Restructuring
I know that it sounds cliché: “The pandemic changed so much.” It did, though. It even changed the age of the students whom I work with.
Before the pandemic, I worked solely with elementary school students and middle school students. Once the pandemic hit, high school students started coming to me in droves, and to my dismay, they needed the same foundational writing instruction that my elementary and middle school students needed.
Looking back on the situation, I think that the pandemic lockdowns helped a lot of high school students become better writers because most extracurricular activities were either entirely or partially shut down for an extended period of time, providing the students with a new-found opportunity to work steadily on improving their writing skills.
When the pandemic’s wrath began to dissipate, many high school students quickly began to return to their over-scheduled lives, and sadly for a lot of those students, especially 10th–12th graders, writing quickly fell to the wayside.
It is a very unfortunate situation because if a student doesn’t graduate from high school with strong written communications skills, it is very likely that they will be underprepared for college-level writing and very unlikely that they will be able to get their writing skills up to par during college.
In an effort to ensure that high school students, particularly 10th–12th graders, have an opportunity to begin college empowered with strong writing skills, I have been working diligently on restructuring my offerings for high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors based on my aforementioned experience working with them and based on meetings that I have recently had with college admissions consultants, college and university professors, etc. (those professionals’ observations and insights regarding 11th and 12th graders’ and college students’ writing were profound and disheartening).
My new offerings for 10th–12th graders have been designed with busy high schoolers’ schedules in mind and include Summer Intensive Remedial Writing Programs, which fill in the holes in students’ writing foundations at an accelerated pace through increased weekly class time, and a Private Writing Instruction/College Admission Essay Writing Service, which allows students to learn how to write properly while they are working on their college admission writing.
Ideally, students should start their college admission writing knowing how to write properly, but as many college admissions consultants will attest to, that unfortunately, is not the case for most students these days, and thus, it takes them a very long time to complete that writing properly.
To help make sure that your child or teen doesn’t struggle with their college admission writing and their college writing assignments, I highly recommend that they prioritize the following writing instruction at the following points in their primary and secondary education:
Elementary School
Spelling (Waiting to start this instruction drastically slows students overall progress with writing because spelling is the base of the foundation of writing.)
Middle School
High School
If you are unsure if your child (or a child whom you work with) is currently on the right path and moving at the right pace with developing their writing skills, please don’t hesitate to connect with me; I can quickly help you figure out if they are. You can easily reach me through my website’s “Contact” page. Also, if you are a prospective or returning client, you are welcome to schedule a complimentary ten-minute phone consultation with me via that page.
Founder & Owner of W O R D S