester-long class on writing, they will:

--Get past writers block with the low-key activities designed to get them feeling less pressure about writing and more interest in telling their stories.

--Learn that writing can be lots of fun when they read interesting and engaging example texts.

--Understand the elements of good writing such as show-don’t tell, grabbers, structure, description, evidence, explanation, and theme so that they comprehend how to build a great essay.

--Engage in fun, low-key games and activities focusing on sentence structure, storytelling, show don’t tell, and other elements of good writing.

--Move through the writing process—from prewriting to drafting to peer editing to revision—with the practical lessons and activities.

--Learn to conduct peer conferences so that they can improve their own writing and more deeply understand the elements of quality writing.

--Draft, revise, and edit their essays with the time-tested and proven activities and concrete suggestions.

We’ll follow this format for the most classes:

5-Minute Opening Freewrite.  No matter what projects students are working on, it’s always a great idea to do some low-key writing on compelling prompts.  These freewrites might serve as the basis for longer works or simply be a chance to become more fluent writers.

5-Minute Checkin.  We’ll do a quick go-around to report on current projects, issues, questions, or ideas for new writing pieces.

20-Minute Reading and Discussion of a Mentor Text.  Looking at the kind of writing that students will do as a class is a great way for them to be encouraged to try new things. It’s also a fun way to explore different kinds of writing.  We’ll read everything from published essays, op-ed pieces, contemporary poems, and excerpts from short stories--all to get inspiration and ideas for improving writing.

10-Minute Focused Mini Lesson Based on the Mentor Text.  After reading the mentor text, we’ll try out a specific technique inspired by that text.  From writing figurative language to citing evidence to grabbing a reader with a compelling opening line, we’ll have lots of things to learn from the mentor texts to apply to our own writing.

30-Minutes Sustained Quiet Writing.  The thing about writing is, you just gotta do it!  We’ll spend 30 minutes each class working on drafts, revising based on the mini lesson, or working through whatever stage of the writing process students are at.  

15-Minute Peer Conferences.  Students will work with a structured handout and process in breakout rooms.  Learning how to conduct a peer conference is a great tool to help others improve their writing, but more importantly, when you learn how to talk about the elements of effective writing, you’re more able to incorporate those elements into your own writing.   

5-Minute Closing Creative Writing Exercise. As a fun way to close out the class as well as a sneaky way to learn more skills, we'll end the class with a fun creative writing exercise focused on setting, figurative language, point of view, description, word choice, or other elements of writing.

Homework: Students will have the option to submit drafts for review and I will give them focused and concrete suggestions for improving their ideas, writing style, organization, or whatever else they need.