online writing program for 9th grade prep.

[Guest ksbear69]

My 8th grader attends a small public school. The science and math programs are outstanding, but the language arts and social studies teacher is somewhat lackluster. My daughter enjoys creative writing and is a pretty good writer, but I think she could improve the technical aspects of her writing and I don't think her teacher pushes her hard enough. I wanted to sign her up for a class in the summer, but I know she would go kicking and screaming because she does well in school and would think this was a waste of time and keep her away from her fun activities :)

 

I am looking for an online program that she could use to improve her writing skills in a "fun" way before she enters 9th grade. She does creative writing on her own time and has won young authors contests before, but our current school doesn't have that program. She started writing for other contests but never seems to finish anything so I think she needs something more structured than that. A creative writing angle would motivate her to do the work.

 

The trouble is she doesn't take direction from me (but will listen to anything her teachers say) so I'm ideally looking for something that will involve minimal interaction with me! I would be happy to help her out if needed, though I'm not sure how that will work out!

 

Any ideas?

[Nscribe]

Creative writing can be bolstered/encouraged in numerous summer camps or writing intensives (many universities offer them for middle and highschoolers).

 

If she needs to work on "technical aspects" (grammar, parallel structures, sentence diversity, essay forms, ...) Online programs like Write At Home or Bravewriter offer several summer options. Several online schools offer summer only classes/intensives. There are also many threads on this forum filled with various resources that could be used offline. You might want to look around on the Institute of Excellence in Writing website, they have loads of materials.

 

A books you can pick up for inexpensively used is The Lively Art of Writing. The Elements of Style Strunk/White is another great book to have around.

 

It really boils down to your goals and your daughters. If she is really only open to learning from teachers at school, you may need to see if they can make the suggestions to her of ways to build her writing over the summer.

[GinaPagnato]

You may want to look into The Potter's School summer course catalog (online classes). I have found their writing instruction to be excellent.

[speedmom4]

We have been using Write at Home for years. They have classes all year round. http://www.writeathome.com/

 

Good luck.

 

Elise in NC

[Guest ksbear69]

Thank you! I have been looking at all the links and there are some good potential options in there. I am looking for a summer program - looks like some of the schedules aren't out yet but now I know where to look when the time comes.

 

Great idea to get suggestions from the teacher she likes (not the LA one, unfortunately) but I have to figure out how to facilitate that :)

[journey00]

We have been using Write at Home for years. They have classes all year round. http://www.writeathome.com/

 

Good luck.

 

Elise in NC

 

 

I'm going to look into this. Thanks!

[Catfishcookin]

IEW vs Write At Home? Thoughts, please

[Abbeygurl4]

I can't say enough about Brave Writer online classes. I thought my ds would never learn to write. We failed with IEW, WWE/WWS and various others until I just gave up. Just for the heck of it I signed him up for Kids Write Intermediate at Brave Writer and he just blossomed! Monday starts his last week in the class and he asked me to sign him up for another! That's a big deal for him. I never knew he had such a great writing voice until Julie at BW gently guided him through the writing process and showed him that writing could be fun and not a chore.