WRITING WORKSHOPS

The purpose of the one-hour writing workshops is to provide differentiated instruction to help each student, at ther own pace, integrate the writing skills they've learned in their CORE classes into their assignments outside of the program. Participants work on cooperative writing assignments as well interest-based, individualized projects. The following skills are taught and enforced in each one-hour writing workshop: concise sentence structure, parts of speech parallel structures, subject-verb-pronoun agreements, advanced vocabulary integration, syntax, idea sequencing, orthography techniques, essay organization and writing, data research and collection, fine editing, outlining, methods used in journalism and expository writing.

All VEG age groupings are taught using its trademarked/patented teaching methodology, "The Phillips RBM Approach". Through its "Dialectical Practices", students are taught the "rites of writing" based on the VEG grammar curriculum that "subliminally" helps students master the written word. Students are never asked to "sit down and write about something". Instead, random story prompts, unique characters and creative plots are suggested. Then... every student has the opportunity to write their individual interpretations together on a glass whiteboard culminating with an "oral sharing session". All writing samples must follow the strict guidelines of VEG's "Surreptitious Grammar Book" compiled by its founder, Tobi J. Phillips, Ed. D. (cert.) This instructional manual contains hundreds of rules and methods of "unraveling" the gifted students' innovative ideas, concepts and newly-learned facts into coherent and sequential written reports, oral presentations, reflective essays, news articles and short stories. Meticulous attention is paid to editing "handwritten" drafts because computers will correct their mistakes. After the assignments have been "perfected", the students are "permitted" to type their final draft on the computer.