One semester of writing for high school senior

Tagged: 

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • December 29, 2015 at 1:18 pm
    Sue
    Participant

    We have used things such as Writing Strands and our own narrations in the past, and DD17 somewhat enjoys writing fiction.  She is graduating this year at the beginning of June and plans to start attending cosmetology school next January.  She does need to write a brief essay to accompany her application for that.

    I think she will do fine with that, but somehow it has made her very nervous about her writing skills, and she wants to spend some time this last semester brushing up on writing skills.  I recall reading a thread here that mentioned some writing curriculum for a high school student and what topics/chapters in that curriculum would be best to fit into one semester…..however, I can’t recall which curriculum was mentioned nor can I find the thread!

    Does anyone here have an idea of what I might be searching for?  Whatever it was, it was designed to be used over the course of either one year or two.  (Not even sure about that.)  Thanks for brainstorming with me.

    December 29, 2015 at 2:05 pm
    Sue
    Participant

    I believe I answered my own question….I was looking at Sharon Watson’s site, and I like the looks of The Power in Your Hands.  One of the questions she answers about the curriculum is how to use it with a high school senior, and she lists the bare minimum chapters that should be covered.

    Here is the link to the web page about The Power in Your Hands:

    http://writingwithsharonwatson.com/the-power-in-your-hands/

    December 29, 2015 at 7:48 pm
    Melanie32
    Participant

    Hi Sue! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! ?

    I just wanted to mention that I’ve heard good things about seven sisters programs and they have an essay course that looks good and should be easy to accomplish in the time your daughter has left before graduation.

    December 30, 2015 at 10:17 am
    Sue
    Participant

    Thanks,  Melanie.  I briefly visited their website, and that would be less expensive than TPIYH, which is coming out with a revised edition to address next year’s SAT changes.  That means I would probably have to also buy the new edition next year if I wanted to use it with my college-bound DD15 later on.  Since DD17 just wants to ramp up her essay skills, I like the idea of spending less just to get the 7 Sisters essay course.

    I didn’t see any samples on the 7 Sisters website.  Has anyone used the essay guide, and how is it broken down? (i.e., number of lessons, number of weeks….)

    Thanks,

    Sue

    December 31, 2015 at 4:13 am
    Melanie32
    Participant

    I have found samples of the curriculum on the website but it took a bit of looking around. I’ll go see if I can find them for you. 🙂

    December 31, 2015 at 4:19 am
    Melanie32
    Participant

    I’m not sure if this is the particular essay program you were looking at but there is a link down the page a bit for an excerpt of the curriculum.

    Well, I can’t get it to paste. 🙁 I simply went to their website, clicked on store and then clicked on the first highschool essay course I saw. I think the samples are only available in the store portion of their website.

    January 2, 2016 at 8:06 am
    jeaninpa
    Participant

    I have been using Sharon Watson’s creative writing program in a co-op class this fall and I love it!  It has been very easy to teach and I’m impressed with how she helps kids build skills incrementally.  I’m looking forward to trying her non-fiction program as well.

    January 5, 2016 at 10:13 am
    smartypants
    Participant

    I am following this thread with great interest.

    I need a one-semester program for my ds18.

    I have the 7sisters writing booklets, but my ds has not found them to be instructive enough (I agree). I really think they were written for use in a co-op with a teacher. As much as I want to like the 7sisters products, I just can’t seem to make them work.

    Sharon Watson’s program seems like too much to tackle at this point in the game.

    Has anyone used Wordsmith Craftsman—just the essay section? Or, what about Jensen’s Format Writing?

    AND…he wants to do a short course on literary analysis essays. He doesn’t feel comfortable with this particular type of writing. He’s done plenty, but he doesn’t think his analysis papers are “deep” enough compared to sample papers.

    So sorry to hi-jack! This thread is very timely, though and we need something as of yesterday!!!

    Robin

    January 5, 2016 at 4:08 pm
    retrofam
    Participant

    We recently started Wordsmith Craftsman.  My dd likes it so far.  It is inexpensive,  so not much to lose.

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • The topic ‘One semester of writing for high school senior’ is closed to new replies.