Over the course of the past month, I’ve offered a quasi-Masterclass to a group of teachers in the Chicago area.
In brief, these teachers ran a three-week summer academy whereby 238 students voluntarily attended to brush up on their ELA skills.
All of the students are 9th-12th graders – all feeling a bit behind in their skillsets due to covid.
My job was to teach these 24 teachers how to implement my templates and heuristics.
So, from 8:00 – 9:00 every night for two weeks prior to the running of this academy, I offered them an intensive Masterclass.
And many of these students flourished!
Luke, an incoming senior, has his eyes set on MIT and Harvard for college.
Here’s what he had to say of his experience:
"English is my weakest subject. I’m more of a math and science kind of guy. If I don’t get into my top choice schools, it will be because of my writing. But after learning from Mr. Kuhn and my other teachers, I’m feeling super prepared to write at the college level. I think I’ll also get my first 5 this year on the AP Literature exam. I only got a 3 on Lang. But this summer has taught me so much."
Jacqulyn, an incoming sophomore, just wants to make the honor roll for the first time in her academic career:
"It’s going to happen. Discipline is half of what I need to do. Now I know how to write like a college student. Mr. Kuhn’s ways of doing things really work. I’m excited for school to start."
Students that I work with typically say things closely akin to Luke and Jacqulyn. My templates do wonders in terms of demystifying the writing process so that students can think cogently on paper. Expository writing is tricky for most students – but it need not be.
And the teachers I trained also got hooked on my templates. Tanya Stewart, a teacher going into her sixteenth year, had this to say:
"Three words: HUGE game changer! Kristian has a knack for teaching, especially the teaching of writing. I was never taught explicitly how to teach writing, so it never occurred to me that I had a ton of bad practices. I feel so good now. I feel excited for the upcoming school year to try out some of these tricks. I could not recommend Kristian anymore. His templates and alternative methods are great."
I was asked to offer a second summer Masterclass to individual teachers, so on August 8th we will begin a new session.
If you are looking to reframe how you teach composition, I’d love to work with you in order to equip you with some verifiable tools that will help your students grow and mature as writers.
Reach out if you’d like more information or visit my webpage at: http://teachinghow2write.com/masterclass/
Happy teaching and happy writing!
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