what are the options out there for writing

[SparklyUnicorn]

Hopefully there is something magical we have not tried or I have not seen.

 

 

[foxbridgeacademy]

That doesn't require us (well, at least me) to spend a fortune.

[Hilltopmom]

Bravewriter was magical here. (Expensive but worth it)

 

Before that, we had good luck with EIW (not IEW) when I taught it to two friends together.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I've used EIW and IEW. 

 

Did I mention I hate (trying to figure out) writing?  I thought I'd hate math.  Nope...

 

 

[Hilltopmom]

BW does all the work for you :). The online classes,,I mean

[SparklyUnicorn]

Yeah, I don't really want to pay that kind of money for something without credits. 

 

A paid something or other IS very tempting at this point though.

 

 

[MerryAtHope]

Yeah, I don't really want to pay that kind of money for something without credits. 

 

A paid something or other IS very tempting at this point though.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "without credits"--you could assign credit based on the hours your student works. 

 

A friend of mine really loves Write At Home, and it does all the feedback and grading for you. Are you looking for something like that when you say you hate trying to figure out writing? (It's pricy though, but her student loves it and she loves that she doesn't have to be involved in the equation).

[SparklyUnicorn]

I'm not sure what you mean by "without credits"--you could assign credit based on the hours your student works. 

 

A friend of mine really loves Write At Home, and it does all the feedback and grading for you. Are you looking for something like that when you say you hate trying to figure out writing? (It's pricy though, but her student loves it and she loves that she doesn't have to be involved in the equation).

 

For our plans, it doesn't matter. 

 

I have a hard time coming up with ideas.  I understand the process pretty well.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I should have said that doesn't give college credits.  That is what I meant. 

 

 

[Hilltopmom]

Yeah, I hear ya on the price, but after two BW classes, he's ready to DE Eng 101, so that's the plan for this summer.

[madteaparty]

It seems to me most every provider offers writing of some sort: WTMA (year long), bravewriter(much shorter), online G3, Potter, writeathome, Lukeion, everyone.

What I am finding harder to detect is fit: what classes would work for an already enthusiastic writer and which ones break it down to the molecular level for the reluctant writers...

[Julie of KY]

I keep reading your title and thinking - well, you can use a pen or pencil or computer....

 

What's worked magic at my home is Brave Writer online courses as mentioned above. Sorry no real suggestions that can't be otherwise found on the boards.

[Julie of KY]

 

What I am finding harder to detect is fit: what classes would work for an already enthusiastic writer and which ones break it down to the molecular level for the reluctant writers...

Brave Writer has worked wonders for all my kids - my severely dysgraphic, super reluctant writer, my natural writer, and my enthusiastic storyteller who didn't know the first thing about report writing. It's ijmpressive to see the teachers take a class and how well they give feedback to both the very good writers as well as the ones that aren't so good. They meet all the students where they are and move them forward.

[madteaparty]

Brave Writer has worked wonders for all my kids - my severely dysgraphic, super reluctant writer, my natural writer, and my enthusiastic storyteller who didn't know the first thing about report writing. It's ijmpressive to see the teachers take a class and how well they give feedback to both the very good writers as well as the ones that aren't so good. They meet all the students where they are and move them forward.

Music to my ears, thank you

[freesia]

What about using something like Power In Your Hands and sending in some papers for grading at Write at Home. That way there would be outside accountability for less money. I think Write at Home classes are just reading and assignments that build to the big project. That's what Power In Your Hands does. So, you could do that part at home, but still have the grading. (And chose how many papers you would want graded by how much you could afford).

 

For outsourcing, we did the above (but with a different writing curriculum) and also did 6 weeks of Attune-up, which I liked.

[freesia]

It looks like Amy at Attune-up isn't doing classes, but is doing grading at reasonable prices.

[Kendall]

My daughter just started Essay 2 with Soverbose which I heard about here on the forums. The price is fabulous- $60 for a 9 week course. It is doing what I most needed-assignments and a deadline. Assignments and instruction are given once a week in an email. Her first essay was highly praised and encouraged but it did not have any feedback on it, but I've been told that subsequent essays will and I can ask questions. I am realizing that I have become fairly comfortable helping with writing and knowing what the child needs to work on, but getting kids to crank out essays in a regular timely fashion without outside accountability seems to be beyond me. I like that there are not strict style requirements and I like that it is not all 5 paragraph essays. The first was 5-7 and the current essay is 6-8 paragraphs. 

[Lori D.]

Yeah, I don't really want to pay that kind of money for something without credits. 

 

A paid something or other IS very tempting at this point though.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "without credits"--you could assign credit based on the hours your student works. 

 

A friend of mine really loves Write At Home, and it does all the feedback and grading for you. Are you looking for something like that when you say you hate trying to figure out writing? (It's pricy though, but her student loves it and she loves that she doesn't have to be involved in the equation).

 

I should have said that doesn't give college credits.  That is what I meant. 

 

Confused.  :confused1:

 

You need something that awards COLLEGE credit?? The only way you're going to get that while still in high school is through dual enrollment with a writing course through a community college or university. You can go straight for the Writing 101 and 102 (or whatever it is labeled at your college of choice), and knock out what is required for general ed. courses AND get simultaneous English credit for your homeschool high school transcript.

 

Or, did you mean, you don't want to pay that much unless it is a full-length class (BW classes are only a few weeks long) that does all the work for a HIGH SCHOOL credit for the English credits required for ADMISSION to college?

 

Or do you mean you need something of college LEVEL because of where you student is in his writing? 

 

If you don't want to do what MerryAtHope was suggesting -- you don't want to have to oversee the credit, but rather you want to fully outsource it -- AND you don't want to spend much money on it, AND you don't need an officially awarded college credit, then you might look into having your DS do a free college Open Source course, and then pay per paper to have your student's work assessed through Write At Home's pay per paper service.

 

Or, if very gentle high school level is okay, one option that completely outsources the writing, and then you just do casual discussion for the literature, would be Time4Writing. The classes are all done for you; so, do two 8-week Time4Writing courses (Essay Writing, and, Writing Research Papers) at $99/course -- that's $200 for writing for one semester. And then the other semester have DS make a list of 5-7 works of Literature he wants to read, and do that, and once a week just informally discuss -- you can keep up with the Sparknotes summaries if you don't have the time or desire to read through the works yourself. Together, that's your 1/2 Lit, 1/2 Writing for 1.0 credit of English, with minimal planning and zero grading by you.

Edited April 21, 2017 by Lori D.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Yeah basically I'm saying if I pay for anything, it'll be for college credit.  And that is an option, but I'd prefer doing it at home for various reasons.

 

I'm looking for something I can use.  I don't really feel the need to pay someone to read his writing.  I feel ok about that part.  I just have a tough time coming up with what to do on a regular basis.  Does that make sense? 

 

 

Confused.  :confused1:

 

You need something that awards COLLEGE credit?? The only way you're going to get that while still in high school is through dual enrollment with a writing course through a community college or university. You can go straight for the Writing 101 and 102 (or whatever it is labeled at your college of choice), and knock out what is required for general ed. courses AND get simultaneous English credit for your homeschool high school transcript.

 

Or, did you mean, you don't want to pay that much unless it is a full-length class (BW classes are only a few weeks long) that does all the work for a HIGH SCHOOL credit for the English credits required for admission to college?

 

Or do you mean you need something of college LEVEL because of where you student is in his writing? 

 

If you don't want to do what MerryAtHope was suggesting -- you don't want to have to oversee the credit, but rather you want to fully outsource it -- AND you don't want to spend much money on it, AND you don't need an officially awarded college credit, then you might look into having your DS do a free college Open Source course, and then pay per paper to have your student's work assessed through Write At Home's pay per paper service.

 

Or, if very gentle high school level is okay, one option that completely outsources the writing, and then you just do casual discussion for the literature, would be Time4Writing. The classes are all done for you; so, do two 8-week Time4Writing courses (Essay Writing, and, Writing Research Papers) at $99/course -- that's $200 for writing for one semester. And then the other semester have DS make a list of 5-7 works of Literature he wants to read, and do that, and once a week just informally discuss -- you can keep up with the Sparknotes summaries if you don't have the time or desire to read through the works yourself. Together, that's your 1/2 Lit, 1/2 Writing for 1.0 credit of English, with minimal planning and zero grading by you.

 

[Lori D.]

Yeah basically I'm saying if I pay for anything, it'll be for college credit.  And that is an option, but I'd prefer doing it at home for various reasons.

 

I'm looking for something I can use.  I don't really feel the need to pay someone to read his writing.  I feel ok about that part.  I just have a tough time coming up with what to do on a regular basis.  Does that make sense? 

 

So, DS is basically good with his writing, he doesn't need instruction -- you just need assignment ideas, and then you can grade -- in order to complete a homeschool English credit done at home?

 

If that is the case, then below are some very general writing assignment idea areas, and you can use the informational articles at OWL at Purdue if you need the occasional instructional info.

 

What are you doing for Lit. this year?

Each time DS finishes a novel, you can pull a discussion question from a free online guide to use as a reader response assignment, or a literary analysis essay assignment. That's an assignment that could happen once a month (or however frequently he finishes a book, or however frequently you decide to have him write about literature).

 

What are you doing for History this year?

Once a semester, you can have DS pick a topic to research more deeply, and write a multi-page research paper on it -- that's an assignment that could take 6-8 weeks/per semester to complete.

 

Is DS going to take the SAT/ACT this year?

Once a week, you can have DS do a timed practice essay from past SAT essay prompts from the Online Math Learning website.

 

Will DS be applying for admission to college, or for scholarships in a year or two?

Have DS practice writing some personal essays for scholarship and admission applications every so often.

 

Is DS getting ready to look for a part time job?

Have him take a week and make a resume and cover letter.

 

Is your DS interested in creative writing?

Lots of free resources -- like NaNoWritMo -- that he can use to spend a semester writing a short story, a novel, some poetry, or a play, and count that as 0.5 credit of writing.

 

And regardless of whether DS is going to college or straight to work, at some point he will probably have to give a presentation with a visual slideshow element, so have him pick a Science or History topic and develop a 5-minute oral presentation. Most public high schools require some of the English credit to include a public speaking element, so you can too.

 

 

Copy-pasting from a previous thread, types of writing to cover in high school, so you can draw from these for ideas for assignments:

* science lab reports

* note-taking from a lecture

* outlining from a text / creating study notes

* complete sentence/paragraph answers to questions

* reader responses ("thinking question" answers)

* single paragraph, multi-paragraph, and multi-page writing

* essays -- literary analysis; comparison; cause & effect; process (how-to); definition; persuasive; etc.

* research papers with citations, and in format (MLA and/or APA formats)

* oral presentations with power point/slide show aspect

* personal essay for scholarship and college applications

* timed essays from a prompt (ACT/SAT practice)

* essay answer test questions

* real life writing (resume, cover letter, reports (an evaluation; summary report; problem-solution report), memos, article for a newsletter, meeting presentation, etc.)

* business letters/other letters (letter of inquiry; letter of application; letter of information; letter of complaint; letter of thanks or recognition; letter of commendation or recommendation; cover letter; political letter)

 

Also, a number of sources for writing prompts (i.e., assignment ideas) in your recent past thread "Writing Prompts".

Edited April 22, 2017 by Lori D.

[eternalsummer]

Well, here is a weird suggestion but I do it all the time.

 

You can google something like "high school honors english syllabus" and then put pdf if you don't have powerpoint (for whatever reason, a lot of the results are powerpoints).  Then you sort of sort through the results to find published lists of assignments (sometimes they will have discussion questions too!), sometimes notes, tests, review packets, writing assignments, everything.   It requires some sleuthing and etc. but can at least give you an idea of what to look for.

[SparklyUnicorn]

This is exactly what I've been doing.

 

My problem is I struggle to come up with topics. 

 

Not doing the SAT this year, but I chose prompts from the TASC.  I could only find one complete one on-line. 

 

He's done presentations and possibly will put one together for a user group he is in. 

 

I did just purchase Lightening Lit.  I'm hoping there will be some good writing assignments in there.  I will read the books too so I know what's going on.  Hard to keep up with all the reading he does to accurately evaluate the content of what he writes if I don't read all the books, but I can't always read every book.  

 

I just came up with a good one from the science he is working on.  History, I haven't been reading it myself so I have no clue.  If I ask him to come up with topics he sometimes does, but sometimes they become too unwieldy.  Which I suppose in and of itself is a learning experience because he'll get better at choosing topics when forced to. 

 

I just wish I had some magical open and go book that told me what to do.  For more guidance I got him a Norton writing field guide.  That's the book they use for the intro to comp class at the local CC.  So I've been assigning various parts that explain how to do this or that.  It's probably a good reference guide for types of writing, etc.  But it's not a source for assignments. 

 

So, DS is basically good with his writing, he doesn't need instruction -- you just need assignment ideas, and then you can grade -- in order to complete a homeschool English credit done at home?

 

If that is the case, then below are some very general writing assignment idea areas, and you can use the informational articles at OWL at Purdue if you need the occasional instructional info.

 

What are you doing for Lit. this year?

Each time DS finishes a novel, you can pull a discussion question from a free online guide to use as a reader response assignment, or a literary analysis essay assignment. That's an assignment that could happen once a month (or however frequently he finishes a book, or however frequently you decide to have him write about literature).

 

What are you doing for History this year?

Once a semester, you can have DS pick a topic to research more deeply, and write a multi-page research paper on it -- that's an assignment that could take 6-8 weeks/per semester to complete.

 

Is DS going to take the SAT/ACT this year?

Once a week, you can have DS do a timed practice essay from past SAT essay prompts from the Online Math Learning website.

 

Will DS be applying for admission to college, or for scholarships in a year or two?

Have DS practice writing some personal essays for scholarship and admission applications every so often.

 

Is DS getting ready to look for a part time job?

Have him take a week and make a resume and cover letter.

 

Is your DS interested in creative writing?

Lots of free resources -- like NaNoWritMo -- that he can use to spend a semester writing a short story, a novel, some poetry, or a play, and count that as 0.5 credit of writing.

 

And regardless of whether DS is going to college or straight to work, at some point he will probably have to give a presentation with a visual slideshow element, so have him pick a Science or History topic and develop a 5-minute oral presentation. Most public high schools require some of the English credit to include a public speaking element, so you can too.

 

 

Copy-pasting from a previous thread, types of writing to cover in high school, so you can draw from these for ideas for assignments:

* science lab reports

* note-taking from a lecture

* outlining from a text / creating study notes

* complete sentence/paragraph answers to questions

* reader responses ("thinking question" answers)

* single paragraph, multi-paragraph, and multi-page writing

* essays -- literary analysis; comparison; cause & effect; process (how-to); definition; persuasive; etc.

* research papers with citations, and in format (MLA and/or APA formats)

* oral presentations with power point/slide show aspect

* personal essay for scholarship and college applications

* timed essays from a prompt (ACT/SAT practice)

* essay answer test questions

* real life writing (resume, cover letter, reports (an evaluation; summary report; problem-solution report), memos, article for a newsletter, meeting presentation, etc.)

* business letters/other letters (letter of inquiry; letter of application; letter of information; letter of complaint; letter of thanks or recognition; letter of commendation or recommendation; cover letter; political letter)

 

Also, a number of sources for writing prompts (i.e., assignment ideas) in your recent past thread "Writing Prompts".

 

[SparklyUnicorn]

Well, here is a weird suggestion but I do it all the time.

 

You can google something like "high school honors english syllabus" and then put pdf if you don't have powerpoint (for whatever reason, a lot of the results are powerpoints).  Then you sort of sort through the results to find published lists of assignments (sometimes they will have discussion questions too!), sometimes notes, tests, review packets, writing assignments, everything.   It requires some sleuthing and etc. but can at least give you an idea of what to look for.

 

I did see some good put together courses on Easy Peasy.  Might try one of those next year for writing/lit.