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WriteShop I Video Course is a great choice to encourage independent writing for your homeschool high school student.

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My high school daughter likes the independence of doing her schoolwork on her own. She doesn’t like to have to wait on me when she’s ready to do a lesson. And since I work from home full-time and can’t always be available exactly when she’s ready, we both like having curricula that allow her to work independently.

WriteShop I, 5^th Edition with the updated video course looks like it is going to meet our needs beautifully for the upcoming school year. With the video course, my daughter will be able to log on to the portal each day to watch the instructional video, then go straight over to the student workbook to complete the assignment all on her own.

Notice: As of January 2022, the WriteShop curriculum has been purchased by Demme Learning. The video courses were not part of that purchase, but they will be available soon for both WriteShop I and II from a different seller. I will update the links as soon as I have them. Thank you for your patience!

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Overview of WriteShop I for Middle School & High School Students

WriteShop I is designed for middle and high school students in grades 6-10 to learn to write with clarity, conciseness, colorful vocabulary, and interesting sentences. There is an emphasis on learning to refine and edit their work in order to present a polished finished product.

WriteShop I covers descriptive writing, informative writing, and narrative writing over the course of 16 lessons. Each lesson can be completed at the student’s own pace over one or two weeks.

It utilizes a consistent method of brainstorming, writing, editing, and revising to create confident writers who are comfortable with the writing process.

The Skill Builders teach new skills to help improve writing. They are short, get right to the point, and provide clear directions, but still give plenty of practice to reinforce new concepts.

Not sure about teaching writing? WriteShop is designed to provide parents with everything they need from step-by-step lesson plans to tips on editing and evaluating student work. Adding the new video course will lighten your load even more by teaching the lessons for you!

Find out how WriteShop works for kids with ADHD

What’s Great About the New WriteShop I Video Course?

The WriteShop I video course has been fully updated with a fresh, new look to appeal to today’s teens. It works seamlessly with the new 5^th edition books but will still work with older versions of the course, as well.

The videos never expire! You can use them for as long as you need to for individual pacing or for other children in the home. It’s an online companion course, so you can always access it anywhere you have internet access.

You won’t use the teacher’s manual as much if you’re using the videos. You’ll still want it for the introductory info, tips on grading, Skill Builder keys, and supplemental activities, but the videos do all the teaching.

The schedule presented in the teacher’s manual is a little different than the one presented in the videos. You can choose the one that works best for you or change it up to meet your needs. Always use the curriculum in a way that works best for your student’s needs and family’s schedule.

The content of the entire course (whether video or text) is now faith-neutral in the 5^th edition update.

If you already have the workbook bundle, you can purchase the updated video course separately to provide video instruction for your students.

What’s Been Updated?

• Fresh, teen-friendly graphics for better visual appeal
• Fun examples and lots of humor
• Relevance for today’s teens
• Additional self-editing tips
• Improved course navigation
• More concise teaching time
• Faster loading technology

Video Course Features

• You may use the video course for your entire family.
• You will need Internet access. Course is not available on DVD.
• Access the course through your personal, password-protected portal.
• Go at your own pace. Lessons never expire.
• Instructor is an experienced private tutor who has taught and edited papers for WriteShop students for over a decade.

Benefits of WriteShop I Video Course for the Student

• Composition examples for each lesson
• Step-by-step demos of each step of the writing process
• Tips for finding repeated words, passive verbs, and other common mistakes
• Self-editing guidance

Benefits of WriteShop I Video Course for the Parent/Teacher

• Overview of the entire WriteShop program
• Scheduling flexibility
• “Edit Fearlessly” videos ($69.95 value) to help you edit your student’s papers with confidence

How We Plan to Use WriteShop I Video Course

We will be using WriteShop I for my daughter’s upcoming sophomore year. The updated video course for WriteShop II is not available as of this writing, but we’re hoping it will be ready in time for her junior or senior year.

Last year, we used a different writing curriculum that provided a great foundation for writing solid sentences, paragraphs, and essays. My daughter really wants the freedom to explore creative writing now, which is really exciting for me! You want to write? YES! Go for it!

So, we will be using WriteShop I to help her practice descriptive and narrative writing while allowing her to implement those strategies into her own self-assigned creative writing projects. I expect that she’ll do a WriteShop lesson one week and her own writing project the next (which will cover the entire school year).

We also really want to dig deep into the editing process this next year, and WriteShop I is going to give my daughter the tools she needs to learn how to edit and refine her own work independently. Of course, I’ll help her as needed along the way, but the goal is for her to be able to confidently self-edit.

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