Need suggestions for an easy-to-use semester-long academic writing course, please.

[pitterpatter]

DD is heading into the second half of her 10th-grade year. I would like suggestions for a semester-long writing course to solidify her academic writing. Our life is a bit messy right now, so we really need something that is easy to use and preferably written to the student. While it is not my preference, I'm not always available to be right in front of DD while she works, so we need a curriculum where she can continue to move forward in her studies when I'm not home or generally not available on a particular day, which typically ranges from one to two days a week, but the days are not consistent.

I saw Brave Writer's "Help for High School" in another post, but I'm not sure it's enough. We've already used WWS (not all the way through), and that no longer works for us. We do not like EIW (tried it and ditched it in middle school). We would possibly use something from IEW, if it fits the parameters and doesn't require me to purchase and watch their teacher training course. No online classes because we need flexibility and can't be tied to someone else's schedule. TIA. We greatly appreciate your suggestions.

PS - If there truly isn't anything worthy that is only a semester long, I'm open to learning about yearlong programs for next year as well. 

[freesia]

I’ve been happy with Lantern English classes. She could do Growing the Essay 1 and 2. Each class is only $65. There are weekly emails and a teacher who grades. 

[BusyMom5]

Look at Classical Academic Press- they have several 1 semester workbooks that would complement a high school writing course.  Writing and Rhetoric or Argument Builder, and there are a few other rhetoric ones.  

I also like the course Calling Bull$h!t for this age.

  https://www.callingbullshit.org/

[pitterpatter]

Are you thinking W&R Book 10: Thesis - Part 1? I've looked through the scope and sequence of the series, and it feels as though we've hit most of the things listed in prior books with WWS 1 and 2. But, WWS was such a long, messy approach, I'm not sure exactly how she processed it all. She can write paragraphs and papers (some are pretty good, others not so much), but I really want something to shore up everything...to be sure she has the skills to write all those 2 to 5-page papers, etc. with ease in college. I want to put a bow on it and call that part done.

We attempted Fable when it first came out, but she really wasn't ready for the series yet. It soured me on the series, but in looking at it now, I kind of wish I would have chosen it over WWS. Then again, WWS got her to the point of my thinking this, so maybe we did okay. Lol.
 

On 1/2/2023 at 1:12 PM, BusyMom5 said:

Look at Classical Academic Press- they have several 1 semester workbooks that would complement a high school writing course.  Writing and Rhetoric or Argument Builder, and there are a few other rhetoric ones.  

I also like the course Calling Bull$h!t for this age.

  https://www.callingbullshit.org/

[ScoutTN]

Windows to the World (from IEW) is a semester on literary analysis essay writing.

Seconding Lantern English or Write at Home for specific writing areas and individual feedback. 

[Farrar]

I'd do Write at Home over Lantern. Brave Writer would just be a radically different approach, which could be good to balance it with something like WWS, which really lacks when it comes to developing individual writing voices. But it's also lower on feedback most of the time and might just be a shock to the system for a kid coming out of WWS.

[ScoutTN]

@Farrar Just curious, why WAH over Lantern in this scenario?
 

(We used WAH with good results for a targeted need, more practice with research papers in early high school.) 

[Farrar]

2 hours ago, ScoutTN said:

@Farrar Just curious, why WAH over Lantern in this scenario?
 

(We used WAH with good results for a targeted need, more practice with research papers in early high school.) 

Honestly, this is just my own bias. The more reviews I've heard about Lantern, the less I like the way they teach and the exact inverse for Write at Home. I've heard some stories about Lantern that make me feel like they just don't get what's important about writing - fixating on little things about the assignment. Not a real example, but think - oh, you wrote about a graphic novel instead of a novel or you wrote about your grandmother's pet instead of your pet - severely marking a student down over that type of stuff but skipping over actual issues with the writing. And yeah, following what a teacher wants with an assignment IS an important skill, but if you're trying to teach kids to really write, there's layers of important here and that's not on top, especially on really basic assignments.

[wendyroo]

48 minutes ago, Farrar said:

Honestly, this is just my own bias. The more reviews I've heard about Lantern, the less I like the way they teach and the exact inverse for Write at Home. I've heard some stories about Lantern that make me feel like they just don't get what's important about writing - fixating on little things about the assignment. Not a real example, but think - oh, you wrote about a graphic novel instead of a novel or you wrote about your grandmother's pet instead of your pet - severely marking a student down over that type of stuff but skipping over actual issues with the writing. And yeah, following what a teacher wants with an assignment IS an important skill, but if you're trying to teach kids to really write, there's layers of important here and that's not on top, especially on really basic assignments.

For what it's worth, we have taken a lot of Lantern courses at all the levels, and have never had any issues like this. Any time I wanted my kids to deviate substantially from the assignment (typically due to their neurodiverse wiring), it just took a quick email, and the instructor would promptly approve whatever changes I proposed. But for small issues, like those you mentioned, I would not have even thought to run anything by them, and none of the Lantern teachers we have had experience with would have quibbled.

One good feature of Lantern (which may be as feature of WAH as well) is a detailed grading rubric, so we could focus on the aspects of the grade we were interested in. During some phases with some kiddos, I just didn't care about spelling or grammar. So they would turn in work that was rough around the edges, they would get expected low grades in the mechanics sections of the rubric, but we could just disregard that and instead pay attention to their grade in the Ideas and Content category.

One reason we stick with Lantern instead of WAH is the diversity of class options. We really like all the different academic writing, creative writing, and literature options.

[freesia]

4 hours ago, wendyroo said:

For what it's worth, we have taken a lot of Lantern courses at all the levels, and have never had any issues like this. Any time I wanted my kids to deviate substantially from the assignment (typically due to their neurodiverse wiring), it just took a quick email, and the instructor would promptly approve whatever changes I proposed. But for small issues, like those you mentioned, I would not have even thought to run anything by them, and none of the Lantern teachers we have had experience with would have quibbled.

One good feature of Lantern (which may be as feature of WAH as well) is a detailed grading rubric, so we could focus on the aspects of the grade we were interested in. During some phases with some kiddos, I just didn't care about spelling or grammar. So they would turn in work that was rough around the edges, they would get expected low grades in the mechanics sections of the rubric, but we could just disregard that and instead pay attention to their grade in the Ideas and Content category.

One reason we stick with Lantern instead of WAH is the diversity of class options. We really like all the different academic writing, creative writing, and literature options.

We’ve done over 10 classes and never had that kind of problem either. 

[pitterpatter]

We can't really do an online class right now. Are there any other suggestions for non-class options? I am hoping to start something by next week, or the week after, at the latest.

[wendyroo]

27 minutes ago, pitterpatter said:

We can't really do an online class right now. Are there any other suggestions for non-class options? I am hoping to start something by next week, or the week after, at the latest.

Just to clarify, Lantern isn't really an online class. It is more a correspondence class. Once a week you get a lesson emailed to you with an assignment at the end. You have a week to email back your work. The instructors promptly grade and give feedback, and the cycle repeats. The classes are only 8 weeks long, so not a huge commitment.

Registration for Lantern's third session is still open, and classes start the week of the 15th.

[pitterpatter]

How does Lantern work? There are no video components, so what does the student actually get?

[ScoutTN]

With both Lantern and Write at Home, the assignments, grading rubric, and feedback all come by email. Correspondence courses. 
 

What kind of writing are you wanting to work on? Essays? If so, what sort? Research papers? What areas does your student need strengthened? Organization, ideas, mechanics? 

[wendyroo]

1 hour ago, pitterpatter said:

How does Lantern work? There are no video components, so what does the student actually get?

In this thread, I wrote extensively about how Lantern works and what I see as the pros and cons.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

(If you do end up signing up and wanted to list me as a referral so my kids got a discount on their next class, it certainly wouldn't hurt my feelings!! 😄)

[pitterpatter]

Years ago when I was trying to decide what approach to take with writing with DD, formulaic writing got a pretty bad rap. While I'm not an overly fast writer, I think I'm a pretty natural writer. I intuitively knew how to put papers together in college without putting too much thought into it. And, I wasn't really able to explain why I organized and wrote the way I did. So, I kind of bought into natural writer approach. However, I finally learned that DD isn't me. Lol. She has dyslexia, and some level of dysgraphia, I think. She had a hard time writing on paper. Once we transitioned to typing on a computer, though, writing was much easier for her.

We ended up with WWS. We got through WWS1 and most of WWS2 before we couldn't hack it anymore. While I initially liked that it instructed students exactly how to write various types of essays, it became tedious and overly complex. There is no way anyone can remember all the little steps. DD writes fairly well when she hits a topic that resonates with her. Sometimes, I'm quite impressed, and I think, yes, that will definitely do for college. But, she often gets overwhelmed when starting an essay/assignment. Sometimes, it never really comes together if the topic is challenging for one reason or another. I think a lot of what she learned in WWS was very good, but we need a simple way to review and reorganize all that she learned. I want her to instantly know how to write about any topic she's given. Then, we need to work on longer research papers after that. And, literary analysis.

W&R seems like it might be a clear, organized way to review what she learned in WWS. However, it seems like she would need to start with Book 7. She is starting her second semester of 10th grade. I'm not sure we could get through all the W&R books by the end of next year. And, I don't want to go beyond that time frame. She needs to be doing other stuff her senior year.

I just talked with DD about writing. She said she needs help including what she deems "superfluous" details. Lol. In other words, she needs a method of fleshing out her writing when she's not really into a topic. She also said that she thinks WWS seeped into her brain, but she can't really access what she learned.

3 hours ago, ScoutTN said:

What kind of writing are you wanting to work on? Essays? If so, what sort? Research papers? What areas does your student need strengthened? Organization, ideas, mechanics? 

 

[ScoutTN]

I’d start with a basic essay writing program and go from there. If you’ve been deep into the minutiae of WWS, she probably needs something with more of a macro, big picture approach, a larger framework in which to use the skills she has. Essays are the most all-purpose writing. Remember to have her read some very good ones of various types. 
 

IEW’s Elegant Essay might work well. As mentioned above WttW or a correspondence course would work too.