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Experience with Write at Home courses?


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I was wondering if anyone has had experience with the Write at Home short writing classes? The 9-week essay course looks very appropriate for my son.

 

Currently he is doing a home2teach writing class and we are VERY happy with it, but he is stuck in the paragraph class. He can't take the essay class for several more sessions, which means that he won't do essays through home2teach. Next spring he will be doing writing at the local community college, so I would like him to have some essay-writing practice (above what he is getting with me). This Write at home class looks tempting.

 

But I would love to hear others' experience with the short writing classes with Write at Home. Are the assignments well done? Does the student do a lot of writing and get a lot of feedback?

 

(I know what he will be giving up by not taking the Home2teach class; I want to be sure that he will be getting the same level of attention but just working on a higher-level writing skill.)

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My son took Write At Home classes from 2005-2007. Overall, we were happy with the classes, although they did not take my son as much time/attention as I'd hoped. For instance, he'd write an essay one week, receive comments the next, and have a whole week to revise the essay. It didn't take him long to incorporate suggestions/corrections, so basically he had every other week off! The Stanford EPGY W11A class was FAR more demanding and rigorous.

 

I'd like to send you an example of one of his Write At Home essay assignments and the feedback he received, but I can't find an option for attachments in PM or email. If you PM me with an email address, I'll send it to you!

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My oldest ds took the Essay Workshop about 6 years ago. At the time, he wrote 4 persuasive essays, while reading The Lively Art of Writing. The teacher comments were helpful and I thought it was a fine course.

 

My younger ds is taking the same course now and they have changed the whole format. Instead of writing 4 essays, he is writing 2, but the instruction is much more specific. For example, his first writing assignment was to write a thesis statement and provide three pro points to support his position and two con points to contradict it. Once that was done, the instructor provided step by step instructions on how to take that outline and turn it into paragraphs. The last step is the final drafts, which he is working on now.

 

If he takes Essay Workshop Part 2, he will get 2 more essays.

 

I really like the class, but I know some would feel it is not rigorous enough. My son is a very reluctant writer and needed this kind of hand holding, so I have been very pleased. In fact, I am considering their full year course next year.

 

HTH!

Michelle

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Hi Gwen!

 

My dd took both Essay workshops last year (grade 10). The class had already been revised as Michelle describes - in fact, we were the guinea pigs for the new format.

 

Looking back at my old records: during one particular week, dd wrote a draft of a lit analysis paper on the Aeneid (several pages; her choice of a book and topic to write on). She also received back several comments on an assignment to write a thesis statement and points pro & con for a response essay, from a choice of several SAT-essay-like prompts. The new assignment that particular week was then to write the rough draft of the response essay and to read a few chapters in The Lively Art of Writing.

 

Assignments are turned in & graded assignments are returned & new lessons and writing assignments are given each Thursday. There is no communication the other days of the week. They go through a couple revisions for each major paper; these weeks could be lighter weeks, but I always encouraged dd to look beyond the minimal assignments and to think about restructuring parts of the essay for better effect. Of course, sometimes the writing coach gave plenty of revision work without me adding my two cents!

 

W@H classes worked equally well for both my reluctant and my eager writer. I think the level is adjustable - my ds did what was required; my dd went the extra mile.

 

Out of five writing coaches, we only had one we were displeased with, for the reason that she just loved everything dd wrote- not much in the way of corrections, but even she was variable and gave more feedback on some papers . The other coaches provided ample feedback, and two were particularly inspiring.

 

If you want to see a sample of what dd did in the Essay workshop, just give me a PM and I'd be glad to share (with dd's permission, of course!)

 

~Kathy

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Both of our dc took this course two years ago. They both loved it, and I was very pleased with it also. The written lessons are short and to the point - not a lot of fluff. If I remember correctly, they wrote two short stories, analyzed some other works, and practiced other skills used in short stories (such as dialogue). The lessons covered topics such as: openings, character, conflict, plot, setting, climax, and dialogue. I remember the instructor went over how and why short stories differ from novels in her feedback. For a nine week course, I thought it covered the basics quite well. Our dc's instructor (Maureen Klock) provided great feedback!!! Both our dc were at different skill levels when it came to writing fiction, and she taylored the feedback to meet their individual levels.

 

Our dc have taken Comp 1, Comp 2, Essay, Short Story, and Research writing with Write at Home. I believe the essay course is a little different now compared to when dc took it. All instructors have provided great feedback except the one we had for Essay. Now I will say, our dc already knew how to write a decent essay before taking this class, so maybe that was why she didn't provide as much feedback. But, I was hoping that she would have stretched them more. Like I said, overall, the feedback has been very helpful for all the other courses.

 

I also think the feedback has always been presented in a very encouraging manner. They don't nit pick every single thing that could or should be improve upon. The teachers hit the main areas that needed attention. This was why our dc liked writing more for the Write at Home teachers than me. I nit picked too much (mom trying to make them excel and learn too much? ;))

 

Hope that helps!

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I liked the accountability of Write@ Home and we did the essay course. We thought some of the topics hard for our son - would have preferred their TOG related course so we could set up the topics for writing, but overall experience good.

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