A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

We’re excited to share our biggest update yet to our online writing class program:

AUDIO!

If you’ve got teens who struggle with the volume of reading our classes require, we’ve got you!

An AUDIO feature will be available for a small fee in our classroom posts starting in the Winter/Spring semester.

Got a reluctant or challenged reader? A lot of classroom reading might have been a deterrent in the past. 

Now you can upgrade the classroom experience so your students can LISTEN to the class assignments and readings instead. Or they may like doing a combination of reading and listening—an effective way to grow both skills.

Listening to audio while reading benefits:

• fluency skills,
• pronunciation,
• pacing,
• and tone.  

More choices. More support. More ways to learn.

LISTEN to a sample of an Essay Prep: Dynamic Thinking recording on our class description page (scroll down).

NOTE: Audio available in select classes only. Voices may vary according to class.

Let’s face it. We’re used to being the ones in charge. 

So much of parenting is rule-based at first. Don’t cross the road alone. You have to hold hands in a busy airport. We don’t jump on Grandma’s couch. 

But somewhere along the line, it happens. They turn nine, then double digits. Paradoxically, maturity increases, but “instant cooperation” tanks. 

If you look—really look—can you see it? You’ve got a PERSON on your hands! (Wild, right?) 

Enter this essential skill: collaboration! 

Collaboration requires two or more people to:

• Be aware of how their behavior affects others
• Negotiate to sustain positivity 
• Engage in respectful communication and dialogue
• Respect each other’s ideas

Most parents don’t know how to help their older student revise without coming down like a sledgehammer—smashing all the positive qualities of a partnership.

Collaboration is the essential way you interact with your child over their writing. 

• You get the most writing from a child whose writing voice and ideas are respected and valued.
• You get the best writing from allowing them to capture original thoughts before mechanics.
• You get the most trust from your child when you respond to their ideas, not just their mistakes. 

When you model gentleness and respect over a piece of their work, they learn how to work in a team, grow ideas and exchange thoughts non-confrontationally. 

Oh yeah, and they’re learning how to write too!

Now you know why Brave Writer’s latest core class involves YOU, the parent. 

In Brave Writer 201: Kind, Dynamic Revision, we put you, the parent and Head Writing Coach, in the driver’s seat in our classroom.

You’ll apply the empowering techniques our coaches use to your student’s writing.

Then you’ll watch your kids bring that new vision to their writing!

Our expert instructors will give you “feedback on your feedback,” training you to be the warm, supportive writing coach you want to be, much in the same way we train our own staff.

What to say AND how to say it.

What’s easier than that? 

Here’s the next installment of our ongoing series where we share testimonies of some who’ve been transformed by their online class experience with Brave Writer. Enjoy!

Brave Writer parent, Caitlyn, writes:

What class are you giving feedback on today?

Middle School Writing Projects

Tell us a bit about your student.

Isabelle was 11. Very social, lots of friends, obsessed with reading. Had read entire Harry Potter series, lots of Nancy Drew, boxcar children, Pegasus series, Valkyrie series, keeper of the lost cities series, Dune, The Hunger Games, the maze runner series, the Grimm sisters books, the giver, any and everything dystopian (age appropriate), I don’t even know how many books/what she’s read. She also started running with my last year.

She is a classic oldest child, very capable, responsible, and a high achiever. She’s incredibly organized, and keeps track of everything in her planner! She’s now a pro at google docs as well, and since the class I often find several pages long essays saved in there! She has learned some Russian & mandarin on Rosetta Stone, as well as some coding through scratch & khan academy.

She was born during winter break, our second year of law school. In utero she attended lectures by Justice Scalia, and when she was a few months old she attended 1 Art Law lecture. She’s now 5’4” and will turn 12 in December!

Tell us a bit about you.

Isabelle has been homeschooled since kindergarten (2012). We take lots of fieldtrips and are members of 15 or so local homeschooling groups.

Personally, my husband and I are both licensed California attorneys. We are high school sweethearts. I work in the evenings as a legal writer/copywriter. I am currently training for my first marathon, and the kids “run” with me (scooter) every Monday for PE. I read lots of non fiction and drive my kids all over the Bay Area for ballet, soccer, baseball, Hebrew school, piano, violin, park day, field trips, book club, etc! I order my groceries online through amazon bc that’s unimaginably better than braving the store with these 5 tornadoes!

When your student entered our class, how would you describe your student as a writer? Were there ongoing writing challenges?

I think she had it in her, but it seemed intimidating. I didn’t know how to bridge getting it out of her without it seeming inauthentic. The writer’s jungle didn’t work bc she was too old, and I had too many other kids to do all the things properly.

What prompted you to try a Brave Writer class?

My friend is obsessed with BW, and she gave me very helpful feedback about the Middle School Writing Project class in particular.

What was your experience with the class?

It was exactly what I was looking for. There was a high level of engagement, tons of feedback from the teacher to my daughter, social interaction with other kids through the forum, tons of scaffolding in teaching structure, and open line of communication between the teacher and the parent. (Sorry that’s a run on lol)

Anything else you’d like to share with us?

I highly, highly recommend this class, and I plan to have my younger daughter take the class this summer!