Looking for high school writing curriculum for your homeschooled student? An opportunity to review the full package of College-Ready Writing Essentials™ by BetterRhetor came along at the start of my son’s 11th grade homeschool year, and it was perfect timing. Here’s how we used BetterRhetor and our recommendations.
What’s in the Course
The benefits of the College-Ready Writing Essentials™ course for homeschool high school students include:
- online format
- flexible schedule
- step-by-step instructions
- teaches research-based persuasive academic writing (college prep!)
- only 25 lessons
- lifetime access to course material
Homeschool moms want curriculum that can be used independently by their students without much help, especially at the high school levels.
This course delivers exactly that – top-notch instruction without any hassle for mom. It is written directly to the student and walks them through tasks in a sequential and logical format to finally end with a well-researched and written persuasive paper.
The instruction is presented in written format only. There are no video components to this course.
This course sequentially walks students through the mini-tasks that in the end produce a persuasive paper.
The instruction covers these topics and more:
- Selecting a Topic
- Defining an Issue
- Mapping Perspectives
- Taking a Position
- Outlining Your Essay
- Rhetorical Appeals
- Introduction & Conclusion
- Your Position & Supporting Argument
- Addressing Counterarguments
- Revising
- Finalizing
How We Used It
We wanted to try out College-Ready Writing Essentials™ because my 11th grader is taking a dual-credit class this year with writing assignments included. I knew that, while we’ve covered writing in our homeschool high school, taking a dedicated course about college writing would be essential to his success this year.
Since he was working full-time right up until the start of our school year, he tackled this online course as a block course. He did multiple lessons a day for two weeks to get it done at the beginning of his year so that he could use what he’s learning in his dual-enrolled college course.
Since a high school English credit would normally include literature, grammar, and writing, we are using this as part of the writing component for his 11th grade year. We are just adding literature and grammar programs to fill out his credit.
While the instruction is delivered through the online Teachable platform, my son was able to download assignment sheets, import them into Google docs, fill it out, then send to our printer.
So we do have a paper trail of all his work for this course.
Recommendations
This course is ideal for high school juniors and seniors.
You could use this as the writing component of their English credit for one semester, or however long it takes to work through this course. Remember, the schedule flexible!
I have found this type of concise and direct instruction in college-level writing to be hard to find. Especially one that doesn’t require a full year of work.
The scope of this course is right on target. But the fact that the content is taught in only 25 lessons is even better! I think it’s the perfect middle ground between teaching content without drudgery and busy work.
Because your student has a goal in mind (writing a well-researched persuasive essay), the instruction and tasks don’t seem pointless. They are moving your student along to a final goal and final project.
Check out the other reviews of this high school writing curriculum from the Homeschool Review Crew by clicking the graphic below!
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