Academic Writing Program Helps Students in Grades 5-10 Master Writing and Raise All Grades

The AEM online writing class helps students master the foundations of academic writing and get higher marks in ALL subjects. Students can only be academically successful once they master the fundamentals:  

1. Grammar essentials: No more run-ons, fragments, and subject-verb agreement errors
2. Complex sentences: Improve writing quality AND reading comprehension
3. Detailed essay structures: Crucial for students who have trouble getting started or developing ideas
4. Writing workflow: Produce high quality results on every writing task every time

Because writing quality affects all grades, focusing on writing improvement leads to the fastest and greatest level of improvement in overall academic performance.

Results are guaranteed or your money back.

How do our students get these results? They focus on the fundamentals:

Who am I?

My name is Jan Waginski and I'm a certified Ontario teacher with over 20 years of experience teaching academic writing at the elementary, high school, college, and university levels. 

To help students become effective writers, I’ve developed a unique system that helps "B" and even "C" students become "A" students after only a short period of training. This is not an exaggeration – this is a typical result because of the dramatic improvements in idea development, organization, and grammatical accuracy that are easily achievable with proper instruction.

Even high-achieving students have enormous room for improvement. "A" students quickly turn into "A+" students as they learn how to better develop, support, and express their ideas.

To be effective, feedback needs to be prompt and meaningful. 

Assignments can feel like busy-work if students don't receive timely and meaningful feedback. In the AEM program, students receive detailed, colour-coded feedback the morning after submitting their work.

At school, children often wait weeks or even months for assignments to be returned with feedback. Last January, a colleague who teaches grade 11 English for the Toronto District School Board admitted to me that she still hadn't returned essays submitted by her students in November. She said she was "bored to tears" reading essays that no one enjoyed writing about a book that no one enjoyed reading (it was required by the department head). 

When students finally get their work back, too often the feedback is just checkmarks and "Great work!"

To be effective, feedback needs to be accurate. 

Many parents suspect that their child's high grades are "fake news." Unfortunately, they're right. For example, the sample essay below was written by a girl who received 93% in grade 9 English. Her parents called me for a free diagnostic writing audit because they knew her grades were far too high. In fact, she had no idea how to use a comma, and her sentences were frequently run-ons. This was in addition to a variety of problems with idea development and organization. 

These high grades set unrealistic expectations for university, where students experience enormous grade point decreases. Students are bewildered as their "A+" level writing in high school drops to a "B" or even a "C" in university. For that reason, grade inflation in elementary and high school ends up harming students' confidence and motivation in university. In frustration, students drop classes or change majors (and in some cases, drop out of school) because they never learned to write properly. This can cost thousands of dollars in wasted tuition or remedial tutoring, but more importantly, broken dreams, as students doubt their ability to succeed. University is too late for writing training! 

Can you trust your child's grades? If you have any doubts about your child's grades, use the form on this page to sign up for a FREE writing evaluation, and you'll see what's really going on with your child's writing.

What's wrong with our schools? Why isn't my child learning how to write well in school?

It's not your child's fault they are struggling with writing. School is failing students by not teaching fundamental principles of writing. In fact, many English teachers NEVER teach grammar. They either look down on grammar rules or HOPE students will magically pick them up somewhere. When I went to teacher's college at the University of Toronto, grammar instruction was frowned upon as not being "creative" and teachers were discouraged from developing lessons on writing mechanics. As a result, even in classes full of ESL students, when a child asks for a grammar lesson, they are told not to worry about it because "we focus only on big ideas."

Recently, a student in grade 11 told me that in three years of high school, they had talked about grammar for half of one period IN TOTAL! This is at a school in Scarborough with a large percentage of ESL students. 

The results are not good. According to research, only 23% of Canadian professors think students “are able to write at a university level.” A survey of 1300 professors at York University, University of Waterloo, Western University, and the University of Toronto revealed: 

• 41% of students are "at risk" of not being able to do well in their university studies.
• 16% are classified as "dysfunctional," which means completely incapable of succeeding in their studies.
• Only 32% of professors think students “have adequate academic skills.”
• Only 23% of professors think students “are able to write at a university level.”
• Source: "Academic Skill Deficiencies in Four Ontario Universities"
  

In the United States, the situation is just as bad. The table below shows the percentage of American students who are proficient in mathematics, reading, science, and writing in grades 4, 8, and 12. Notice that most results get WORSE over time (except for a slight increase in reading skill).

• Source: https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/

Massive grade inflation sets students up for failure once they get to university.

Although only a quarter of professors think students “are able to write at a university level,” 90% of Ontario high school students graduate with a "B" or "A" average. Many students and parents are happy with these grades, but smart students and parents know that this creates massive problems down the road. 

A brief history of grade inflation in Ontario 

According to research by Cote and Allahar: 

• Until the 1960s, no more than 5% of students received an "A." 30% received a "B." "C" was the average. 
• 1967: Standardized exams were eliminated. 
• 1983: 38% of students admitted to university had an 80+% average. 
• 1992: 44% of students admitted to university had an 80+% average. 
• 1995: 53% of students admitted to university had an 80+% average. 9.4% had an "A+" average. 
• 2004: 61% of students admitted to university had an 80+% average. 14.9% had an "A+" average. 
• Since 2007: 90% of students in Ontario have a "B" average or higher. 

I went to one of the top high schools in Canada and almost nobody got over 80% in English. Times have changed. A student who recently joined my writing class received 97% in grade 9 English, yet the writing she showed me had many grammar problems and was difficult to understand in places. I asked her how it was possible to get 97% in English with such problems. She replied that she knew she had lots of grammar problems and she had even asked her teacher for help, but her teacher said, “In my class, we focus only on big ideas – we don’t worry about little things like grammar.” 

It's critical for parents to make sure that their child thoroughly understands the foundations of writing, even if they are getting good grades right now. These good grades could be a source of overconfidence and lack of preparedness for more challenging writing tasks in the near future.