Fortuigence set us up with their online Expository Essay Writing Course. There are seven lessons working through five steps in the writing process: brainstorming, organization (think mindmapping and outlines), free writing, revision and editing. Each lesson includes commentary, video instruction, links to expand learning and an assignment. After each assignment, Lily Iatridis (the teacher) sends the student feedback through email, and is available to answer any questions they may have. Once she has checked that assignment, the students can move on to the next lesson. The course is designed to move at the student’s pace and they can access it at any time of the day.
Once you’ve set up their account, your student goes through a course introduction, learns about the evaluation system, and submits a past sample of their work to determine skill level. Once this is complete, the student moves on to the first lesson. Along with the other things I already mentioned, your student will also find other students writing samples and downloadable resources. Some of the things covered in this course are grammar, writing style, target audience, thesis statements, introductions, conclusions, and summarizing. The course is designed for ages 12 through 18.
Chrystiana is working through the course by herself. She’s not quite done as she’s really taken her time (meticulous) and is maximizing her learning with it. The only thing she’s really needed (or rather wanted) from me is to share her ideas with me, but the teacher is the one giving her feedback on the actual work. She’s asked a question or two and gets a fairly quick response to both those and her assignments. She works through the lessons and saves resources to her computer for future reference. The course has been easy to navigate through.
I love what I’ve seen of the course, what Chrystiana has shared, and the enthusiasm she’s had in writing her essay. I also love that Lily breaks down essay writing in five key components. Lily’s feedback has been encouraging, and I feel Chrystiana has learned some new things. Most of all, she has learned to share her work with someone other than me, organize her ideas, write, and then go back through to fine tune, and most of all, she’s fallen in love with writing. She definitely found the course a lot more interesting than she thought it would be originally.
Chrystiana: “I like it. It’s enjoyable and I’m learning a lot from it. The videos vary from introducing material to instructing about the material. I’ve learned the difference between a thesis statement and a fact and how to write one. It’s sparked an interest in writing for me, and not just for school, but for myself.”
Click through if you can’t see the video.
The Expository Essay Writing Course costs $ 57.00, and is one of four essay writing courses covering various types of essays.
On the Fortuigence website, you will find free resources such as Top Teach (for you, the teacher), End Blank Page Terror Forever! 24 Pre-Writing Tools and Guidebook to Organize Content,
Take Notes with Ease and Make Your Kids Confident Writers!, and Get Your Grammar Game On With Grammar Baseball!
You can find Fortuigence and Lily on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ for Lily and Google+ for Fortuigence,
Pinterest, YouTube, and their blog.
