Individualized, explicit writing lessons and support aligned with The Writing Revolution/the Hochman method. A scaffolded, step-by-step, emotionally-sound approach beginning with sentence-level exercises and continuing through multiple-paragraph essays. All skills are taught explicitly, modeled, and then practiced, including the organizational aspects of writing.
On writing anxiety, the writing process, and our lessons:
Looking at a blank page, with the expectation of producing written work, can be an intimidating experience for most all of us. For students who struggle with expressive communication, it can feel next to impossible to know where to begin. Writing, as a process, involves accessing background knowledge; incorporating newly learned content; an understanding of semantics and structure, topic and purpose; and executive functioning skills like planning and sequencing. It’s a complex process that engages multiple skill sets simultaneously. No wonder it is a daunting prospect!
Writing, like reading, is not a process that we are necessarily born with the neurological wiring to execute. Some students are able to intuit certain writing conventions, but most will benefit, and many will require explicit instruction that takes a step-by-step, scaffolded, and emotionally sound approach to the writing process. This is the aim of our individualized, explicit writing lessons. Sessions target the basic building blocks of writing, focusing first at the sentence level. Heavy emphasis is placed, as necessary, on sentence-level exercises in order to build students’ understanding of and facility with sentence types, question words, the use of devices such as conjunctions and appositives, and the mechanics of sentence expansion.
Sessions progress, on a timeline appropriate to each student, from sentence-level focus to a focus on single paragraphs. Lessons incorporate exposure to and analysis of model paragraphs, graphic organizers for the development of outlines, and scaffolded support for transforming outlines into single-paragraphs. The same explicit, cumulative instruction is then applied to multiple-paragraph essays.
Our approach is grounded in our training with The Writing Revolution (TWR)/the Hochman method, which is an explicit set of evidence-based strategies for teaching expository writing. TWR provides a foundational framework which can be adapted to an individual student’s particular strengths and areas of need. Over our years in this work we have developed a unique set of materials aligned with the TWR approach, and we regularly tailor these materials to individual students, and develop new ones according to individual needs, interests, and relevant academic content areas when applicable.
The key to this work is meeting each student where they are, and taking it step-by-step from there. We look forward to meeting your learner in this most personal of academic processes, and to embarking on a writing journey together.