What will students learn?
Level 1 teaches students to write 1-3 paragraph essays faster and better. Using easy-to-follow patterns, Ms. Valerie begins by teaching how to write a solid, well-constructed paragraph and then scales to seamless three paragraph essays. Along the way, Ms. Valerie also teaches writing tools that help students write with more maturity and higher vocabulary.
How is this taught?
In this module, students learn essay writing skills with pre-recorded videos and interact with Ms. Valerie via email, comments within the class page, and personal homework response. They will enjoy Ms. Valerie’s upbeat and engaging style as she introduces them to her streamlined writing system.
What will students know how to do by the end of the course?
After this class students will be able to write 1-1 1/2 page essays with confidence. They will:
- learn the steps to starting the essay (instead of staring at the screen wondering),
- learn how to organize their thoughts,
- learn how to answer the prompt quickly and incorporate it into their Introductory Statement
- learn how to create a Concluding Statement that connects the essay all together,
- and learn how to go back and polish their essay before turning it in (an oft-skipped step for most students).
What is included?
Included in this at-your-own-pace online module is:
- Recorded video lessons with visuals (slides),
- A downloadable self-contained workbook for each lesson (professionally designed),
- Personal homework response and interaction from Ms. Valerie (via email),
- Additional accounts for siblings for FREE,
- Checklists for each lesson (so students know exactly how many points they earned, and more importantly, as a reminder to include every writing tool they’ve learned so far),
- Recording sheets for points and drills,
- Worksheets to practice organizing and writing tools,
- Worksheet examples,
- Source material contained within the course,
- Worksheets on How to Outline and How to Re-Aloud,
- Resources for Vivid Verbs and Expert Adjectives so they have everything they need at hand,
- Outline pattern for a 3 paragraph essay and Notetaking guide.
How many lessons are there?
This module currently has 15 lessons. Lessons 1-5 introduce a concept, and the A/B lessons provide more practice on each concept. By Lesson 5, students learn how to connect all their previous homework paragraphs into 3 separate essays.
Lesson 1: 4 Steps of Writing and Outlining
Lesson 1A: Outlining from a Source (Phoenix)
Lesson 1B: Outlining from a Source (Poodle)
Lesson 2: You’re the Source
Lesson 2A: Outlining When You’re the Source (Book Characters)
Lesson 2B: Outlining When You’re the Source (Real Life Heroes)
Lesson 3: Outlining from Facts Expertly
Lesson 3A: Outlining from Facts (Glowing Turtle)
Lesson 3B: Outlining from Facts (Glasswing Butterfly)
Lesson 4: Outlining a Person Report Vividly
Lesson 4A: Outlining a Person Report (Naturalist Contribution)
Lesson 4B: Outlining a Person Report (Changing the World)
Lesson 5: The 3 Paragraph Transformation + Titles
Lesson 5A: Transforming Creature Paragraphs into 3 Paragraph Essay
Lesson 5B: Transforming Merian Paragraphs into 3 Paragraph Essay
Plus Bonus videos
Bonus 1: The Big Secret to Writing Faster Under Pressure
Bonus 2: Applying the Pattern to a Novel: To Kill a Mockingbird
How long will it take?
Depends on the student. With over 200 students who signed up for the beta testing of the courses, some took only FIVE DAYS to complete the course, (buy the Adult Level 1 if your student wants to just learn the concepts and apply them as fast as possible). However, most students will do a lesson a week in this Teens Level 1 course, which will take an entire semester.
This module is a prerequisite to Essay Skills Level 2, which builds on 1 page essays, to fully fleshed out 5 paragraph essays, and adds tools for writing successfully when under pressure (useful for the ACT/SAT, AP tests, and in-class timed essays).