Composition Program

The Bios composition program is built on three basic principles: all students are able to write well, writing is a skill which should be taught with meaningful assignments, and students should practice, practice, practice.

On the first point, there is not much to say except for this reasoning – if a student is able to read, then they have the ability to write also. Just as in math, basic skills are built upon in writing, which leads to further skills.

I scour the internet and the newspapers for writing contests. With the help of our families and friends we have a fairly busy and productive writing year filled with essays, science research, and poetry to be read by other audiences. Each contest is unique. Some contests are judged by civic leaders – mayors, judges, and other prominent citizens. Another contest may be read by retired English teachers and so on. Writing for different audiences rather than just your teacher provides incentive to think about who you are writing to.

Our writing program is purposely devoid of what James Webster calls “meaningless language exercises such as workbooks and assignments which fill in the blanks, one word answers, multiple choice, underlining or circle the correct answer.” While we do use workbooks to teacher grammar, grammar by itself does not teach one how to write a sentence, a paragraph, or a paper.

Finally, we do practice, practice, practice. Students are instructed with six to ten assignments throughout the school year on how to write sentences and paragraphs and how to bring all those thoughts and ideas into one focused, exciting, and fun to read paper. They practice playing with nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Six methods for opening a sentence with an additional six ideas for creating interesting sentences are added to the student’s repertoire of skills that are practiced. Skills for grabbing a reader’s attention are also taught and practiced.

Great writers are developed over time with clear instruction and much practice. That is our aim in our writing program.