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After
School Programs
We offer 4-week
through 16-week after school programs in writing for Middle School and Junior
High School students. Our programs
support writing for all levels of learners – from RSP students all the way up
through GATE students. The students do not have to
be "ability level" grouped, because each learner has a private
Personal Start Page and intensive instruction with a highly
qualified writing coach.
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Flexible
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Each student is assigned different lessons based upon his or her needs.
Students may also work from home or the public library – we do not limit
students to the amount of time they can spend learning.
Our instruction is asynchronous – students upload a writing sample and it is
critiqued by their mentor teacher within 24 hours. In the meantime,
there are many Learning Library articles to be explored by the student and
their already assigned web-based lessons to be completed while they are waiting
for the critique.
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Rough Draft – Critique - Revision
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Each week, students upload an authentic writing sample which is critiqued by
the mentor teacher. After the critique, the student revises the
draft. There are unlimited opportunities for critique-revision each
week: The cycle is finished when the student has mastered that
week's learning concept.
All web-based lessons are assigned to match the week's learning concept on
which the mentor teacher and student are focusing.
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Test-Taking Practice
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Our program supports test-taking skills – ¾ of our website lessons include two
multiple-choice test segments that have been designed to match standardized
tests in format and wording. (The other ¼ of our lessons ask
students to write sentences and paragraphs demonstrating their understanding of
specific skills…we are not a "worksheet" program! Instead, we have a
carefully designed learning methodology developed to produce rapid gains in
writing mastery.
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Learning Lab
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All of our Junior High School and Middle School writing programs require IBM
computers, Microsoft Word, and the ability for a student to work, supervised,
at school in a learning lab environment. We do not believe that
students aged 11 – 14 are capable of independent study, so the supervision
factor is critical to their success.
District administrators are able to watch student progress and mentor teachers
will contact the administrator (or teacher or paraprofessional) if a student
begins to slack off or is not uploading work in a timely fashion.
This rarely happens, however. Students enjoy our short, exciting,
and easy to understand lessons. It's fun for them to take their
multiple-choice tests and instantly see their test results. Finally,
they enjoy receiving positive, supportive feedback from their mentor teacher.
Our mentor teachers are trained to critique papers in a positive fashion so
that students are proud of their progress and excited to make more!
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