Essay Writing Instructions

I was sent Essay Writing Instructions lessons 1-15 from The Write Foundation to review for you.

At first glance, this curriculum is a little daunting. It’s basic black and white with no bells and whistles. It comes with a teacher guide containing step by step lesson plans and a stack of loose papers that you put into a binder and organize per the instructions in the book.

I read over the introductory information in the teacher book and was a little confused as to how to implement this curriculum. It took a bit of intense study and focus for me to figure out what I was to do with this curriculum. I say that, because while my overall impression of this curriculum is positive, it is going to take some work on the teacher’s part. It is not an open-and-go kind of curriculum.

This curriculum was designed to be used in a co op classroom setting or at home. This is something to keep in mind when you are trying to figure out how to implements it. I currently teach a creative writing class in a co op setting and I can see how this curriculum would work very, very well within the co op setting.

It is set up like so…
There are 30 lessons in this book. You teach one lesson to your class (or student) then they have homework that will fill up at least 4 days. This homework consists of mostly worksheet s that come with the curriculum. Some lessons will take more than one week, but you should count on one week minimum for each lesson.

I like this idea because it means as a homeschool mom, I’ll be teaching this once a week then just be available to help the rest of the week. This obviously works very well for a co op setting.

Essay Writing Instructions is a very thorough course. In fact maybe it’s too through. I have helped several students, including my own; get prepped for the essay portion of the accuplacer, (the local community college entrance test) or the ACT or SAT. Essay writing is not rocket science; really it’s very simple. Sometimes I think we complicate it too much and make it scary and overwhelming for students. That is my only caution, and it is one that you as the teacher can be aware of and work to avoid.

Overall, I feel this is a good choice for teaching Essay writing to the 14 to 17 year old student.

You can learn more about The Write Foundation and the prices and various levels they offerhere, and you can see what others on the Crew had to think of it, here.