Welcome to our informational blog.
Topics covered include literary theory and practice, academic writing techniques, philosophy of education, and explanations of our methods for enhancing creative intelligence.
Meeting Students Where They Are: An Eclectic Approach to Reading and Writing Tutoring
Reading and writing tutors can effectively use an eclectic approach to tailor their instruction to the diverse needs of their students by drawing on multiple educational philosophies and methods. Since students often come to tutoring sessions with varying levels of skill, learning styles, and goals, an eclectic approach allows tutors to combine different strategies to provide personalized support.
Demystifying Post-Structuralism: How Tutors Can Support High School Students
High school writing tutors have a unique opportunity to help students engage with post-structuralism, guiding them to understand and apply its concepts in their literary analyses.
From Prometheus to Purusha: Teaching Writing with Origin Myths
Incorporating origin myths into high school writing pedagogy offers a multifaceted approach to teaching that can engage students creatively while enhancing their understanding of narrative structure, cultural history, and moral lessons. A writing tutor can leverage origin myths in several ways to enrich the learning experience.
Mythological Stories as a Foundation for Middle School Writing
Greek and Roman mythology offers a treasure trove of material that can be used to stimulate creativity, foster critical thinking, and deepen students' understanding of storytelling. Middle school writing tutors can effectively integrate mythological stories and characters into their prompts and pedagogical strategies to capture students' interest and enhance their writing skills.
Adolescence: Identity vs. Role Confusion
Understanding the complexities of the Identity vs. Role Confusion stage in Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development can significantly enrich a writing tutor's approach to teaching adolescent students. This stage, focusing on the development of a cohesive self-identity, offers a unique opportunity for writing tutors to tailor their pedagogy in ways that not only improve writing skills but also support students' broader developmental needs.
Erikson's Stages of Development: Industry vs. Inferiority
During the Industry vs. Inferiority stage, children are at a prime age to develop their writing skills. This is a period when they are not only capable of mastering complex tasks but are also developing a sense of self-confidence in their abilities. A language arts tutor can play a crucial role in helping a student navigate this developmental stage by enhancing their writing skills, fostering a positive self-concept as a writer, and encouraging a lifelong passion for learning.
The Socratic Method in Essay Writing: Guiding Students to Stronger Theses
Through Socratic questioning, an essay writing tutor helps students deeply explore their topic, challenge assumptions, and examine the evidence. This structured, critical inquiry not only assists in developing a compelling thesis but also sharpens the student's overall ability to think critically and argue effectively.
Unraveling the Monomyth: The Power of the Hero's Journey in Storytelling
Understanding the psychological underpinnings of the Hero's Journey enables coaches to help writers craft narratives that resonate emotionally with audiences. By focusing on the inner journey of the hero, writers can create stories that offer genuine insights into the human condition.
Embracing Individuality: The Montessori Method's Influence on Writing Tutoring
This article explores how the key principles of the Montessori method—individualized learning, choice-driven exploration, varied learning materials, the educator's guiding role, and a collaborative learning environment—can revolutionize writing tutoring.
Educational "Third Spaces": Tutoring & Innovation
In the vast and ever-changing landscape of education, "third spaces" constitute a transformative arena wherein the boundaries of traditional learning are challenged and expanded. These environments, neither strictly institutional nor purely informal, have become crucial incubators for pedagogical experimentation and innovation. At the heart of these spaces lies the age-old practice of tutoring.
Metacognition in Focus: Understanding Its Impact on Learning and Psychological Well-Being
Metacognition, a term coined in the late 1970s, refers to the awareness and control of one's own thought processes. It's a concept that might sound abstract at first, but it plays a fundamental role in how we learn, solve problems, and perceive our own abilities. At its simplest, metacognition is thinking about thinking, or being aware of one's awareness.
The Vital Role of Formal Grammar in Developing Writing Proficiency
Despite grammar’s fundamental role, many educational institutions have shifted their focus away from traditional grammar instruction — a change that raises questions about the potential effects of this reduced emphasis on students' ability to write effectively in measurable and consistent ways. This trend underscores the role writing tutors can play in providing essential grammar education.
Embracing the Moral Heart of Writing Tutoring: Insights from David Hansen's Educational Philosophy
In his book "The Moral Heart of Teaching," philosopher David Hansen embarks on a profound exploration of the ethical core of educational practice. Hansen articulates the belief that teaching is not merely a profession but a vocation rooted in moral responsibility. His arguments can be applied to educational settings and pedagogical traditions beyond conventional classroom learning, and are especially relevant to the nuanced work of writing tutoring.
Enhancing Adolescent Writing Skills IV: How We Operationalize the 2007 “Writing Next” Report
As professional writing tutors, we rely on a mix of personal experience and research when designing our lesson plans & determining how to improve student outcomes. Like many in our field, we have found the “Writing Next” report to be an invaluable resource for teaching our students how to write not only “well,” but compellingly, with gusto and inspiration. Read on to learn why you should hire a writing tutor online.
Enhancing Adolescent Writing Skills II: How Gilliam Writers Group Implements Effective Instructional Strategies
How do our online writing tutors do what they do so well? What research-based methods do we use to teach our students? Here’s our take on the first five effective instructional practices identified in the influential 2007 report titled "Writing Next: Effective strategies to improve writing of adolescents in middle and high schools.”
Enhancing Adolescent Writing Skills I: Evidence-Based Tutoring & the "Writing Next" Report
Strong writing skills are essential for cognitive and intellectual development. At Gilliam Writers Group, our writing tutors are committed to helping adolescents in middle and high schools improve their writing skills through evidence-based educational approaches. In this blog post, we’ll discuss an influential 2007 report titled "Writing Next: Effective strategies to improve writing of adolescents in middle and high schools."
A Time of Change: The Future of Our Business
The Gilliam Writers Group isn't going to become a standard tutoring or coaching company, nor will it become another vast "umbrella platform" that impersonally connects clients with instructors while taking an unduly large cut of their earnings. Employment-wise, our objective is, in fact, very personal: we want to fortify the skills, influence, and financial independence of young writers of unusual talent -- the kind of talent that has little to do with resumes.
On Tutors and Homework: The Case for Reading for Pleasure
Reading begins to feel like a trap for children whose parents confuse quantity with quality when it comes to learning; these over-stressed minds learn only that for every page they enjoy, there is a price to be paid in boring, extraneous work.
On End-of-Semester Paralysis
I’ve worked with dozens of college students who have finished a semester without finishing their final assignments, and who are now working desperately against looming extension deadlines to preserve their grades (and their mental health). Although it’s stigmatized and rarely talked about in academia, end-of-semester paralysis is a troublingly common affliction in today’s universities.
Conventional Education and the Creativity Crisis
Since the dot com boom and the entrance of millennials into the workplace, creativity seems to have become an increasingly valued asset in the US economy. But for some reason, Americans’ divergent thinking scores have been declining since the time of the internet’s appearance.