The goal of this class is to get students excited (or even more excited) about writing. Along the way, the class will help students to improve their grammatical fluency and writing techniques, skills that will easily translate to any writing project they wish to tackle in the future! For this class, students will write one creative assignment each week. These assignments encompass a range of genres, including short stories, personal essays and poetry. If their imaginations take them in an unexpected direction, our group will be happy to welcome surprises as well! These stories will then be shared and discussed in our supportive group setting. In past classes, this practice of sharing work with friends has engendered true enthusiasm and improvement in budding writers: hearing their peers’ efforts often inspires new story concepts and receiving constructive critiques improves their own writing. I will also carefully edit each finished piece, returning students’ work with encouragement and suggestions for improvement on a weekly basis. As a result of this detailed and direct feedback, students are able to quickly improve and gain confidence in their writing ability.
One of the most wonderful parts about this class structure is that I can meet each student individually where they are, no matter what level of writing ability or enthusiasm they possess. If a student is already an accomplished and passionate writer, this class provides a wonderful forum for them to practice the art of writing, helped along by my suggestions and commentary from their peers. Our class also gives them access to a community of writers their own age. If a student is less immediately enthralled by the idea of writing, this class is flexible enough to allow them to try writing stories about things that they love. I have found that this student-centric approach often convinces even the most reluctant participants to get excited about writing—an outlook that inevitably leads to improvement in their writing skill.
In an effort to help students improve the mechanics of their writing, this class also includes a variety of grammar games, editing exercises and even a vocabulary competition in which competitors will vie for vocab victory! These are always a lot of fun—the competition was especially intense for last year’s Wacky Word title—but these games also help students to improve their written diction and syntax. In my experience, this combination of discussion, story sharing and goofy games is a winning combination to get students excited about writing. I cannot wait to meet all of your young writers!

Class Details:
When: Mondays 9:00 - 10:15.

Dates: February 12th, 19th, 26th, March 5th, 12th, 19th, April 2rd, 9th, 16th, 23th, 30th, May 7th.

Where: I will be conducting the class via Google Hangouts. In order to participate, students need access to a computer with an internet connection and a Gmail address.

Who: I am hoping to teach a group of students who are roughly 6th through 10th grade.

Cost: The class costs $240 ($20 per session). Payment should be mailed to Caley at the following address:
P.O. Box 2202
14 Old Chapel Road
Middlebury VT 05753

I am only accepting a limited number of students because I believe that students derive far greater benefits from the close community that results from small class sizes. In order to secure your child’s spot, please send in a non-refundable $80 registration fee by January 30th. The remainder of $160 should be paid prior to the first class.

Teacher Bio:
Caley Henderson is a Senior at Middlebury College, where she is majoring in Education: Privilege and Poverty (a self-designed major) and is minoring in Chinese Language and Literature. She has a 3.98 GPA. Caley is passionate about education and teaching and has significant experience doing what she loves. In the past five years, she has offered thirteen courses for homeschool students including classes in debate, art, literature and writing. For the past seven years, she has also been tutoring students of all ages in a variety of subjects including writing, English, math, history and SAT prep. She has been trained and certified as Middlebury College peer writing tutor.
Caley spent last spring studying Mandarin and education in Kunming, China. She then participated in a research internship with REAP (the Rural Education Action Program attached to Stanford University), conducting interviews and writing narratives for their website. She will continue to work with REAP in the coming semester, helping to research and write an upcoming academic paper. Prior to working with REAP, Caley has worked as an intern at the Connecticut State Department of Education; a curriculum developer and debate teacher at the Legacy Foundation of Hartford’s summer program for underserved students; and the designer and director of the Advocacy Elective Program at the Westfield Academy of Debate, Model United Nations and Leadership Summer Program.
While at school, Caley loves to debate. She has served as the President of Middlebury’s Debate Society and has won several speaking awards in her time at college, including Novice Champion at Dartmouth, and has been selected to compete at the the World Universities Debating Championships, the Pan-American British Parliamentary Championship and American Parliamentary Debate Nationals. In addition to debating, Caley also leads the Middlebury Student Quaker group on campus and is committed to service work. She is a weekly volunteer at The Charter House, a local warming shelter and a transitional housing organization, and previously sat on the Board of Directors of an established Addison county non-profit called HOPE (Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects).
Caley has always loved Irish dancing, making art, hiking, reading and especially writing. Most importantly, Caley truly loves teaching writing and is very excited to read the wonderful works that you will all create!

If interested, please contact Caley at caleyhenderson@gmail.com or call at (860) 913 – 1446. You can find the official Westfield Annex listing here. We only have a limited number of spaces available, so please reply soon!