Testimonials

We have many wonderful writing resources in our district. However, I have never seen a writing program that takes you where the WEX Method takes you. The WEX Method is definitely our missing link: it touches the heart and soul of what teaching and learning is all about. It is systematic, explicit, and rigorous, yet fun and highly developmental in nature.

The WEX curriculum provides you with everything you need to teach writing. There are step-by-step daily lessons that guide you through the writing process, all of which are focused and simple to implement, but most of all, very relevant to the population of students we have.

Arelys Diaz, Instructional Leadership Specialist for the Springfield School District.

Never once did any of my students say, “I have nothing to write about.” My students looked forward to the opportunity to write each day. They looked even more forward to sharing what they’d written with one another.

The WEX program removes so many of the barriers children face when it comes to writing – it is low stress, high impact (in terms of positive results that really do carry over). I cannot imagine going back to the old way I used to teach writing!

Melissa London, 6th grade teacher, Pierce School, Brookine, Massachusetts

 

Before WEX, I felt that my writing instruction was cumbersome and ineffective. It lacked method and routine. WEX provided a means of engaging students in a system that offered procedures and habits that could easily and effectively be replicated. WEX also makes writing fun for students. It allows students to apply their own experiences to writing in fun, simple ways, that teach and reinforce basic skills

Peter Jana, Humanities Teacher, High Tech High School, San Diego, CA

 

I can truly say that The Writers’ Express program has changed my perspective on writing forever. As I watch my students take risks and blossom, I feel that I am teaching them to write, not just function to fulfill a writing protocol.

Eleni Morrison, Teacher at Brightwood Elementary School, Springfield, MA

 

I have been struggling with these students all year to write a few sentences. And now look at them… they will not stop writing. On a field trip the other day, we got caught in the rain and they asked me, “Can we write about this as soon as we get back to school?”

Chris Donalty, Teacher participant in school- year WEX training

I was intrigued by The Writers’ Express’s experiential method of teaching writing skills. It was just the kind of program I had been looking for, because it complemented the belief I have that students learn best when they are given the opportunity to really be involved in their education and engaged in the process of learning… I have observed a couple of these sessions, and watched the same at-risk youth that had been described as “completely unmotivated” in their in-school education hustle down the basketball court for a basketball exercise and, minutes later, sit down under the hoop, grab a pen, and begin writing with the same intensity with which they had just been running down the court.

Michael Sabin, Principal of Edwards Middle School that used WEX in an After-School program

I couldn’t figure out why one of my struggling students was still making the same mistakes in written assignments, even though I always corrected them. The coursework helped me understand that I needed to focus on one skill at a time. By sticking to one skill and reinforcing it with drills, he was able to make considerable progress in the basic punctuation of sentences in a short time.

Meghan Fry, Teacher from school-year institute

“The Writers’ Express approach, the journal stickers, the conference sheets, the simplified set of pillars, nudges us in the right directions. The simplicity and the clarity of all of it is making me reevaluate what I’ve always thought to be my strengths as a teacher, making me wonder what my students have been missing due to my lack of focus or willingness to let class sessions, assignments or even a curriculum wander where they will according to the students’ whims--and my own. It may be lively and entertaining at times, but it certainly isn’t efficient, and it may not even be teaching at all. You’ve left me with much to think about.”

Julie Fouhy, teacher-trainee in WEX summer immersion training

My comments before WEX looked more like I was editing an article for a newspaper, rather than encouraging a twelve-year-old to find his/her voice. Not only did my comments lack support and encouragement, but they also lacked focus. I was all over the place, marking spelling and grammar mistakes as well as content and style. But that was before this course. This course has taught me how to efficiently and effectively guide my students through the revision process in a way that praises their creativity and effort, and builds their writing skills.

Peter O’Connell, Teacher from Simmons Writing Course

“The Writers’ Express after-school program at the Brown School has changed both the academic profile and self-image of our fourth- and fifth- grade students. Students in the program were targeted as our lowest-achieving fourth graders. In just three short months The Writers’ Express curriculum has turned these children into students who love to write, and no longer see themselves as “bad students.”

Marilyn Hagerty, Principal of the Brown School in Somerville, MA -- used WEX in an After-School program

The teacher I was made a difference in children’s lives—but not in their writing. The teacher I am becoming will, I hope, make a difference in both. In the past, I discouraged students with comments, questions, and a bevy of corrections…Now, I no longer find mistakes; I find opportunities—felicitous turns of phrase or description or dialogue in my students’ writing. Now, I enjoy teaching writing, and they enjoy writing, and we’re improving our skills together.

Bambi Good, K-8 ELL teacher, participant in WEX School-year institute

The hardest part of implementing the WEX approach was giving up my old curriculum. Once I did it though, my students just flew. Their progress astonished me, and I am not looking back. Now, they can’t wait to read my comments on their work. They love feedback.

Ernest Dodson, Teacher participant in school-year WEX training