Description
Why Take This Course?
According to Pennington Publishing, effective writing feedback (or grading) is:
- Specific, not general
- Immediate, not postponed
- Routine with a revision / feedback cycle
- Explanatory
- The right amount
- Targeted to the most critical issues
- Varied (written, audio, and video comments)
- Holding students accountable
As you can see, feedback and back-and-forth work between a student and teacher can greatly benefit a student if it is done well. That is what we do in this course.
How It Works
We do not have any live classes in this course. The cost of this class includes continued communication between learner and teacher as learners edit and revise one piece of writing per week. Students should have had prior instruction on how to write an effective essay, but they still need to practice writing for a teacher who will give feedback on their progress. Students can choose from one of our writing prompts or can use their own assigned work they’re doing for another class. The instructor offers specific feedback and ways learners can build skills. We may offer a writing guide, a video lesson, a graphic organizer, or a link to a Khan Academy lesson, and our goal is to improve the writing of our students. When students finish their essays, they will submit a Google Document link in the classroom. The instructor will read the essay and give feedback both on what was done well and what needs more work. Students may revise and send it back for more feedback. This continues until the next week. Students can choose to work on one essay each week, or they can work on the same essay for multiple weeks.
What if the Student Needs a lot of Support?
If a student needs explicit and regular instruction on HOW to write an essay, they should take “Foundations of Essay Writing” or the self-paced essay-writing class “Essay Essentials.” If they are working on argument writing, “Assert! Claim! Reason! the Art of Argument Writing” will be important. All four of those classes are rich with explicit instruction, modeling, and feedback on how to write an essay. This Essay 911 course is not focused on instruction; rather, we remind students about what they have learned and will remind them of concepts and how to implement and modify the strategies they have learned. If we think a student would benefit more from a longer, focused writing course, we will let you know.
The ongoing schedule will be learner-directed and dictated by the essay prompt that they choose.
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